rob187

I have suffered several problems in the last 2 weeks, battery drain, bonnet open, 4 gearbox in safety mode message, 2 flat batteries, replacement battery, 2 home visits from the customer service engineer on one day oh and one recovery to the nearest dealer......finally got my car back today after 2 x 48 hour sessions at the dealer after mutiple software updates and now the tailgate glass section won't open.

Beginning to regret changing my 2003 525D Sport Touring in for this one!

Anyone else suffering?

new-kid

bad luck. Sounds terrible.

Any idea what the causes of the problems could be ?

I have had flat batteries twice when attempting to use at weekends - first time left the dog in the back and thought leaving the window section open would be a good idea. In 3 hours battery was dead (stupid car keeps the computers on, even though nothing uselful like the CD works). Dealer claims "design feature" so I now keep locked when not in use.

PS After useless dealer service, helpful knowledgable neighbour tried to check battery - but took us a while to find it. Eventually a missing screw (not replaced by lazy dealer) gave the game away !

rob187

problem down to software. Having asked for and seen the patches they had to apply it look a pretty lengthy list. Just a pity they didn't apply the software when the car was recovered last week on it's first stint in the workshop- quite strange when the note from the CS engineer actually pointed to software being the issue! Dealer engineer just set about replacing bits........very frustrating. Symptomatically similar issue to yours with some part of the computer system failing to shut off something that caused the initial drain. Anyway, it's back in tomorrow a.m. for the tailgate!

It's still not affected the enjoyment of the car itself, but it's damn frustrating.

new-kid

You'll find all trips to the dealer are at least 48 hours with these - it takes light years to load the software (transfer cable must be a bent clotheshanger?).
I tend to take one of their loan cars hostage now - last time was a 325 Cabriolet which wasn't too bad ;-)

PS Leaving the phone charger connected when parked used to be one of the ways of flattening the battery, though think later software fixed

rob187

Yep, so far had a 3.0 A Sport X3 ...very thirsty when pushed, followed by a 120D ES ..very basic spec but a complete riot to drive.

Anyway, just have to see what they make of the tailgate glass, if I keep having problems like this I'll end up having had exended test drives in every car in the range.........

new-kid

Done the 120D loaner as well. Very harsh around town, and forgotten how much of a pain a manual is in dense town traffic - but a hoot when shown an open country road (you've just got to try it when you have it!)

rob187

Well, been through a 318d SE saloon and a 320i ES Touring and finally got my car back today after 8 days, obviously including Christmas days that don't seem to count. Anyway another new module and more software and here's hoping......

new-kid

Wow! 8 days off the road after all these problems. Not good.

Any idea
(a) what they think the problem was; and
(b) what they've done
(Not necessarily duplicate questions - sometimes (a) is don't know and (b) we'll try this)

Wishing you a Good New Year with a hopefully transformed motor

rob187

8 customer days, but only 4 dealer days if you get my drift.....

Apparently the module that controls the lock on the tailgate has been replaced and the software updated (obvious by the wiping of several settings ....again) any way so far so good. Interesting conversation with the After Sales manager, as the part had to come from Germany (2nd time this month' first time was the tailgate motor) and then it was on back order which seemed to encourage the guys at the dealership that they were looking at the correct kit (this time) as others must be experiencing the same problem.

All in all a really frustrating month, they have had the car for 16 days since 02.12.05. Still it's quite incredible the difference when you get your own car back after having tried the offerings from customer services. Hopefully it will all be ok from here on......

Here's to a more successful new year!

Happy New Year

tcoz

Absolutely agree. It's almost always a software issue and the thing that really gripes me is that the dealer will never upgrade the software on unsold cars sitting in the lot. They wait until the customer complains of an issue, then upgrade. I suppose they aren't compensated from BMW unless the car is in a customer's hands and there is a documented problem justifying the upgrade. I took mine in for an upgrade due to the known "High Battery Drain" issue just one week after I got it even though the dealer knew of the problem and the car had been sitting on the lot for a month. In all fairness, however, they did pick the car up at my house, left me with a 530 as a loaner and dropped it off when finished.