Advice on a car issue please

geordiejs

Hi there,

I'm looking for some advice please.

I bought a second hand BMW X3 for £14.5k through a dealer about 10 months ago with a dealer warranty. However I run my own company and have had a severe downturn in business so much so that I will need to sell the car.

Just as I was getting it ready to sell about a month ago an orange engine light came on the dash.

The first issue is when I took it to the dealer I told them I wanted no work carried out with out my approval, except for the cost of the diagnostic. However when I spoke to the garage and they reported the fault they mentioned that some of what was wrong was covered under warranty but £170 worth of work was not and this had already been done! At the point I didn't have that amount available, the garage took the attitude that to get rid of the fault all the issues needed fixing and offered no reduction/help with the bill. I then needed to wait 5 days for a cheque to clear before I could pay for the car and get it back!

That's not the worst part within an hour of driving the vehicle home the light came back on and has stayed on. I've taken it back, they have tested it again and they are saying it's because the cylinder heads are are 'carbonised' and that the head will need to come off the engine and the pistons will need 'decoked'. I'm told that this is not covered under warranty (what a surprise!) The repair will cost upwards of a £1000 pounds.

This is a fault that has built up through the life of the car and I now feel it's totally unjust that the cost of footing it should end up with me. I expected some

I've already complained to the service manager at the dealer, - the only help he gave was to get a sales guy to make me an offer - a derisory £7,500, which was the equivalent of what WeBuyAnyCar offered.

The car is immaculate inside and out, has a Franchised dealer service history and is probably worth up to £11.5k.

The car is on HP (which unfortunately I'm in arrears with) and unfortunately I'm well away from the date where I can hand it back.

Anyone have any advice on what I can do.

Thanks
John

GolfBravo

And apart from the engine check light on issue, how is the car behaving? Any missfires/jerky/sluggish engine?

Engine check light can come on for a number of reasons, even a lose petrol filler cap can trigger it.

If you have the AA/RAC breakdown cover call them and they can usually diagnose the problem or even read faults. When you ring them tell them the engine just stopped a few times, the light is on and you're afraid to drive it in such condition (loss of brake servo, power steering).

colino

You really need to bite the bullet and let a local, friendly independent do a thorough diagnosis on the car and take it from there. While the DTC system is good, it has to be used in conjunction with the training and common sense of a good tech. Fingers crossed it is an air leak or duff connection, but throwing parts at it are not the answer.

s_b

i think they are telling you the injectors have carbonised up
im sure an independent bmw repairer would have the know how how to take these out in situ if this is the problem
(coco cola helps)
as said go independent trusted garage idealy conversant with x3's that can give a second diagnosis