In my original Car Trouble post I talked about the problems the BMW dealership was having trying to diagnose the source of the illuminated "check engine soon" light in my 2006 BMW X5. After believing they had finally fixed the issue, the service tech drove my car over the weekend to make sure the light didn't come back on. I expected get a call on Mon to coordinate the swap of my car and the loaner, but I didn't hear anything on Mon. Or Tues. Finally on Wed they called and said that they had tried everything the fault codes indicated by the light was still on. They said a similar situation had been resolved by replacing the catalytic converter, even though the fault codes didn't not suggest that, and the light went off in that vehicle. So they only thing they could think to do at this point for my car was to replace the catalytic converter, but since it would cost over $4,000. they wanted to discuss it with me.
Keep in mind the car wasn't giving me any problems or exhibiting any symptoms at all. I love my car and plan to keep it, so normally I would be open to repairing it versus replacing it. But the service advisor offered no guarantee that the $4,000. catalytic converter replacement would solve the problem, so after giving it some thought, I thanked them for their efforts and got my car back, with the "check engine soon" light on. I decided I would just try and ignore the light since the professionals couldn't seem to get it to turn off.
I drove my car around the next day and everything was fine. The following day I started it up and noticed the "check engine soon" light was NOT on! Before celebrating too much I figured I'd better give it some more time. That was a week ago. I've been joyfully driving my car for a week now with no warning lights illuminated on the dash! As you can imagine, I'm really REALLY glad I passed on the $4,000. catalytic converter replacement.
I don't blame the dealership or the manufacturer, BMW. Cars are so full of electronic sensors and gadgetry I find it amazing they don't malfunction and turn themselves upside down now and then. I'm just happy my car's performance wasn't affected and its back to not having any warning lights illuminated on the dash.
5 comments:
and yet big ella functions just fine without all these crappy bells & whistles.
I wish we could return to real cars made by people who gave a shit about quality workmanship.
I once read somewhere that someone had named their car Roxanne (as in... you don't have to turn on the red light). It always makes me laugh when I think about that. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that light stays off for you.
Calvin
Hope the check engine soon light did not just burn out since it had been on for a while???
Whew! I hope BMW (you really need to name this car too) keeps on working like a champ!
That's good news, Mark! At least you dodged that thousand dollars dent in your pocket. I love how you’re taking everything coolly, not blaming anyone or the manufacturer for your car troubles. Though I hope that’s the last time that happen you. Have a nice day!
Cayla Maggio @ Now Then Transmission
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