[Danryde]

Hi guys!

I have an interesting situation where I would appreciate insights on how to go futher.

I bought a BMW E61 525D 2005 in February 2011 with 175 km driven from an official BMW dealer from Germany and drove it to Finland. I've had probably all the regular defects the model has: tail door wire problem (NASTY SHIT!), thermostates, water leaking to the trunk (broke a MPM) etc.. I totally love my car when it works, but I'm on the brink of admitting I hate this car. So I've had my fair share of running the local repair stores in Finland which usually have left me with my problem, or even tried to make things worse... I can tell that all this has had a very negative impact on our life with two small kids and constant need of the car. Consequently, repairing the car alot has led me insisting to come behind the computer at the repairs and check myself what is going on with the fault codes. As you know the authorised BMW repair companies have a bit different machines to read the fault codes than regular hobbyists OBCD+Laptop setup. They access via Internet to the München servers to fetch the car history and I was checking the codes I found some fault km with a 524280 km. You should have seen the mechanics face. As I did not tell the car was bought from an official german BMW dealer, their comment was that these are not errors. I actually got prints from two different official BMW repair centers from Finland and also got the key history. I'm posting them here for you guys to take a look and tell me what you think. Also the car has some signs it being driven a lot more than 175,5k km when I bought it like very worn steering wheel and the door plastics had a lot of scratches.

There is some weird stuff going on here:

1) the cars history starts from 176k km. Even the official BMW repair centers connecting to München servers could not see the history what happened before 175,5k km, remember the car was bought with 175,5k km. Also what can be seen that I was sold a car with already a lot of defects, from an official BMW dealer (I can't wait to tell the dealer/seller later). I actually had to insist them to fix the rear window before buying it, which tells they did not really care about the car's condition before selling it.

2) The key history also starts from 98k km

3) The car is today driven 200079 km according to the meter, you can find a lot fault codes over that, especially the SGM-SIM: Processor: reset at 327704 km seems somewhat suspicious.

I would so much appreciate any insights you guys might have.

Scans of the fault code history of the car: http://d.pr/IkZ1

[Theo]

That is a strange story. I often heard that BMW mechanics could easily determine whether a cars mileage had been reset, seems strange that they don't state that outright with all the inconsistent mileage numbers throughout the history.

I can understand your frustration with all the problems you've encountered but those you mention are indeed well known but also not that hard to fix. How come you had to bring in the car so much that you couldn't properly transport your family? Seems like you've suffered from some more issues than just the tailgate loom, water ingress (pano roof?) and thermostats (not critical).

I'm asking this since it reflects on the dealer and whether he sold you a car with severe issues or you just had the regular issues we all confront in these cars.

All that aside, it is a possibility that your car has over 500k's on it, these engines will easily do so if maintained somewhat. It is probable that the dealer got this car already reset through an exchange for a new(er) car and that they didn't pay it or its condition very much attention. After all it is a high mileage aging E61 outside of BMW Premium Selection and would have been dumped to wholesale soon if you hadn't come along. Point is that it is considered a low end section of their market and the quality may have been accordingly. If that is acceptable is somewhat arbitrary.

If you can dig up some more solid info you could always try to confront them, either direct or through consumer organisations, perhaps even through consumer oriented TV shows which is surprisingly effective. It is all compicated however by importing the car: distance, time and communication required all increase due to this.

Good luck with moving forward.

[Sas]

Wow, i would go straight to BMW München Headquarters with this!
The dealer that sold you the car is eighter a dumb person and not qualified to have the tittle of official dealer, or he sold you a lemon on purpose.
We are not talking about one or two service history's that are missing, this is counterfeit of 300.000 km and i don't think dat München will be pleased with that.
If they play hard ball, you threaten them that you will write to ADAC.DE (biggest car consumer organisation of Germany) and all TV (like ADR, ZDF and WDR) and Radio staions in Germany that are willing to listnen to your story.

Hope it gets sorted out!

[Danryde]

Thanks guys, I will contact the dealer.

Any hints on the fault codes? I got in touch to a TV show producer who is interested about my story and said they could find persons to help with to track down how things have went with the cars history.

[AchtungE60]

Hey buddy. I looked at your entire history. I am very familiar with all those modules. It would be a lot for me to explain but let's not look at specific modules and try to analyze. Instead let's look at the kilometers the car is reading from the main computer. It is indeed correct or higher. The module in the E60, E90 was different than the old EEPROM and the actual kilometers cannot be erased this would take genius work and not something very easily done. Sure, you could go into KOMBI module, instrument cluster and buy a new one and replace it or rig the chip to believe it's actual kilometers but when the car is hooked up to the ISIS it will know the true kilometers. So, with your key history's kilometers combined with the kilometers that are currently visable to the eye I would say it matches up to the 524280km or in that neighborhood. Technically you paid for a lower mileage so I would be upset. I believe the diesel cars last longer that benzine cars. So assuming this was actually benzine then:
524280 km = 325772.488 mi = kick a$!But it sucks for you and I wouldn't accept it. I would fight it all the way because it appears you got ripped off. Perhaps you can call the guy you got the car from and tell him what's up and to make it right and if not, you're going to pull the plug on his operation. Let him make it right if he can. Then, pull the plug. These are shady business practices and really upset the balance. A great day for BMW owners to know we have prolonged life in the vehicles but a bad day for you since you bought a car at a time of its life where it will need a lot of maintenance.

Let us know what happened please

[wtlb]

Challenge them.