imperialtrini1

For the past month or so I have been experiencing some form of power loss. The first experience when I noticed the power loss was one afternoon driving on the i95 doing about 75-80 and another BMW starts to mess with me. Enjoying a challenge ever so often I pressed my sport button which normally does the trick, I felt it kick in but it was much slower than what I'm use to. I had to down shift to get the response I initially expected. (wired I thought). It was the 1st time I ran my car since I changed from my stock rims to the 166's. So I blamed the power loss on the rims.

About two weeks ago, a Lexus Thaught he had it in him and decided to mess with me on the belt parkway while doing about 50-60. So I figured I would try this again. Almost immediately after pressing sport I heard the "chime of death" along with an "engine malfunction, power reduced" error. So instantly the game was over and curses started flying. WTF could this be now? Once I restarted the car, the error was gone. Hmmmm. I recreated the problem by almost flooring the throttle, and there it goes again.

While at Motorcepts the following day getting some cosmetics done, I explained the situation the Leo and right away he knew that my vacuum lines were worn out causing the power loss. With the line changed, I felt the power I'm use to having. (motorceps are the best by the way) ... So this weekend I decided to make a run to Boston for the weekend(where I got a frigging $410 speeding ticket) But on my way home the "chime of death" with the same error came right back.

With my car still under Warranty, I decided to just take it into the BMW dealership on Monday. Yesterday the service advisor called me and told me that there were bad "solenoids and vacuum lines" on the car which is NOT covered by the warranty because of physical damage to the right side of the car. (I NEVER got into a collision with the car). The dealer quoted me $730 to have these parts changed which was CRAZY to me. After explaining that I got the car from a BMW dealership they tried to work with me a bit and lowered the price to $580. Before giving them the OK to do the work on the car, I searched for the parts he claimed needed to be changed and they were all around $130 total for the parts! But the advisor warned me because these parts are directly related to my turbos, if BMW didn't do the job and something were to go wrong with them, it wouldn't be covered by the warranty. After thinking about my options, while I know it would have been cheaper to have this fixed by Motorcepts. In the long run it may be cheaper to have the dealer take care of this problem now.

What's the moral of this story? I don't frigging know. Lol. Maybe if someone could explain what the solenoids main functions are I'll be alright. But until then, I'm just expressing some frustration. What I do know is my car better be ripping tires after I get it back from the dealer today or tomorrow without any errors!

ProMed

Is/was there physical damage to the right side of the car?

imperialtrini1

Apparently so...Although the car fax was clean...I guess the previous owner took care of it out of pocket! and I was just to excited to own my 1st BMW which drove PERFECTLY!! I just took for granted doing a detailed under the hood physical inspection of the car...Live N Learn...

pukka

A solenoid is a kind of switch - when a function is applied to a particular lead a circuit closes causing a reaction. When the function stops the reaction stops. A good example is a car ignition system.

Have the dealer show you where the solenoid and vacuum hoses are located - they better be on the right side of the car. They can also show you the "evidence" that supports their claim the car had been damaged.

Bayerische Motoren-Werke

Damn BMW man! They will find every conceivable way to deny warranty work.

OP, is your car still under its original factory warranty, or is it extended or CPO?

DKNewYork

Damn that sucks. Like you said. The car better be ripping tires without errors. You next mod should be a V1.

imperialtrini1

Its under the original warranty man..41,000 miles. got the car with 25,000 miles on it.

You said it best man!! I have no experience with the V1's...is it worth getting? does it really work?

nomis_nehc

It probably would've paid for itself for your trip to Boston.

imperialtrini1

So its After 2pm and I found it strange that the service advisor didnt call to give me an update which he normally does before 11 so I gave him a call. He starts to stutter after I told him who it was then went on to explain that the parts they changed DID NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM after a road test..... NOW WTF could it be!?!?! what ever it is I hope its covered under the warranty... I almost want to tell them give me back my old solenoids...These Mofo's always look for the easiest way out!

Something tells me they are going to try to blame this error on the mods i did. The only ones they could point to are the M5 break setup (rotors, callipers etc)or rims... Im sure they gonna tell me some stupid shit instead of finding the problem...im already pissed and he didnt even call me back yet lol

bens1088

It's not even funny how many tickets I've avoided because of the V1.... Best investment I've ever made.