gatemaster

Brief History of 04/545i?

Passenger Seat Restraint Fault?.
First experience: 2006 ? s/w reset by dealer, warranty
Nov 2007, received BMW letter stating the Passenger Restraint System Class Action Lawsuit and associated ?recall?.
As directed in the letter, car was serviced in Dec2007, s/w updated. ( Is the CAL software & hardware or just software?? AND, what happens if/when the sensors get added to the recall items? do I go back and ask for a refund ? (?. right?. )

Early March2008, iDrive Passenger Seat Restraint Fault (only 2 months after recall service).

Car diagnosed today (8Apr) with Passenger Seat Mat Sensor failure.
Cost: $1100 (SA is offering a 10% discount)
Advice ?

( if I had the Other Brand, I bet this type of failure does not occur, or, not as often as BMW, and why is it part of the leather seat cover as I?m told (that?s at least $500).

-mike

1esquire

I am in the process of getting my seat mat sensor replaced, and I noticed on the work order that they had to order a new seat cover as well. I don't think, however, that I am getting a whole new leather seat out of the deal. I'm not sure how the sensor works, but if they have to order a new seat cover and take it apart, why wouldn't they just give me the whole new seat so it isn't wrinkled? (of course, it might look funny sitting next to my older seat).

gatemaster

Is your work warranty ? if not may i ask what your being quoted ?

Makes you wonder if it's a $100 sensor in a $500 seat cover....

thanks, mike

1esquire

My work is being done under warranty (I still have 3k miles left on the original warranty, and then CPO after that). I'm waiting for the part to come in, but here is what they ordered according to the sheet they gave me:

FP 52-10-9-144-112
Description: Seat Upholstery
List price: $1634.06.

If it is just the sensor in the seat cover that they need, then I wonder what they do with the rest of the seat cover?

japalma

Hey Mike,

With all of that said, I've scrubbed the forums about this topic and went to my private shop (not under warrenty) and mentioned the class action suit and a software upgrade fix. He'd never had that issue come up before so he called his S/W supplier. Yep, that's the fix. I received ALL new S/W and the fault is no longer! $200.00 US.

HTH,
Jer

gatemaster

Jer, I had the s/w update done in Dec2007 by the dealer and it did make a difference.
For this latest incident, the dealer checked the s/w- it's all current, but found the fault in this case was the mat sensor. I have searched and found a number of other incidents where the mat sensor was to be replaced-- most cases under warranty. I am out of warranty.

I have done a google search on "BMW class action" and got the website of the law firm that handled the suit. It is clearly stated that it is a s/w reprogramming issue. However i don't believe it's really all s/w. Apparently there are ALOT of unreliable (read as: failure at 50 mos or less) mat sensors which did not make any "recall" lists.

Bottom line: the iDrive Passenger Restraint Fault could be caused by s/w or a mat sensor. Only the s/w is covered in the class action suit.
Please correct me if i am wrong.

thanks, mike

iversonm

I think you answered your own question.

japalma

Mike, bummer. I thought my experience could have saved you some $$$. Sorry to hear it's actually a H/W fault.

Jer

DINAN530i

I went ahead and purchased an extended warranty Thru BMW to cover this situation. Seems to be worth an extended warranty alone..GL

markke

Mike,

Given the history of the work performed to try to correct this problem and the fact that this issue is addressed vis-a-vis a class action lawsuit, you may have a good case to push this forward without spending a lot of money. Maybe you can take a more aggressive stance with your dealer and also contact BMW NA. I would write a nice letter stating my concern about the problem and detail to them the history of work performed to correct it. It might be worth mentioning how 'dear and near' your passenger occupants are to you and how much you would miss them if (God forbid) something were to happen to them because the safety mechanisms in the car failed to respond.

It will probably boil down to what the 'scope of coverage and remedy' was for the CAL (and whether or not your dealer was negligent when they initially diagnosed the problem and attempted to fix it). I didn't review in detail the CAL. We're consumers who purchased an automobile with an expectation of fitness and warranty. The burden is on the manufacturer/seller to ensure that their product performs accordingly. We shouldn't have to be experts to diagnose what's wrong with a safety feature and what's covered vs. what's not. Throw the burden back their way and see what happens.

Give them a friendly nudge; if that fails, you may want to have a quick chat with your attorney to receive advice on how to move forward.

Good luck!
Cheers,
Mark