SteveArmy90

3 hours ago, Matth5 said:

Lol I remember your 135i thread. Bummer that you sold it, but hopefully this one causes less stress for you!

I think the E90 330i's are pretty hassle-free, unlike the 335i's. Amazing that they're so cheap now, they're still excellent cars. 

Yep that's the hope with this one! I'm sure the 135i would've been fine afterwards. I drove it for 5 or 7000km without issue but I just couldn't trust it.

5 hours ago, Herbmiester said:

I think an acquaintance might own your old 135i, he seems very happy with it. 

They were cool people! the car went back to Auckland. Not sure if plates are a no-no but it's LPG616

14 minutes ago, qube said:

Just a slow market. Also cosmetically it was quite rough. 
i have the service papers if u didnt get it from the seller

I have a fair few in the owners manual pamphlet. Did you procure others from the dealerships themselves?

That would be really cool to have if you don't mind.

9 minutes ago, Sammo said:

Hope it serves you well - can't believe how cheap E90 6 cylinders are getting.

It was $1500 cheaper than the next other 330 on TradeMe and the only Msport. I wonder if the stiff suspension puts people off?

14 minutes ago, qube said:

Nice. I went and saw this and offered $5500 due to the imperfections with the bumper and a few panels and also because i didnt need it badly. Didnt end up buying it obviously but the engine sounded sweet and also had a sunroof which was nice. 
Good buy for sure at 6k it had good service history. Only one big thing was the main seal slowly leaking which will need attention at some stage not urgent and also needed spark plugs i think. 

8 minutes ago, Sammo said:

Great buy - I saw this on TM as well and thought it looked like great value - few km, but the N52 has a great rep.

M Sport, with the sports leather instead of the marmite velour, sunroof, better MV3 alloys and no i drive.

Hope it serves you well - can't believe how cheap E90 6 cylinders are getting.

Thanks Guys! The lack of iDrive was another attractive point to me. I picked up on the plugs but haven't seen that leak. I'll get it up on the hoist tomorrow. I see interestingly that #6 coil pack was done and no others. 5 cylinders would've sounded interesting.

It's been a year and a bit Since the fiasco of the 135i. Since selling it immediately after it was fixed for a silly price and swearing off BMW's, I realized it was I that was the problem.  Maybe not so for the problems occurring, or the way I was treated by the dealer, but for not doing any research and jumping into a car having no idea what I was dealing with (yes, you told me so!).

Since the 135i, I've owned a Toyota MarkX 2.5 that thundered through oil, a Ford Territory with ABS issues and a distinct odor (read: poop), and an '06 2.3 Mazda 6 which was solid as a rock but underwhelming.

I managed live cheaply enough to pay off all of my debt from previous cars including 135, and try and be happy with the Mazda... But surely enough, the itch came back and I yearned for excitement, a feeling I'm sure some of you with family cars and daily drivers are familiar with!

The catalyst for the change was my Fiance buying a '14 Santa Fe, and me 'inheriting' her Camry. I managed to sell the Camry (03, traveled 360,000km!) and the Mazda for a combined budget of 6k.

Flicking through Trade Me a few weeks ago, I found this; an 06 E90 330i, 143,000km, for $6500. In our house, you leave your boots, bags, and BMW's at the door. In fact there might be a bar of soap lying around for anyone that mentions a German car after the 135i. Despite the resistance I knew I'd get, I shielded my monitor and did my research. To my delight, the car seemed perfect and it met my main criteria: it was port injected. The water pump and thermostat were done in 2006 and the seller was the third owner. He had receipts and evidence of its servicing at both Auckland city Bmw and BM workshop. It sounds like it's been in Auckland its whole life.

Here's her specs in M Decoder.

I Managed to convince Mrs Steve with a lot of talking and nodding in the Santa Fe's general direction. It paid off as she was smiling the moment she drove it. I've given it a clay bar, wax, and an interior clean, although the interior was redundant as the previous owner had kept it really nicely!  I have to repaint the front bumper as it has quite a bad split in the middle due to a driveway. I offered 6k and drove it away.

It's a lot of car for 6k and I couldn't be happier.

So today, my friend and I went for a bit of a spirited drive from Masterton to Mauriceville and Back via Whangaehu valley road. I'm not sure if anyone has been down there but it's a really nice drive with a bit of everything driving-wise. He bought his 2zz Celica which he hadn't had long either. We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Now that I have a not-lemon, I'll pay my subs and start coming to events, eh ?.

Cheers Guys, 

I'll know for next time around. I went to an independent mechanic and they said no as well. I thought I'd take the rims off, have cases removed, buy cases at another shop, have the cases put on the rims, then fit at home. Nope, beaurepaires refused to remove them as they knew what I was trying to do.

I'll admit it, I ragequit and just bought runflats again from bridgestone. I'd spent the whole morning running around town and was going to swear at the next condescending f**k that said no to me. They all harped on about the design of the car and the "suspension geometry was designed around the tyres" and all sorts. I bought RE050's. 

Now another story, I'd run over a large piece of wood in the middle of the night (before the tyre fiasco) and had an alignment done at Beaurepaires Masterton to correct any wrong caused by the hit.

My front tyres subequent to that alignment were wearing on the outside like crazy and tramlining as well. I had driven it a max of 2000km after that alignment before buying tyres, so I decided to have another alignment done at Bridgestone.. Here's the sheet, 6 degrees of toe in the front!  Bridgestone only charged me a few packs of Chocolate bikkies for the second alignment. My kind of deal!

Thanks everyone. I'll have to give the Hutt My business then!

Hi everyone. I've been looking over this forum and others. I understand the 135i was going to be firm, but it may just be a bit too firm. I've done some research and you get the idea - I want normal tyres.

Called up both Beaurepaires masterton and Bridgestone Masterton. They both refuse to replace the run-flats with non run-flats, citing that it's illegal to do. 

Is this really the case?! 

10 hours ago, Herbmiester said:

Glad you have your car back, I did think that it was a bit early for injector failure but hey I'm only an interested observer. HPFP, good to have that done I would say you can enjoy a good summer in the car now. Does go to show that you need a good mechanic; getting the codes wrong was a real red herring. 

 

Yeah, I thought I was just really unlucky. I actually did quite a lot of research before buying and while a lot goes wrong with the n54, I was expecting trouble to start at around 100k if I was going to have it. Everywhere that I read said hpfp at any time from new, injectors at 50-150000Miles, not km, and wastegates at the higher end of that too. I bought a Mazda MPS at 50k and had to do lots of suspension components and a turbo at 120k which was fine.

Cheers for the bump @KwS. I got the car back last Monday. I thought I'd drive it for a week before calling it resolved.

TLDR: It was the HPFP, not Injectors. $2300 plus labour and the job is done and the car is going like a champion. 

To continue from my last post. The dealership - INDUSTRY MOTORS TAKANINI - accepted that I send the car to Winger BMW in wellington. They told me I had to Organise my own transport and that they would pay for it. I got back to them the same day with the phone number and the quote for $300. It took them 4 days to pay for the towing, but we got there eventually.

I still had to fight the dealer. I rang Winger BMW to get their version of the story, and they told me that Industry motors had just asked for a quote for six injectors. I rang the dealer and told him that I had clearly asked for the car to be re-diagnosed. He didn't want that to happen because "Every workshop gets a different result. BMW Dealerships staff are just parts fitters who go by what the computer tells them and send things away to specialists to have any work done". He went on to say that he had worked at a BMW Dealership in Auckland for a number of years. Well, what does that say about him then.. ? He was clearly just scared that it was going to cost him more money. It ended up costing him less so that's good. We had a reasonable argument about it on the phone but I didn't budge and in the end, he agreed.

The car went on Thursday, I had it back Friday afternoon. Incredible service and communication from Winger BMW. Was really impressed. As for Industry Motors, what a bunch of Slimeballs. I accept that my workshop got it wrong with the codes, but that doesn't excuse the conduct of Industry motors throughout the time that we thought it was the injectors. They've redeemed themselves a tiny bit by finally fronting up, but not before I had to drag them through the tribunal to get it. Steer clear as much as you can. I have not received an apology from them, or any form of follow up after I got the car back.

Thank you to everyone who helped me along the way. I'll be able to attend some club meets now!

Sorry for the late reply. The forum doesn't seem to be showing me notifications on my phone. Now that I'm not on my phone, here's a more detailed response.

The dealership Responded to my tribunal application one week and one day into the negotiation window. They gave me the following two options:

6x Second hand ex-Australia with 1 year warranty - $1400

6x New Injectors from A European workshop in Auckland - $3750

They stated that since the car is second hand, the fix should be using second hand parts too. What a crock. How would I know what index they are, how many hrs/km's they've done etc etc. Right up into the court process they're still trying to cheap out as hard as they can.

My Lawyer said now that they have offered for all six injectors and an option which include new ones, my argument would be significantly reduced for a refund. Upon that advice and considering the fact that the dealership is willing to at least look at a proper fix now, I'm pretty happy to look at repairing it anyway. It has to be the right repair, though.

I wrote back outlining my above concerns, and said that I would not accept second hand injectors. They contacted me really late in the two week negotiation period, so I proposed the following:

Quote

I submit a request to the MVDT for more time before the hearing.

The car be transported to [Redacted BMW Dealer in Wellington].

It be scanned and all faults completely Identified.

Any found faults be rectified with new, current issue Genuine BMW Parts.

The dealership accepted that an extension would be handy. I applied and was granted an extension until Friday the 19th.

By "Any found faults", it would of course be negotiated. I wouldn't hold them up for anything outside of the original issue like transmission, VANOS, ETC. However, if there is anything else in that fuel system that's wonky, like the HPFP, I will be going them for that, too.

If the dealership is committed, they will easily have the car picked up and have a diagnosis/price in 5 days. I got mine in two days from my own workshop. So if they don't do anything by the coming Friday, I'll proceed to a hearing and see what is ruled.

I have a response.

They want to replace all six injectors in Auckland with Ex-Australian second hand injectors with a 1 year warranty.

My obvious first thought is hell no.

As the MVDT Require you to not act in contempt of the other party or any process I'm too scared to write back to them yet. Waiting on my Lawyer.

Still No contact from the dealer after the first week of the MVDT's grace period. It won't look too good for them if they don't get hold of me about my car by the coming Friday.

The MPS was pretty good but they both wore out suspension components at a crazy rate. I was doing rear sway bar links every 20,000km. I enjoyed the Honda much more as a car. In fact it would be my favourite car to date. The Honda did a knock sensor, alternator, both axle seals, two door solenlids in a year. Ishould have done the n55 thing in hindsight. I'm not even looking at a "next car" until I find out if it's getting fixed or not ?

On 9/30/2018 at 7:09 PM, M3AN said:

Easy isn't necessarily "right" though.

It would have been easier, and "right" had the dealer responded according to the law and fixed the issue to BMW's standard immediately. He didn't and he went further by actively avoiding his legal accountability.

Protecting rights is important yet most people can't be bothered. In this case Steve has been bothered and he should be applauded for that because he didn't take the easy route. If his actions protect even one other potential buyer then he's done well.

Used car dealers can make a lot of profit from even a single car, how can they make that profit without accepting a commensurate risk? They shouldn't, they are absolutely accountable for not selling faulty goods and it's their responsibility to ensure that before accepting any offer.

Interested to hear how it's going.

Edit: lesson to be learnt here, get the codes read and printed out (by somebody not connected to the seller), including the last cleared date before buying a modern car. Any PPI that doesn't include that is a waste of money.

 

This. I could not have worded it better than this no matter how hard I tried. They could have fixed it properly and I absolutely gave them the chance when I didn't have to. I'll quote something else before I continue.

On 9/30/2018 at 6:34 PM, KwS said:

Life would be easier if he had just taken the 2x injector fix, and enjoyed the car. Sure, itll break down again, no doubt, but thats what the warranty is for. Instead its turned into a complete clusterf**k, that still has no end in sight.

I want a good outcome for the OP because its been a rough intro to BMWs, but this has gotten harder than it needed to be.

If I had taken the 2x Injector fix, I would have still had a faulty car and would have lost a massive amount of clout in my argument. My workshop didn't tell me about this until later in the piece, but the latest scan report that they sent to the dealer on the 28th August actually showed five faulty injectors. I've only been spouting on about two injectors as that's what I had heard from the dealer and the earlier scan report, so the dealer was banking on me not finding out about the later scan report as well. Just another lie from them.

Unfortunately, this absolutely had to turn into a clusterf**k to have any form of productive outcome. It didn't need to, but with they way they acted, it had to. I've read a lot of results from the MVDT since I've applied. I've seen that all of the people that let a dealer fix their car, only to have it done badly, lose. The MVDT State in the notes of these cases that claiming for a refund on a problem they've allowed to be fixed can't happen. So if they fixed two, and three more failed, I'm in the pot for it by the looks of it. The fact that I said I would let them fix it then went back on it is the grey area I'm concerned about. Hopefully the MVDT sees my justification in the lying that's gone on.

On 9/30/2018 at 3:49 PM, Herbmiester said:

My take is that Steve didn't really research the likely issues with an N54 car and again no disrespect but secondhand BMW's (especially N54's) are an ongoing financial commitment, part of the reason they are so cheap relatively speaking. That said if the injectors get done it will probably be a good car as one of the known issues (Probably the most expensive fix)will be sorted.

I have bought cars in this type of circumstance before, people pay to fix a problem then flick the car because they have negative feelings towards it. In my case in a number of occasions I have been happy to profit from their emotional issues.

I will remain tight lipped about what I read until it's all over. I read lots about HPFP's and Wastegates. Injectors at 50,000km though? At full market price? My rights are my rights and I shouldn't have to get in it and barely get home before not being able to drive it. Unfortunately it's on them and they surely must be aware of that risk. If I had to keep it, I wouldn't want to flick it, I would just want it to be fixed properly. I'm all about peace of mind and if I have peace of mind, I'll be sweet and still love the car. I just don't want any form of relationship with the dealer and I want to give it back while I can.

Everyone is right here. I have the right to return, I can see that second hand cars have problems, it could just be bad luck for the dealer, I've read about them, indeed etc etc etc. There are lots of perspectives but I will take the stance that I take while I can because I'll never be in a position as strong as I am now. I would really like to thank you, @M3AN, for your encouragement in this. It was because of your comments that I started taking notes early, researched my rights, and treaded as carefully as I did. I owe you beer mate.

10 hours ago, zero said:

I was fortunate enough to go to the tank museum in Bovington, England.

The place is epic with a huuuuge amount of tanks.

King Tiger remains my favourite.

That sounds awesome! I'm trying to get over to War and Peace next year. I've never been to the UK. Bovington is definitely on the list and I've heard a lot of awesome things about it.

Car history from the time I got my licence 13 years ago is:

1.8DOHC Manual '97 Lancer

2000 2.5V6 Manual Galant

2006 Gen1 Mazda MPS

2010 Gen2 Mazda MPS

2005 K20A Accord Euro R

Now this.

1 hour ago, qube said:

I think the next thing you need to buy is a phone/camera with auto stabilizer

Holy crap it's so bad! Just looked at it on a computer hahaha. I don't even know what I recorded it with. I think it was with a Nexus 6p which didn't stabilize 4k.

3 hours ago, kwhelan said:

bit harsh, as long as you get the checks done and those injectors replaced you end up with a great car, owning BMWs is an expensive hobby that is hard to justify mostly  to those uninitiated ,alfas are worse

Yeah it probably was. I wouldn't have bought the car if I didn't like it! You know how it goes, one bad experience makes them seem cursed ?. I'm a military vehicle collector and it's much the same. Expensive and hard to justify hahaha. Source: M41 

10 hours ago, Herbmiester said:

So if the car goes back what wil you next? Buy another one from someone else?

I don't know what I'd get next. I'm trying not to research cars and get the I-wants because I could still end up saddled with this one. NOT a 135i ?

I sent my MVDT claim off today. I spent full time these last two days compling all emails into a chronological order. Two dealerships ended up sending me the service bulletin. I wrote a cover letter and cited that I wanted to claim a full refund plus compensation for payments made on a car I can't drive. I especially cited section 18 of the CGA and fully justified each point blow by blow. I included my blow-by-blow timeline.

I sent the service bulletins and the latest diagnosis showing 5 rooted injectors to the director of the dealership as well as a notification that I'd applied to the MVDT. I didn't give him the option of repair now. I tried to get him to fix it properly three times. He can take the evidence and choke on it. This bad boy is the product of a lot of hard work and time. Hopefully it pays off!

20 hours ago, e30ftw said:

Just read the comments regarding dealers claiming faults under your warranty, I bought my 135i last year from a dealership in Auckland and had a check engine light on the way home almost immediately. Turned out it was the HPFP and the dealer had already told me any issues in the first couple months he would pay excess. I almost knew it would have had some issue because he was using it as his daily.

I didn't really think much into it, because it wouldn't cost me to repair it. I took it to the BMW dealer down here and they found the codes and they were historic so it was a prior issue before purchase, yet warranty still covered it and the seller/dealer paid the excess once I sent him the invoice. I even had the pre-purchase inspection done by a BMW dealership in Auckland and they hadn't picked up on it.

That's exactly what they told me. Wonder if it's a widespread thing or if we both had the same dealer.....

I heard back from the dealer today. The director said that he had talked to multiple people and they all said that he only needed to replace 2 injectors.

I rang BMW Dealerships and asked for any advice. I talked to Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, and Hastings. Everyone but Hastings/Manawatu declined. Shoutout to Stephen from BMW Manawatu, who actually looked up my car and sent me this service bulletin. I am getting the most up to date diagnosis from motorworks sent to me to confirm that the faults are in two different banks. Please find the bulletin attached to this post ?

hastingscopier@hawkesbaybmw.co.nz_20180925_152424.pdf

On 9/17/2018 at 2:43 PM, blake12 said:

What a dealer huh. Good luck mate. I hope you are ready to spend the cost of the car again on legal fees if this goes to court. 

Thanks mate, I've got a cap on my lawyer's cost. They have produced me with their findings and have told me to go to MVDT first. It's a flat $50 fee and I can go as many times as I want. You're also not allowed a laywer there so that would save on costs too. They have said if that fails, we will take it further. I've given them one final chance to do all 6 injectors or nothing at all.