$371 labor?? Holy crap. I bought that cable to chase the seat matt sensor error (some say it's the battery cable resistance..which wasn't the case for me..) and it only took my about 20 min. to swap out the cable.

 

BMW labor rates are expensive!! I know my dealer near my house charges $180 1hr, I'm guessing he was charged for 2hrs for what was performed on his car.

 

Yes - I didn't want to take the chance of having to replace the cable, and then have no way of retesting and be sure that the problem was indeed the cable and not the seat mat and that included labor for diagnosis.

 

So this weekend I went to the dealership to get the battery cable replaced under the recall. I brought the SIB 720206 pdf of the seat mat sensor that was recalled back in 06. My SA immediately checked his computer to see if my VIN number had a recall note about the seat mat sensor. So according to him there's nothing in the system about the seat mat sensor and my VIN number even though my car falls into those production dates that were noted. He then said let's just use your extended warranty company to replace the sensor. I told him I wasn't sure if it's expired. So he's going to call Tuesday and let me know if I can use it. But I still don't understand why this recall does not show up in my VIN when clearly he states **vehicles produced up to 11/2005** I plan on calling BMW NA and getting some kind of answer from them.

P.S. When I originally made the appointment the lady told me it would take 2-3hrs to replace the battery cable recall, it took 45min and I was on my way. I was like wth that's a pretty off calculation of how long a job would take

 

My car fell into those dates as well. At the time I called BMWNA and they said mine didn't qualify as well.

 

Did you bring up SIB 720206 and state their own Service bulletin includes those dates?

 

Yup...unfortunately I don't remember what BS excuse they told me...
The one thing I remember is what the BMWNA told me about the SIBs in general. The thing is, the SIB are internal documentations.

Not exactly the reps wording but I translated is it's not supposed to leak for customers to see. So it's up to the dealerships to do what they want to appease the customer...or not.

 

Wow thanks for the information, I'm guessing I will hear something along these lines when I call them. It just does not make sense to me how some cars are flagged with having to replace this sensor and others not. Clearly the SIB says it should be covered.

Thanks again for the info

 

UPDATE:: So the dealer just called me and told me it's the BST battery cable triggering the passenger restraint error message. He's waiting to hear from BMW NA and see if they can replace the cable as a good well gesture. I'm hoping they can replace it.

 

Hmmm....I'm not sure, but does the battery cable recall include the BST???? Ask them about it!