baveagle

January 2 car enters dealer shop to have the SOS function checked out. I am there 9:15 AM; rear lamp housing recall is done first. Supposed to take less than 2 hours and I had decided to wait. 11:30 comes around and I go back to the SA to get an update. Apparently the dealer's (BMW's) computer data shows that my Assist subscription ran out Dec. 31 and nothing further can be done without a current subscription. Since my Assist renews annually automatically I called them immediately and verified that my Assist account was current, which it was. The shop at this point still could not proceed unless the BMW data matched the Assist data. Getting close to lunchtime I decided to head home and leave it with the experts. Around 2:00 PM SA calls that TCU is bad and needs to be replaced and quoted $1200 for unit, install, programming, etc. My Indy deferred and pointed out that in the end programming, coding and updating Assist requires BMW involvement.

New TCU arrives Friday afternoon (Jan. 3). Monday TCU gets programmed, without success. After 3 tries dealer opens PUMA case and Tuesday the replacement TCU is declared defective and another unit is ordered which arrives the 8th (Wednesday). Installation and programming works OK, but they are now working to get SIM details from the TCU manufacturer Continental and supposedly there is only one person in the whole organization who can give out that information. After contacting Conti a number of times during Thursday, dealer still does not have the info. I was otherwise busy yesterday (Friday).

I need to get to the bottom of this and I am thinking of retrieving my car Monday, no matter what.

I feel betrayed by a system that never indicated a malfunction, actually blinks green every time you start the car, and leaves you in a lurch when called upon. You get a warning when temps hit 37 deg. but nothing when your SOS button is dead and then blinks green!

If this ever gets fixed, I will periodically activate SOS to confirm its functionality. Better safe than sorry.
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