Hi there!! So I bought a 04 545i in Canada, the car was originally American but I bought it in Canada and the previous owner had it registered here. Anyways, I had bluetooth set up for about 2 weeks working fine, then I got tint done on the car and got the car back and the bluetooth wasn't working. I called them asked if they had done anything, disconnected the battery or anything and they told me no. I took the car into the dealer here, and they told me because it is an American car they can't program the TCU? They said I would need to get a whole Canada conversion done for the car, including the speedometer switched to KM/H, before they could do any programming? He also said my other option is drive to the US and get it done. So my question is what this guy telling me accurate, or is there any other option I have? Thanks!

 

If you took it to a BMW dealer in Canada and they told you that, it sounds reasonable.There is an incovenience in buying a car made for the US market,and it seems you are finding that out.Good luck.

 

The dealer may be telling you the truth about what they can do (as a dealer). There were a number of BMW Canada policies introduced the last time our dollar hit par with the US that made it more difficult to import cars from the US. From what I have read, one of the biggies for E60's was that the instrument cluster had to be swapped out with a Cdn one which had km's only on the display... and they jacked the price for obtaining the recall clearance letter (although I think this has been reduced to something more reasonable now).

Depending on where you are in Canada you can try and locate a good indy with the ability to program updates -- they will not be restricted by dealer policy.

As for your specific issue, the dealer should be able to do some diagnostics without a full reprogram of the vehicle... you'd think?