Wow, this is bad. I know people with old Nissan Primeras and Almeras who can get parts fine! This is a newer BMW.
i feel for you.. I really do.
Cars an make people very very happy....or utterly miserable.
I've been there and done it. In my case Motorsport.. but still... spend all your effort money blood sweat tears and love....and if it gives you grief ... it hurts.
Do you have a spare car/van? Are you mobile?
Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
that isn't helping CAT....i know you feel his pain but GoNz0 doesn't wanna read that.....& he doesn't want to drive an Almera.
Every manufacturer struggles sometimes. and the more complex the car the more likely it might get a stumble
MERC and AUDI and JAG and RANGEROVER ....and every brand.. has these niggles
but oh the HELL the drivers have to go through is ... hard to bear up under the strain of.
Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
Fortunately my wife is on a 2 year secondment so she moved offices, due to the location being quite close and in the middle of Nottingham. She catches the bus and the majority of the time uses the train for visits over 50 miles (company rules) so I have her Mini Clubman sat on the drive to potter about in, out of the 2 dealers I picked Nottingham for this reason, it has been an inconvenience with her driving in late so I can use her car and so on but we have managed.
Anyway, I know this will change later as every bloody phone call includes a massive back track and they refuse to put what has been said in the past in writing but.
We left it after yesterday's rant that they were going to try and get me a refund to get shut of me and leave me with the faulty part (I had binned the original) as they were not going to swap it without Germany's say so and Germany had come back with the BS about the temps being OK and I shouldn't be in the diagnostic menu, I can do WTH I want with my car though and I know the stat opens at 88 and will stay at least at 88 with a working heat exchanger.
I had said in the meeting that they need to ask the question to Germany about the part being off the car and defective, one of them had already taken the removed part out the bag and blown straight through the coolant pipe so they cannot dispute it has failed open compared to a new part that they couldn't blow through (wax thermometer against the fail-safe spring for those mentioning various makes of thermostats) but we still got nowhere, this is when I flipped and said sort a refund and wash your hands of the problem and I will go elsewhere then go after Hella for compensation.
Anyway, phone rings and I am told Germany have replied to the question about it being failed open and they have been told to fit another, check it works, leave it overnight and test again, he also said they are still trying to get the refund sorted instead. I told him no this is what I wanted to start with but you wouldn't do it and now Germany have told you to go ahead so get it swapped, I was about to chip in that they should try and get a part from another batch but he said it before me so here we are again waiting for the phone to ring.
Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.
The thing is these are old cars,and BMW is a premium brand,and for what they charge for parts and the cars in general,its pathetic. I am getting increasingly fedup that over the last decade when companies seem to sell "premium" products and yet there is no "premium support" - a 5 series car is not some cheapo bag of bolts like an Almera was,so there shouldn't be an excuse for them to do crap like this. If anything they should be taken to Trading Standards for false advertising of spare parts. After the crap VW pulled maybe some of these German car companies have forgotten why people paid more for their cars.
Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 01-03-2018 at 02:41 PM.
So to recap, the BMW part is made my Behr and sold for £235, i got my local dealer to price match Cotswold BMW who offer a forum discount at £198 (ish)
Hella sell under the brand "Hella made by Behr" the exact same part to the extent that they cut the sticker in half, peel off the half with the BMW logo and part number and then stick a 2nd Hella sticker below it, they then (yes the next part is true) attack the plastic part with a dremel and grind off all the identifying marks to link it to BMW and sell it. This also was confirmed by the Hella head of product development.
You can get this around the £130 mark if you try harder and don't mind ebay you can knock it down to £118 but I chose to go with carpart4less as they are euro car parts and will when prodded arrange for it to be exchanged or refunded at your local euro's branch.
So yes they take the pee price wise on most things, sometimes I can get parts for less from the dealer than patent parts but it depends.
Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.
At least BMW stock parts, even if in this case they were faulty.
My wife's 2004 Alfa is starting to get hard to source parts for, and Alfa only bother for 5 years after they stop making the car. After that, hopefully aftermarket parts start turning up, but it is a worry as there aren't many of those cars at the breakers.
Roll on the day when you can go to the local library/makerspace and 3d print car parts in metal. I don't think ABS or PLA would work for GonZo's part, but one day...
And the 3rd BMW failed in less than 3 hours driving, spread over 3 days.
Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.
same thing again?
Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
Yep.
Unsure what legal action I can take against BMW for being unable to provide a working part, the dealers want to refund me in full to get rid of me now.
Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.
Has anyone actually opened one up to see what's failed?
that will cost you a lot !
its not a win no fee job! You need to pay to play that type of thing
Do you have a Legal Cover document anywhere in your life? House Insurance? Car Insurance? Ask the question of both
Is the car on Finance with a car finance house? If so they own part fo the car and will want it fixed. Ask them for help
Are you a member of the AA or RAC? Call and ask for their advice if you are
Can you look on GERMAN car websites using a Translator for the same issue? Chrome translates well on the fly. See if it's the same problem in Germany?
Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
But then you will want to fix it, and then want to know if the fix works, and it will never end
Interesting article here on how Porsche are starting to 3D print rare parts, so perhaps our offspring will have better luck with this sort of stuff.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/03...i-and-porsche/
To be fair if it is an easy fix I will keep it and use it when the cheap part fails. I went yesterday, unfortunately 2 things screwed this up for me, warmer weather and being stuck in traffic on the way there meaning the car got up to temp in the traffic, slow stop start also heats the gearbox oil.
Now the lowest rated thermostat on this car is 88c opening temp. On the run the car eventually went down to 79 whilst coasting at 50, the bell end of a tech decided to say it wasn't bad enough to warrant a refund even though it is obvious it had failed part open again. I gave up and will be ringing the credit card company to see how to go about starting a chargeback.
*edit, dispute started.
Last edited by GoNz0; 16-03-2018 at 12:03 PM.
Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.
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