BMW 320i problems

techguy81

I own a high-mileage (85k) 2009 320i Touring which has been suffering with the dreaded injector coil issue (two changed so far). At the moment it is running fine except the engine management light is coming on every week or so. It is still under warranty and BMW tell me it is caused by sulphur blocking the catalytic converter. BMW say this is because of the way I am driving the car.

I purchased it four months ago and it is an ex-fleet car with mainly motorway miles. According to the technician I spoke to today the problem is arising because the car is "remembering" how it used to be driven. Now that it is hardly doing any miles and just being used for short trips around town it is causing sulphur to block the catalytic converter. He told me that as it was the third time it had been in under warranty with this problem, that BMW would not be fixing it under warranty if it happens again because it is not actually a problem with the car, rather the way it is being driven. He went on to say that the solution would be to "desulphurise" the car by driving it regularly on the motorway at 70mph for 30 minutes which, to me, aside from being a pain in the backside, is also a tad impractical. It was also somewhat annoying to hear this because the second time the warning light came on I was cruising down the motorway at 80 anyway! To be frank, I haven't got the time or inclination to waste expensive fuel on trips I wouldn't normally be making.

The way I see it is a car is a car and as long as I'm not thrashing it and driving like a plonker then you can expect it to function normally when driven normally. I bought the car fully aware there was an unlimited mileage warranty, and I expect this to be honoured by BMW. If the car cannot cope with normal short trips with eight months left on the warranty then something is clearly wrong with it. I can understand a diesel engine causing grief on short trips, but not a petrol.

I have been separately told that the blocked cat issue can be caused by the injector coil issue. Is this likely to be the case?

To top it off I got the car back from the garage with fresh scratches on the front nearside bumper. That's another call to BMW tomorrow! :mad:

vaio

think they are talking nonsense,

Hammyman

No they're not, well not completely. Nothing but short round town journeys do not do any car any good and the excess fuel being chucked out of the engine due to it spending most of its time running on cold start won't do a CAT much good and a particulate filter even less.

vaio

Hammyman wrote: »

No they're not, well not completely. Nothing but short round town journeys do not do any car any good and the excess fuel being chucked out of the engine due to it spending most of its time running on cold start won't do a CAT much good and a particulate filter even less.

Do petrol cars have particulate filters?

and as for modern cars "remembering how they were driven" and sulphur blocking CATs my vote stays with "nonsense".

I get the feeling they are just trying to get it out of the warranty period so it becomes a chargeable repair

rodenal

There is an easy way to find out, take it out a few decent long runs and give it some beans - if the eml doesn't come on then there is some credit to the excuse

mikey72

Hammyman wrote: »

No they're not, well not completely. Nothing but short round town journeys do not do any car any good and the excess fuel being chucked out of the engine due to it spending most of its time running on cold start won't do a CAT much good and a particulate filter even less.

Particulate filter on a petrol?

Cold start won't be throwing fuel down the exhaust, maybe if you had a choke knob on the dashboard, but not with a modern ecu monitoring the emisson level and adjusting accordingly.

If there is a fault, the BMW garage should be able to read it, and tell you the fault code. That would help to confirm the diagnosis.

ECU's do remember how the car way driven, in that they do adjust for driving styles. They re-adjust as well though, so that shouldn't be an issue now.

As to the cat, we've been using low sulphur petrol for years.

albionrovers

Ask BMW to show you the T&Cs re. the "driving it funny" bit ...

sunshinetours

Unfortunately BMW dealers are well known for using the "its the way you are driving it sir" excuse for many known issues with various models. Lots of short trips when the engine doesn't get up to temperature and such like won;t do any car any good however.
I have heard it trotted out on the known battery sensor issues on the E60/E61 models that I am now getting as well.

Do not be fobbed off with that and go over their heads if need be to BMW UK. I love my Beemers but customer service when issues (and especially known issues) sometimes ends up lacking with a poor attitude they are obviously taught at BMW customer service training

I assume you have tried some of the specialist BMW forums such as www.BMWland.co.uk

mikey72

sunshinetours wrote: »

Unfortunately BMW dealers are well known for using the "its the way you are driving it sir" excuse for many known issues with various models. Lots of short trips when the engine doesn't get up to temperature and such like won;t do any car any good however.
I have heard it trotted out on the known battery sensor issues on the E60/E61 models that I am now getting as well.

Do not be fobbed off with that and go over their heads if need be to BMW UK. I love my Beemers but customer service when issues (and especially known issues) sometimes ends up lacking with a poor attitude they are obviously taught at BMW customer service training

I assume you have tried some of the specialist BMW forums such as www.BMWland.co.uk

It's a good way of keeping the "quality" status though.
"It's not the cars fault, it's the way the customer is using it"

sunshinetours

mikey72 wrote: »

It's a good way of keeping the "quality" status though.
"It's not the cars fault, it's the way the customer is using it"

They rely on many owners of "premium brands" not really being aware of anything technical as is the case of course.
No real excuse these days for anyone to get ripped off by a main dealer on a well publicised fault with a little internet research.

In fairness if you look at how many cars they produce and the brand loyalty worldwide, they must be doing somethings right. They are fine cars on the whole

fivetide

Hammyman wrote: »

No they're not, well not completely. Nothing but short round town journeys do not do any car any good and the excess fuel being chucked out of the engine due to it spending most of its time running on cold start won't do a CAT much good and a particulate filter even less.

Also part balls re particulate filters but the rest is about right.

Why do you need to take a car for a lot of short journeys? Not being funny, just asking.

The rest of hammy's post is right, no car will be happy with nothing but short journeys. They never get up to temp so nothing is working at optimum. Remember how at MOT time they let the cat get very hot because that is when it is at its most efficient? You are not lettign it do that.

The rememberign how it used to drive is twaddle though, that would only affect a clever auto box and even then, it wouldn't make that much difference.

What they are saying is take it for the odd italian tune up on the motorway, give it some boot, let it get warm once in a while and on occasion, if you can, take the bus to town.

Worth noting i think Ford had issues with early Zetec engines getting sticky vavles - the big problem? Short trips round town so the vavles were never opened up properly so it causes more issues than you might think.

5t.