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car alarm problems



 
 
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  #11  
Old July 28th 14, 11:03 PM posted to alt.autos.bmw
Dean Dark[_2_]
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Posts: 126
Default car alarm problems

On Mon, 28 Jul 2014 11:14:38 -0700, really real >
wrote:

>You think an intermittent electrical problem is trivial? My neighbours
>don't think so.


Jeez! Two people told you *exactly* what to do about it, yet you
continued to pontificate on the subject here.

>What's the matter with you is the real question.


That's precious. There's none so blind as those who cannot see.
--
Find the grain of truth in criticism, chew it, and swallow it.
- anonymous
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  #12  
Old July 29th 14, 04:04 AM posted to alt.autos.bmw
really real
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 34
Default car alarm problems


>
> Jeez! Two people told you *exactly* what to do about it, yet you
> continued to pontificate on the subject here.


No, I continue to question people about what to do, and I question you
about the reason for your hostility.

The dealer wouldn't let me leave it there today, and taking it home, the
alarm went off again, but leaving it unlocked seemed to work. That cure
didn't work yesterday.

From what I know about intermittent electrical problems, nothing is
going to be easy to fix. The car has had other electrical complications.
I'm eager to hear what the service specialist has to say.

But I'd better not share that information here, because you don't want
me to.

  #13  
Old July 29th 14, 09:01 AM posted to alt.autos.bmw
Dean Dark[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 126
Default car alarm problems

On Mon, 28 Jul 2014 20:04:13 -0700, really real >
wrote:

>But I'd better not share that information here, because you don't want
>me to.


Now you're just being childish.
  #14  
Old July 29th 14, 03:50 PM posted to alt.autos.bmw
really real
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 34
Default car alarm problems


>> But I'd better not share that information here, because you don't want
>> me to.

>
> Now you're just being childish.
>



Now I'm confused about what I should and shouldn't say.

I figured some people here might be interested in what it's like to have
a new BMW, but maybe I'm just acting out.

Yesterday, at the service department, I saw one of those new electric
BMW i3s, looking very odd, but different, in a modern way, which is what
I think an electric car should look like. I didn't even know they were
for sale yet in North America. I wonder why it needed servicing.

This morning, I took the car in at 7:00 AM when they open. How strange
to see the place full of people working at that hour. I hope they get to
go home early.

The service guy listened to my tale of woe, and put the key into a dock
on his computer and studied the data. I hope it didn't show how many
moves it last took me to parallel park. He said they would have to
reprogram the software.

I asked about disconnecting the alarm or lowering its volume but that
doesn't seem to be officially possible.

And then, they drove me home and told me they would come pick me up when
the car is ready, in a day or so. I'm not used to this level of service
from a car company.
  #15  
Old July 31st 14, 03:08 PM posted to alt.autos.bmw
really real
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 34
Default car alarm problems

Just in case anyone is still following my adventures, here's what
happened to my three month old car.

1. The car alarm problem was caused by a defective part in the sunroof.
This part will take two weeks to come from Germany.

2. The tailgate of the car went up by itself three times in the past two
months. I assumed I had accidentally left it open or hit the remote, but
it turns out, there was another defective part causing this.

3. The service department said they couldn't disconnect the alarm
without disabling the remote controls. However, with the prospect of me
having to leave the car there for two weeks, with their very limited
storage room, they have found a way to disable the alarm and keep
everything else working.

It's interesting that BMW doesn't sore parts and it has to take two
weeks to get a part flown in. It makes me feel like I have an exotic
Italian sports car. I guess the BMW bureaucracy in Germany is so big
that it takes twelve days to process the paperwork before shipping the
part which would then take two days.

I heard from a friend the history of his problems with BMW service, real
horror stories.

Also, my service rep guy, who was there when the service department
opened at 7:00 AM, was back from lunch at 3:00 PM. Apparently he works a
split shift over eleven hours each day. I wonder if these people have
ever heard of unions?
  #16  
Old August 1st 14, 03:08 AM posted to alt.autos.bmw
really real
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 34
Default car alarm problems

Stop the press! Everything I said in my previous post turns out to be
totally wrong.

The service guy had told me that they would disconnect my alarm in a way
that would allow me to still use the remote. It turns out he was talking
in BMW double speak language. What he really meant was that the alarm
would not be disconnected but he would show me how to manually lock the
car and that this would probably stop the alarm from going off.

Manually locking a four door car is not the easiest thing to do, but
it's better than leaving the car unlocked for the two weeks it takes BMW
Germany to uncover the part and send it to Canada.

Also, the part which would stop the tailgate from opening by itself,
which he said they now had, turned out to be the wrong part, so this too
will take two weeks to fix.

Leaving the car at the BMW shop was a real treat for the seagulls, who
covered the hood in seagull ****. It was a nice symbolic end to the day.

I'm trying to see the bright side of all this. I have a brand new car
which has two defective parts? It's like owning a Jaguar, something I
always dreamed of.

The BMW shop doesn't store parts and it takes them two weeks to get a
part from Germany? It's like having a Lamborghini, something I never
even dreamed of.

And surely having two defective parts turn up in the first three months
doesn't mean the car is going to be a lemon, does it?
  #17  
Old August 3rd 14, 02:59 PM posted to alt.autos.bmw
David
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Posts: 31
Default car alarm problems

(snip)

>
> And surely having two defective parts turn up in the first three months
> doesn't mean the car is going to be a lemon, does it?


Get used to it.

We are on our ninth BMW* ; an M (performance) 135i (F20) which is about
14 months old now. The first of the new genre of BMW to slot in between
the full fat M-cars, and the M-Sport models.

It is our first F series BMW, and having having it 8 months, and then
closely looked at the rest of the F series cars, I can tell you that the
materials, quality of fit and finish are far lower than BMWs of previous
years.

I have had to fit lots of small pieces of rubber to stop squeaks and
rattles in the cabin, but the groans, knocks and further rattles from
the interior really annoy me. Few of which made their presence known
about at the time of assessment.

Everything feels flimsy, and I am ashamed that I agreed to buy it, but
my better half wanted it.

I have found a few parts that were not fitted correctly at the factory.

Even the front and rear wipers do a poor job of clearing the screens,
tried new blades, too.

Our 2011 E82 coupe, a 135i M-Sport, with the same glorious N55 engine,
has much greater quality fit, finish and materials, does not have any
interior niggles at all. The seats are more comfy, too.

I think that the new cars (F-series) have been designed to have a
shorter life.

We have taken our BMWs through around eight different BMW dealer
workshops, and I can tell you, they are all crap. They cannot even be
trusted to get the tyre pressures correct, and often, the cars are
returned damaged.

If any other car maker made a small car with a straight six engine, I
would not have a BMW.

* (five 3 series, and four 1 series)

David
  #18  
Old August 6th 14, 07:17 PM posted to alt.autos.bmw
Scott Dorsey
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Posts: 3,914
Default car alarm problems

really real > wrote:
>
>The service guy had told me that they would disconnect my alarm in a way
>that would allow me to still use the remote. It turns out he was talking
>in BMW double speak language. What he really meant was that the alarm
>would not be disconnected but he would show me how to manually lock the
>car and that this would probably stop the alarm from going off.


Note that the locking system and the alarm aren't the same thing, and you
seem to be talking as if you think they are. They _do_ interoperate with
one another though.

>Manually locking a four door car is not the easiest thing to do, but
>it's better than leaving the car unlocked for the two weeks it takes BMW
>Germany to uncover the part and send it to Canada.


What is the part anyway?

>Also, the part which would stop the tailgate from opening by itself,
>which he said they now had, turned out to be the wrong part, so this too
>will take two weeks to fix.
>
>Leaving the car at the BMW shop was a real treat for the seagulls, who
>covered the hood in seagull ****. It was a nice symbolic end to the day.
>
>I'm trying to see the bright side of all this. I have a brand new car
>which has two defective parts? It's like owning a Jaguar, something I
>always dreamed of.


This is not strictly a BMW problem, but it's part of the general problem of
increasing complexity of electronics in modern cars. BMW is worse than most
manufacturers because they are pushing more and more new electronics in faster
than everyone else. But, you can have a similar experience with a Cadillac
today too.

Mind you, I never lock my car because I figure it just encourages thieves.

>The BMW shop doesn't store parts and it takes them two weeks to get a
>part from Germany? It's like having a Lamborghini, something I never
>even dreamed of.


So why weren't they willing to loan you a car for two weeks? Did you even ask
for a loaner?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
  #19  
Old August 7th 14, 11:01 PM posted to alt.autos.bmw
really real
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 34
Default car alarm problems


>
> Note that the locking system and the alarm aren't the same thing, and you
> seem to be talking as if you think they are. They _do_ interoperate with
> one another though.


True, but by manually locking the car, we seemed to have temporarily
solved the problem. My service consultant definitely thinks they are the
same thing though, because he originally told me he was disconnecting
the alarm, when all he really did was show me how to lock it manually.

>
> What is the part anyway?


I can find out when I eventually take the car in, but my service
consultant is way too uncommunicative to respond to an email if I asked
him now.
>


> So why weren't they willing to loan you a car for two weeks? Did you even ask
> for a loaner?


They might have given us a loaner if we had really needed it, despite
refusing to store the car for two weeks. I was still rather amazed they
didn't offer to keep our car until they could fix the alarm.

Meanwhile, we just got back from a road trip, and the air conditioning
stopped working properly. This is the second time this has happened.
Both the fan and the coolness get very weak. This time I was able to
"fix" it by turning off the aircon for ten minutes and turning it on again.
  #20  
Old August 9th 14, 08:22 PM posted to alt.autos.bmw
David
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 31
Default car alarm problems

(snip)
>
> Meanwhile, we just got back from a road trip, and the air conditioning
> stopped working properly. This is the second time this has happened.
> Both the fan and the coolness get very weak. This time I was able to
> "fix" it by turning off the aircon for ten minutes and turning it on again.


On the cars fitted with Intelligent Alternator Control (that is, those
with wrongly termed "regenerative braking"), I have found that with the
cabin air set to an auto program, the fan speeds up when on the
'over-run;, especially when driving into the sun.

David
 




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