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I have a BMW 320D bought at one year old. I bought it at new year from BMW. I think the last owner sold it because it has an unfixable fault. The car sometimes shakes, engine shakes, usually it runs fine. If you want to pull out into traffic then sometime the pick up is really bad. You put your foot hard on the gas and it doesnot pull away quick enough, then later all the power comes back. There are no warning lights on the dash and the dealer says there is nothing wrong with it. The car has been to the dealer many times. The computer checks out fine. How can I force the dealer to fix the car. They got a llittle angry last time I went and told me the car was fine.
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Its a 320d not a 335m
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Can you give more detail about what engine speed this 'lack of power' happens at. If it's below 15-1600 RPm it's just that the engine is not getting any turbo assistance. If it's not pulling between 2 and 3000 RPM then that's a different issue.
I never had any problems with a lack of power from my 320d apart from when the turbo wasn't spooled up due to low engine RPM (but that's only to be expected)
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Some faults are intermittent - if the fault isn't there when they examine the car they can't be expected to find the fault.
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Sounds like it could be your MAF sensor. BMW diagnosis checks don't always pick up problems with the MAF.
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The engine does not want to rev over 2500 when it goes wrong. You press hard on the pedal and it does not rev. Also when the car is at rest and engine shakes. If you turn off the motor and turn on again then usually it is fixed itself for a while until it goes wrong again. Sometime if you just drive a few minutes it fixzes itself. BMW workshop have changed some parts inclduing "injector" and "air sensor". They say now that the car is "100% OK" but really I think they have no more ideas. When I went to them yesterday the service manager saw me and looked up as to say not you again!. The car has only 15000 miles and should run better than this. This is my first car in UK and cost a lot of money big disappointment. I should have bught Mercedes Benz which have very strong reputaiton in the Middle East.
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If such an intermittent problem kept happening to my car I would probably try and get some video evidence of it happening if possible. At least you can then go to the dealer and show them exactly what is sometimes happening. A lot of dealers seem not to understand the concept of an "intermittant fault" - if it works when they happen to check it, they think that it must be okay and the customer must be wrong.
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I think sometimes dealers would not admit to finding a fault, if they had been told it was intermittent and the car is under warranty. It is any easy escape to say that the fault didn't show up when they examined it. I had such a fault on the C5, with a door lock that wouldn't unlock with the remote fob most to the time. On the occasion that I took it to the dealer, it could not be faulted. Perhaps they were telling the truth and perhaps not. I am glad I took the car though (under warranty at the time), as the fault became permanent within six months and I had a record of having reported the fault when the car was under warranty.
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Perhaps suggest the service manager takes it home with him one evening so he spends a bit of time in it including a cold start, of coure they should lend you a car while this is happening.
Otherwise try another dealer.
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If they changed the air sensor then that's the MAF out the window although I have heard stories about the MAF being changed and the new one being faulty. Actually it is quite easy to see if this it the problem. Disconnect the MAF and see if there is any difference.
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Is it worth contacting the previous owner? Or asking BMW to send a copy of the warranty work carried out on the car to date? Given the hourly rates charged by BMW dealers I'm surprised they are so reluctant to work on the car if it's under warranty and can send the bill to BMW UK.
Best strapline I ever saw in an independent garage workshop:
"Rule No 1: The Customer is always right"
"Rule No 2: If the Customer is ever wrong, reread Rule No 1"
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'Also when the car is at rest and engine shakes.'
This to me suggests an idling fault. At what RPM does it idle at?
Going back to basics, I would suggest an air leak from the air filter housing. So checking all the hoses would be a basic first step.
It could also be a head gasket / valve problem. On my car (a petrol), the revs were low and the fault was the head gasket. Worth checking the coolant for discolouration / the oil filler cap for mayonnaise type colour.
Dealers seem to be appaling when it comes to diagnosing faults. I hear this a lot from forums and from my own experience as well. It might be worth trying an independent garage who actually has a mechanic and not fitters as was mentioned here.
It is very irritating when you have a car fault and dealers think your a 'hypercondriact' - been there, done that and got the t-shirt!
Hope this helps.
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I had a fault on my VW Bora TDI whereby accelerating hard up a hill would cause the car to go into "Limp Home" mode.In this mode there was no power but enough to drive slowly.
Turning the engine off then back on would reset the ECU and all would be well until the next time.
I took it into the dealer and he hooked it up to the computer but no fault had been logged.He then suggested that next time it happened, I should bring the car in with the engine running, making sure that I did not turn it off.
The result was that the computer then found that the turbo was overboosting due to sticky variable vanes and decreed that a new turbo would be fitted under warranty.
So next time your car exhibits the fault get it down to the dealer with the engine still running.
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This car will still be under BMW warranty - so definitely DO NOT take it to an independent repairer or you will find that your warranty may be invalidated - and you certainly don't want that on a CR Diesel car like this one.
The dealer has obviously tried a few fairly expensive items (injectors, MAF) - do you know that they probably won't get paid on the claim because it has not cured the problem? If you go back with the same fault on job sheet then BMW UK will probably claw back the payout on previous work. Vehicle manufacturers are not like ordinary punters who have to pay up even if work does not fix a fault - warranty work is normally no-fix, no-pay and of course the labour rate is lower than retail.
I don't think this is a turbo fault. I am going to stick my neck out and say something is wrong with fuel rail pressure - either pump or pressure regulation, or even possibly pressure sensor...
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Thankyou so much. The car was back to them Monday and is fixed tody. They have fixed it with a new pump and valve and it is running very well now. you had the right idea. Thankyou.
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Glad you got it sorted. Being tenacious often pays off. I've heard of the BMW HP pumps 'going south' before - hence my suggestion.
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Trouble from the 'Ultimate Driving Machine'? Surely some mistake, must be a cloned french car ;-)
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