MaTRiX

Bought the 530i back in mid 2004, no problems whatsoever for year and half, going for new years party, warning sign comes on, Engine Malfunction, something to do with Catalytic Converter as well. Mentioned alot of things like too much load on engine, stop driving immediately. Called BMW Assist, finally thought i can take advantage of the service. It was so-so. Good thing was that i did not need a phone to contact them, it worked perfectly, just hit the SOS and i was connected. I was shocked that they couldnt get a location on me!!. The tow trucking company they used could not find me AT ALL. I waited 1 hour in -6 celcius, then the cops showed up with another tow truck. I litreally had to spell it out for the tow truck company that BMW chose as to where we were, and they still couldnt find me after looking over mapquest etc, seemed like they were drunk in there, he wouldnt even leave his office!! Very VERY disappointed in that :thumbsdown: . On the other hand they did say if another tow truck comes before them, they would reimburse me,so i got another tow trucker to do the job who charged me $295 to tow it to my dealer which luckily was only 15 minutes away. I still cant figure out how the engine just went dead, when i restarted the car, the warning went away, but the enginge went dead, it wouldnt start, so the battery was draining from that point. And the catalytic converter did break, i could smell the gas. Will have to wait till monday to see what will happen. Anyone had similar experiences with the engine?

EBMCS03

After a year and a half BMW Assist is still active? Or did you pay for the re-newal fee?

MaTRiX

BMW assist wasnt available here in 2004, they just activated it a few months ago. So no i did not pay for an extra year. But thinking back to the time, i think its pretty worth it, since they will reimburse the cost if another tow truck shows up first. But they dont point that out in the terms, if they do, then BMW assist is an amazing service. But still, to make sure your never stranded, its a good service to have especially if say your cellphone was to die and u had no way of contacting anyone. I still dont understand why they couldnt offer a phone service when the SOS service works. And the quality of the phone call to BMW ASSIST was just superb! Right now im just thinking of the engine is gone bad, will they fix it or will they have to replace it with the new 255HP engine hehe!

EBMCS03

Ah thats nice... Well for us here we have roadside assistance... that offeres towing for 4 years the only benefit for Assist is like you said Cell phone dead or if you're in an accident and cant dial... yourself they'll call you once an air bad is deployed.

Mine JUST expired... and I didnt renew it.

Like I said before I want just half the service... the accident portion I dont need the concierge part. I can dial and make my own restruant and room reservations thank you.

evh5150

but how cool is it to let THEM make the reservations!

EBMCS03

Not for $265 a year its not cool. Maybe if I drove a Maybach...

evh5150

265? that's just one evening out! go for it!

jet190rs

Actually, yes.
I got a message like that last week. Was your car idling very roughly when you started it?
I parked my car outside one day, started it up cold, and it started idling very roughly, felt as if you were about to stall a manual transmission car. It said Engine Malfunction, blah blah, Catalytic Converter blah blah. At first I thought it was something to do with my Remus muffler.
The engine died, so I tried to started it back up. It took a few attempts to start, felt like battery was dead. After it finally started, it was still idling roughly, so I put some throttle in and decided to drive away.
Driving it seem ok, didn't see the message again.
Went to go pick up something so parked the car and turned it off.
When I started it again, it was idling roughly, but no message and drivable. I kept driving for a bit before parking it back in the garage.
Haven't had a problem since.
Weird.

MaTRiX

Actually, yes.
I got a message like that last week. Was your car idling very roughly when you started it?
I parked my car outside one day, started it up cold, and it started idling very roughly, felt as if you were about to stall a manual transmission car. It said Engine Malfunction, blah blah, Catalytic Converter blah blah. At first I thought it was something to do with my Remus muffler.
The engine died, so I tried to started it back up. It took a few attempts to start, felt like battery was dead. After it finally started, it was still idling roughly, so I put some throttle in and decided to drive away.
Driving it seem ok, didn't see the message again.
Went to go pick up something so parked the car and turned it off.
When I started it again, it was idling roughly, but no message and drivable. I kept driving for a bit before parking it back in the garage.
Haven't had a problem since.
Weird.
[/quote]

WOW, RIGHT ON! i thought that it was the SOS that disabled the car somehow i thought the catalytic converter is really broken because i could smell the gas like smell coming through the back. Initially, first time when i turned it off and turned it back on, it was idling VERY VERY Rough, but no error messages whatsoever. But after the long SOS call, the engine just went DEAD, just like you mentioned as if the battery had died. But the battery was fine. Hmm.. The car is still sitting in BMW parking lot, will have to checkup on it tomorrow.

ademitt

I did not renew Assist either. I felt for the $195 they wanted it was not worth my time as all that we get in Canada is the SOS feature. I have my cell with me all of the time if I need RA. We do not get stolen car recovery or concierge servces in Canada.

Even after expiry, my telecommunications with BMW is still up and active. Service information is still being transfered to the mother ship. In the event that I am in a car accident, the Assist system is still active and should advise Assist that the car experienced air bag deployment. I would expect that they would still contact emergency services given the air bags would have gone off.