Strands #290 “You Say You Want A...
Quizzes & Puzzles8 mins ago
Issue With ‘New’ Car Which Broke Down After 200 Miles
11 Answers
Hi all
At the start of September I bought a second hand bmw one series that was a couple of years old. I did 200 miles in it when it lost power and I had to call the RAC out as it was undrivable.
They said that a cylinder was misfiring so I sent it back to the garage I bought it from. They’ve had the car nearly three weeks. Their macanic looked at it and couldn’t solve the issue so they sent it to another garage who also couldn’t fix it. It’s now been sent to BMW who have apparently said that four fuel injectors are not working.
My questions are
1) should this not have been noticed before I bought the car? Also I was told at the last service there was no advisories. Also the car was MOT’d as part of my purchase process
2) how can both garages not have figured out the issue
3) what are the implications of the issue? Is it major work (the car has a 3 month warranty), could there be other damage as a result?
At the start of September I bought a second hand bmw one series that was a couple of years old. I did 200 miles in it when it lost power and I had to call the RAC out as it was undrivable.
They said that a cylinder was misfiring so I sent it back to the garage I bought it from. They’ve had the car nearly three weeks. Their macanic looked at it and couldn’t solve the issue so they sent it to another garage who also couldn’t fix it. It’s now been sent to BMW who have apparently said that four fuel injectors are not working.
My questions are
1) should this not have been noticed before I bought the car? Also I was told at the last service there was no advisories. Also the car was MOT’d as part of my purchase process
2) how can both garages not have figured out the issue
3) what are the implications of the issue? Is it major work (the car has a 3 month warranty), could there be other damage as a result?
Answers
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When your car lost power did the engine management light come on ?.
If it did then that would throw a fault code in the ECU ( engine control unit ), the code would be recovered with a diagnostics computer which would tell the mechanic what the problem is.
Sounds a bit weird that four fuel injectors suddenly packed up at the same time, may even be the ECU it self ( expensive ).
When the car was serviced it would have been running alright and also when it was MOT'd.
If it did then that would throw a fault code in the ECU ( engine control unit ), the code would be recovered with a diagnostics computer which would tell the mechanic what the problem is.
Sounds a bit weird that four fuel injectors suddenly packed up at the same time, may even be the ECU it self ( expensive ).
When the car was serviced it would have been running alright and also when it was MOT'd.
The MOT is irrelevant. A car could have no working clutch or gearbox and still get through an MOT, for example.
There are plenty of things which could go wrong with a car but which, in the eyes of the people who design the MOT test, don't render it unsafe to drive. Such things aren't included in the MOT and, because 'advisory' notes have to relate to specific things within the MOT test, a tester who spotted a fault with a clutch, gearbox or engine (unless that fault affected the emissions) would not be permitted to mention it in the 'advisory' section.
On a legal point, you've clearly never reached the point where the law regards you as having 'accepted' the car (as being in the type of condition that you could reasonably expect a secondhand BMW to be in), so you're still within the period where you're entitled to a full refund of your money (rather than to a repair).
There are others on this site who are far more knowledgeable than me about how big a job it is to replace the fuel injectors but a quick look at some Youtube videos seem to suggest that it's a fairly straightforward task, which shouldn't require a great deal of labour. However googling for the cost of the parts suggests that they're far from cheap. This thread (from 2012) might give you a guideline as to the cost (and possibly also a warning about how warranty firms try to get out of paying all of it):
https:/
There are plenty of things which could go wrong with a car but which, in the eyes of the people who design the MOT test, don't render it unsafe to drive. Such things aren't included in the MOT and, because 'advisory' notes have to relate to specific things within the MOT test, a tester who spotted a fault with a clutch, gearbox or engine (unless that fault affected the emissions) would not be permitted to mention it in the 'advisory' section.
On a legal point, you've clearly never reached the point where the law regards you as having 'accepted' the car (as being in the type of condition that you could reasonably expect a secondhand BMW to be in), so you're still within the period where you're entitled to a full refund of your money (rather than to a repair).
There are others on this site who are far more knowledgeable than me about how big a job it is to replace the fuel injectors but a quick look at some Youtube videos seem to suggest that it's a fairly straightforward task, which shouldn't require a great deal of labour. However googling for the cost of the parts suggests that they're far from cheap. This thread (from 2012) might give you a guideline as to the cost (and possibly also a warning about how warranty firms try to get out of paying all of it):
https:/
Yes, it’s the gift that keeps on giving!
When I lost popped the engine light came on and the RAC plugged a computer in and gave me a report which I sent to the garage for reference.
It said there was the following:
Manifold difference sensor, adaption
Nitrogen oxide sensor, ageing
Cylinder synchronising via cylinder balance, cylinder 1
Nitrogen oxide censor, electrical,
Nitrogen oxide sensor, lambda linear
Nitrogen oxide sensor, lambda binary
Nitrogen oxide sensor, self diagnosis
Differential pressure sensor, plausibility error
Misfiring cylinder 1
Of which all of this is gibberish to me...
When I lost popped the engine light came on and the RAC plugged a computer in and gave me a report which I sent to the garage for reference.
It said there was the following:
Manifold difference sensor, adaption
Nitrogen oxide sensor, ageing
Cylinder synchronising via cylinder balance, cylinder 1
Nitrogen oxide censor, electrical,
Nitrogen oxide sensor, lambda linear
Nitrogen oxide sensor, lambda binary
Nitrogen oxide sensor, self diagnosis
Differential pressure sensor, plausibility error
Misfiring cylinder 1
Of which all of this is gibberish to me...
If they change the injectors and the car has low mileage ask why the old ones failed.If the fault is not rectified the new ones will suffer the same fate.It may be contaminated fuel lines or a damaged fuel pump.You may have one faulty injector and three not quite perfect and the diag test will flag up four faulty ones....a common situation.Not sure about 1 series costs but I reckon around £280 each plus an hour each to fit..plus any work needed to prevent a repeat problem.
Same thing happened to me. Engine was struggling uphill. dont know why it was not spotted by dealer. Car was under 5 yr warranty so dealer Motorpoint told me to take it to my local main dealer Ford. Could not find out what was wrong. Ford replaced the engine at no cost to me. Must have cost them a bit with all the extras. BTW, tell them you have lost confidence and want a full inspection.
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