Car broken down, expensive repairs, still not working.

libra10

Wondering about opinions regarding the situation my son finds himself in with relation to his car.

The BMW car is 10 years old, and he has owned it approximately 4 years, and he takes extremely good care of it. It has 70,000 miles on the clock, which is quite low for its age.

Unfortunately last weekend it broke down, and the RAC towed him into the local BMW garage, where it has been since then.

The dealership decided that the car needed a new fuel pump, which they fitted, at a cost of approximately £1800 (including diagnostics). They then ran the engine and black smoke constantly poured out of the exhaust.

They then added another £85 to check the injectors, which were alright. The latest step is for them to charge another £85 to strip down the engine to find out what is causing the black smoke.

That is the situation at the minute! He is going to have to spend £2K and will still not have a car that works. He has been borrowing ours to get to work!

Obviously his car is getting on and it's not worth spending any more money on it.

Does anyone have any advice, or does he just cut his losses?

Thanks for any advice.

Ganga

I f they find out what is wrong and it was not the fuel pump,ask them to remove it and return your £1800

libra10

I don't think they would be prepared to do that!

C_Mababejive

Is it in a BMW dealership , an indie BMW specialist or another garage?

Way888

Hi, I'm really interested in any advice for this also as my dad is in a similar situation apart from the fact that he paid £7k upfront for a new engine and the car is still not fixed and it's been 11 months

libra10

The car is at a BMW dealership.

ratrace

libra10 wrote: »

The car is at a BMW dealership.

why did he get any work done at the bmw main dealer they are very expensive

the smoke could be caused by the dpf filter clogging up ot it may be blocked(if it has one) or the egr valve could be blocked/stuck etc.... also if the caris running rich that could also cause smoke due to more fuel being used

personally i would not let the main dealer touch a car that is that old as you have found out they are expensive and compared to what the carsworth its just not make financial sense, a good indipendent would be a lot cheaper

libra10

Thanks ratrace for your comments.

He chose the BMW garage as he has used them before and he thought they were the experts, and would easily sort out the problem. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Thanks for the tech information, I will pass on to him.

The car has xenon headlights, specialised alloy wheels and bumper, and he is wondering whether to try and sell on Ebay. Apart from a smokin’ exhaust, the car is in immaculate condition.

He’s considering his options.

ratrace

libra10 wrote: »

Thanks ratrace for your comments.

He chose the BMW garage as he has used them before and he thought they were the experts, and would easily sort out the problem. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Thanks for the tech information, I will pass on to him.

The car has xenon headlights, specialised alloy wheels and bumper, and he is wondering whether to try and sell on Ebay. Apart from a smokin’ exhaust, the car is in immaculate condition.

He’s considering his options.

Your welcome, I have had a few bmw's now n love them so i can see why your son likes his so much, ive also worked on them a lot over the years my best advice is get it to someone who has a good diagnostic machine and is able to read/interpret live data to see what what the fueling side of things is like and to perform a few diffrent function tests

with cars its all about diagnostics and knowing what to look for any but some garages are quick to change parts over in the hope it will solve the problem after all the customer is going to pay for it

all the best with it keep us updated on how /when it gets fixed a lot of people dont come back to tell us if our advice was helpfull

libra10

Thanks for your comments ratrace. I think with the situation being as it is, he doesn’t want to throw good money after bad!

Will show him the thread, and see what he thinks.

Really appreciate Your comments and advice.

Will update later.

System

Black smoke is simple, the diesel to air ratio is not enough air. It is such a well known thing that in the HGV highway code questions during a driving test one of the questions is "what is the cause of black smoke?"

Causes can be from as simple as a blocked air filter (answer to above question in the driving test) to a split in a turbo to intercooler or intercooler to inlet manifold pipe, a leaking intercooler, injectors putting in too much fuel (injectors are OK so fuel rail pressure needs checking). Certainly the air induction side is where I'd be looking first.

Won't be the DPF or the EGR valve.