Dealer recall work, caused other issues, not taking responsibility
 

I just hate dealers. I normally do all maintenance work myself but had to take my '08 4.8i in for fuel pump and passenger airbag recall work. Car was working perfect when we dropped it off. My wife picked up the car and immediately texted me about multiple faults:

Active Steering
DSC
4x4
Backup camera

Dealer had said the battery was weak and they had multiple module "glitches". Why did the dealer even code the vehicle for airbag and fuel pump. Did they remove the drivers airbag to replace a temporary repair under recall?

I changed the battery for good measure, no improvement. Dealer is know blaming all the issues on battery registration. I think we all know that is BS.

Here is service manager response to my inquiry...car is back with them;
"Thank you for your patience while we look further into the X5. My shop foreman is diagnosing the car as the tech that recently worked on the vehicle is off today. He stated there are multiple under voltage faults related to the need of and exchanged battery. Also there are emissions faults for a crank case ventilation valve. When he returns from lunch he will attempt to register the aftermarket battery, and re-calibrate the steering angle sensor. Those issues are related to the voltage concern and there is a possibility they can be remedied with battery registration and sensor re-calibration. For the faults with the crank case vent valve he will determine the need for replacement and provide an estimate to which I will contact and discuss with you as needed. Thank you for your patience and I will get in touch with you soon with the details"

What say you? Has anyone ever heard of low voltage messing with steering angle sensor calibration. It seems to me all the above faults can be blamed on steering angle sensor calibration or fault. Even the right turn signal won't self cancel now.

Did i say I hate dealers?

The steering angle sensor is re-calibrated by moving steering wheel all the way left, all the way right.

I believe it needs to be re-calibrated if voltage supply is ever removed, (such as from changing a battery).

Regarding the turn signal.... hmm that may be an FRM failure. Will the doors lock/unlock fine? Windows roll up and down?

Turning steering full left and right only resets active steering calibration (or so I thought). I believe the angle sensor still must be properly calibrated via software tools. Yes, doors and windows work fine. I assumed turn signal was the result of angle sensor issues or a clockspring issue.

When I have removed power, it is normal to need to recalibrate active steering, but never DSC, 4x4, backup camera, etc.

I've had a 4x4 error show up after changing a battery. Turning left -> right fixed it for me.
I do not have active steering.
I'm not sure if it could affect Active Steering or DSC.

A lot of times, when you bring a car to the dealer, and need to do anything to do with coding, they'll bring the whole car up-to-date computer module wise. This can involve several hours sometimes; not with a tech working on it the whole time, just the car going through the process by itself while hooked to the computer. Due to the potential drain on the car's battery, and the requirement to have a stable and proper voltage throughout the process, (to avoid screwing up any of your modules), the procedure is to hook the car to a power source. Some high end battery chargers have a setting to provide this stable voltage source, but you can also buy devices that only provide this stable voltage source (designed exactly for this purpose,) and don't charge batteries. Pretty much an essential for anyone coding or programming a modern BMW. Perhaps your tech did not do this, (being lazy and/or not expecting a long coding time,) and ran your car's battery down. And coding without this stable voltage can do all sorts of potentially permanent harm, especially if the battery is a little weak to begin with.

I agree as I have the BMW software tools and code modules myself. But, I have never done a complete VO level whole car reprogramming and I rely on my battery charger normally. I heard word back from the service advisor and he said the technician is having trouble recalibrating the steering angle sensor. So, it seems I pegged this one. Now the issue is did they damage the sensor or was it coincidental. I did call the parts department and they have two sensors in stock (latest version).

Active Steering
DSC
4x4
Backup camera

Those 4 things trip whenever the battery is disconnected and go away after driving a few blocks.

I just took my 2010 4.8 in for the exact same recall items (drivers and pass airbag, fuel pump), and driving home I notice the steering wheel controls are all dead (the only one that works is the steering wheel heater). I brought it back to them today and they said it was some failed module, etc. I said all the controls worked the day I dropped it off for the recall items! I'll know tomo what the manager decides to do...it's so fn obvious they screwed it up working on the drivers airbag.... ugh. I feel your pain...

Dealer SHOULD have attached the car to a battery charger/tender when they began, did they?

Here is the game you must play: they are idiots and liars. While people like emails, they will often times create a protective barrier. (Like the 'aftermarket' battery... trying to assert it is the registration.)

Whatever you do, DO NOT agree to a penny in added charges. You can register it in 15 seconds, do the steering angle reset, and there you go.

They are making it sound like some deep, complex and expensive issue. Assholes forgot to put it on a charger, ran it down. Probably jumped it. Next thing they will claim the fried FRM is YOUR fault....

My 2010 went in for airbag recall, came out with 2 rattles and a dead cigarette port. I wish they'd spent more than 3 hours on it. Not going back for buttoning up.

Well this is exciting because we were planning on taking ours in for all the recall work within the next month or so...fortunately the dealership near us has very good reviews.

Update: Steering angle sensor not faulty but they could not calibrate it. Turns out the SZL module is bad (control stalk assembly) and causing a road block in the communication bus (fiber optic, CAN bus?). So, bottom line, labor no charge but they are charging me $775 for the SZL. If I purchased the part, it would be about $575. I suppose this part could explain the turn signal not self cancelling.

Dang dealers.

So they damaged it during the airbag work, and are expecting you to pay it?

Edit: Now I see you got the passenger airbag replaced. They shouldn't of had the need to touch anything related to the steering wheel I wouldn't think.

Dash has to come out for passenger airbag work, steering wheel comes off for dash removal. No?;)

Man. This give me nightmare. I was supposed to bring my e39 in for airbag recall this Friday.

Just be SURE to tell the dealer (and have them note it) if everything is working when you drop it off. It becomes a he said - she said if you don't.

Also take many photos to protect from aesthetic damage. No issues here.

Simple fix for this in the future for folks. Have the car inspected for problems BEFORE the recall. I make dealerships sign off on everything working before they do any recall work. It has saved me some big bucks with Pontiac and ford dealerships before by doing this.

I make them sign off on no codes and all basic stuff electrical stuff working perfectly.

That way when they come back with "we couldn't get this or that code to clear that YOU had already" line I can point out that it had no codes when you signed off on it taking the car in.

Pontiac tried to tell me my fiero's a/c didn't work after the antifreeze recall mess. They replaced the compressor wiring harness they mangled at their cost before it was over with.

Ford had to replace an engine wiring harness they mangled doing an injector recall and on another trip they had to replace the stereo headunit that was dead from being dropped(it sure looked like it was dropped to me as the side of the housing was crushed in) during an airbag recall.

Better safe than sorry with dealerships. I usually replace the recalled parts and then get reimbursed since I don't trust them :)

Can't do that with bmw. Once they start the recall officially, you have to get it done at a dealership. They won't reimburse you even if you did it yourself and have no labor cost!

Thats correct, the steering wheel has to come off in order to take the dash out.

Good news to report on my end. The dealer did the right thing and repaired my SZL module free of charge (which they should have) when my steering wheel controls quit working. They tried initially to put it on me for the repair, but with my response, "It was working the day I brought the car in, you worked on the drivers side airbag for the recall, and it didn't work when you returned it to me". They kept it 5 days, gave me a loaner, and all is good now.

If you are happy with that explanation, who are we to question....

:cool:

I think their "repair" was them plugging in the connector they missed the first time around and presenting it to you like they are doing you a favor.

Bingo

Edit: unless they gave you the failed part.... ;)

Does it even happen? Like swapping good working parts for failed and making owners "fix" that?Common thing in third world countries,is it common here in the upper NA?

Eh, there is enough money to be made just screwing people over honestly....

If the szl were unplugged I believe that would have triggered a visible dashboard warning, 4x4 DSC failure etc ...Not going to go test the theory.
Sounds like they forgot to plug in the actual buttons to the steering wheel, or the SZL module got damaged during removal, installation, or storage.

That's what I was referring to. The wheel harness into the clock spring.

Me not knowing the real truth of what they did, my belief is they damaged the szl module and didn’t know it until I realized it getting it back. I think if they just hadn’t plugged it back in, they would have just plugged the wires and sent me on my way instead of giving me a 2018 loaner for a week. No codes/errors showed on the dash when it wasn’t working. I did not ask for the defective szl back, so I’ll never really know...

I'm relatively sure that they must retain any parts replaced on their dime. Wsmeyer, I figured that's what you meant, though 65cobra specified that the shop told him they did replace the szl

Only when BMWNA is paying for warranty work. (as I recall it is in case BMWNA audits a warranty claim.)

When it is a local 'dealer paid' accommodation, they don't need to retain the parts

Just FYI

Exactly correct in CA. But you would want to check the laws in your state. I wouldn't expect it to be different, but I can't say for sure.

No, I am not happy and may take this up again with them soon...

The control stalks are obviously new.