My Certified Series warranty will expire on the 27th of this month so I called my SA to book the car for a final inspection and got it booked for the 21st. The dealer will charge me $129 for a general inspection and the SA is suggesting to do a scan for another $129. The question that I have for you guys, if I am not presently seeing any errors on the iDrive, would the scan show something different? My thought is that if there are any errors in the system, the iDrive would've shown them by now! Am I correct or not? Maybe not!

I would really appreciate it if you could give me some recommendations on what else I should get the dealer to do during this inspection. I've also asked if the attached SIB can be done under the CS as I've experienced on/off some idle but only once in a while and sometimes when I have the car in reverse then move the shifter to Drive I get a little jump since the car revs to ~1300 RPM.


Your feedback in greatly appreciated as usual! Thanks

 

get your car inspected at an independent mechanic. dont waste your time at the dealer. the dealer will not try to find things wrong. this is standard procedure at all dealers.

 

So get it inspected at an independent then go to the dealer with a list! Is that what you are recommending?

 

+1 if you must get it inspected dont waste your time with the dealer. Dealer prices are wayyyy out of line, the only reason I went is if its covered. A good investment now that youre out of warranty is an ODB Scanner. I was looking at those myself and you can get a decent one on EBay for like $125. Why take it to the dealer everytime you get some kind of code for $129????

Check it out...this one is a little more expensive than what you really need, but will pay for itself after 1 dealer visit.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWAX%3AIT

Good luck

 

exactly.

 

Maybe I wasn't too clear in my first message! The reason I want the STEALER to do a final inspection on the car is because the warranty will expire by the end of this month. So I'm hoping if they find anything is about to go they will get it replaced under warranty (the SA I deal with can be trusted). After all the dealer gets paid by BMW for all warranty repairs. This is the reason why I want them to do a final check! Did any of you guys do this prior to their warranty expiring? Or am I the only one?

 

My car is going out of warranty on 4/20. I took it to the dealer last week, and they did a free inspection and found a bunch of stuff wrong. They also did a brake flush (not due until June), changed a emissions pump. fixed the door vapor barrier, and did some software updates for free.

 

a friend of mine supposedly had an inspection done on his x5 back in december, right before his warranty was up. they told him everything is fine.

a month later he tells me there is a noise from up front. i took it for a ride and then looked underneath to see that one of his cv shaft boots was torn, and had been torn for a while(months), judging by the dirt and grease, and the wear in the joint. he then takes it to the same dealer that inspected his x5 before, and they gave him a laundry list of stuff that was wrong....which wasnt there before. he wasnt too happy, and the dealer said that everything was fine before.

dealers dont like warranty work. they dont make much on it, so they wont go out of there way to look for problems. even a bmw tech told me that they can only repair what's broken, not things that are worn but still functioning.

your best bet is to have a independent mechanic look things over first. then go to the dealer for repairs, before the warranty is up.

 

I wish your dealer was in my town!

Could someone please advise about the questions that I have in the original post regarding the scan. Is it worth it to get the dealer to scan the car even thus I'm not receiving any errors on the iDrive? Are they going to find some error that is not showing on the iDrive? I know one of the members sent me a link to an OBD scanner but I will not have enough time to purchase the scanner and scan it myself as my warranty will expire this month on the 27th. Thanks

 

So it seems your sold on taking the car to the Stealer for a final inspection, all in all if it makes you feel better, than yes go for it. As for your second question regarding reading the errors, I would say no its not worth it. If there was any major issue w/ your car that you should need to be concerned about the iDrive system would warn you. However maybe you can talk them into giving you the latest software update for that $129 diagnosis, then it would be worth your while.

GL and let us know how it goes. My extended warranty is up in Nov, so will probably wind up doing the same thing on the final inspection!