Any BMW mechanics about?

johnnyroper

TiTheRev wrote: »

You're showing your age there Tom. Most cars in the last 10years now have individual coil packs and plugs that dont need more than replacing every 40-60k.

The trouble the OP seems to have is that they are using an independant garage the reason the garage was unable to diagnose the fault in the 1st place is that they've got a cheap fault code reader, and going back isnt going to help. If you'd taken it to a dealership you could have it fixed and fine by now. We do a £59 diagnosis fee, which includes a fix if we can do it within the hour, and with the correct code reader (ours are over 20k, not £20!) you will find the fault 1st time and not need to keep going back when the wrong part has been replaced after guessing what's wrong like Tom above

.

1 trip to dealer - £59 (plus parts if needed)
3/4 trips to independant @ £20/30 a time, plus cheap parts, so is actually a false economy even if the labour rate is technically lower.

not strictly true,i have got a geniscan code reader and when i had my 2.5 bmw throw EML on accompanied with misfire it read the fault no problem p1352 misfire cylinder 6 with fuel cut off,new pencil type coil form GSF for £20 problem sorted.now i could have paid your garage £59 to diagnose then price of parts labour on top.
tom is not strictly guessing as the p1349 code point you in right direction.
i used to work in main dealer and they are no better than a decent independant specialist,you could even argue the fact they cannot repair faults unless diag computer tells them exactly what at fault.

TiTheRev

johnnyroper wrote: »

i used to work in main dealer and they are no better than a decent independant specialist,you could even argue the fact they cannot repair faults unless diag computer tells them exactly what at fault.

As I'm sure you're aware then, all technicians regularly go on courses to keep them abreast of new developments and to improve their technical understanding. The diagnostics equipment used only helps narrow down the faults, and for warranty and more-often-than-not the customer we have to do the procedures for diagnosis so we can prove why we've replaced certain items to the more 'doubting' consumer

Rolandtheroadie

I think the guys probably gave up by now, it's been over a year.

TiTheRev

scotsman4th wrote: »

I think the guys probably gave up by now, it's been over a year.

Lol, didnt spot that! Why someone dragged it up from the archives I dont know?!

tomstickland

TiTheRev wrote: »

You're showing your age there Tom. Most cars in the last 10years now have individual coil packs and plugs that dont need more than replacing every 40-60k.

You will find the fault 1st time and not need to keep going back when the wrong part has been replaced after guessing what's wrong like Tom above

By "coil pack" I meant the relevant coil pack for that cylinder. My 18 year old BMW had individual coil packs, so I'm well aware of the concept.

I didn't propose replacing anything - I suggested inspecting various things.

What would the main dealer do any differently other than read the fault code and then deduce that it was something to do with the HT system? It's quite common for main dealers to join in the parts replacement chase too, usually because it's easier than trying to work out what's wrong.

TiTheRev

A dealers diagnostics machine picks the actual sensor/probe/lead at fault, not just a general 'some-where in the HT system' type fault code. And the fault can be traced past the causal faults along the line, so that a temp sensor giving the ECU a faulty reading creating engine issues can be replaced rather than the ECU giving the faulty signals etc, which a local independant's code reader could not see past.

tomstickland

Are you claiming that this information is available in the ECU and it's just the lack of fault code reading software that is the issue?

TiTheRev

Potentially, yes. The cheap fault code readers can only see the fault at it's causal point, not the point of origin. A code provided by these machines may show that the ECU is outputting a faulty signal, but not what's causing the ECU to send that faulty signal.

tomstickland

However, no ECU can detect a fault that it has no sensor for.

I'm not disagreeing that in some cases a manufacturer ECU read might be the most efficient way of analysing a problem. For for a situation like this it's not "guessing" to inspect the plugs and leads when a fault code indicates that there's a spark issue on cylinder 4.