[i74js]

This should not have happened at the very first place. More so not able to identify root cause of "current leakage" is of a different level and scale altogether.

The Chandigarh or Gurgaon dealer should have kept someone from the engineering / technical side of BMW in loop before confirming to the client that

- The battery will not be covered
- There is "for sure" no other issue with the machine

They have done none; I am sure even the battery replacement has got dealership some profits !

Not done BMW. At the very minimum they should now make it good by rectifying the fault and throwing some other goodies to make it sweet for the client, and obviously refunding the battery cost.

[UB_007]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

So there is something not correct in Electronics and Chandigarh Dealership have definitely messed up diagnostics.

This is the message I got today when I opened the car.

Was the new battery details updated in the ECU? If this was not done then the ECU still uses old codes and shows that the battery is draining. Check if the dealer has registered the new battery in the module..

Second, may be the Electro-mechanical park brake is draining the battery. Try not using the EPB for some days and see if battery drain is consistent. This module could be the culprit.

-UB

[Maverick5490]

Any accessories/camera/tracking devices etc fitted in the car which would cause the battery to drain, also is the battery actually draining or just the check control message that keeps coming up?

[Turbanator]

Update

Mr. Joshi from BMW called me in morning and tried to explain how they handle warranties on battery but won't have a clear answer on why will Chandigarh dealership raise an Invoice for a change of battery on a 4-month-old car. He also confirmed that they have asked Dealership to cancel the invoice for battery and coordinated my appointment with Bird Dealership for an urgent check. They could not find anything wrong or any current leakages but have reset the software that controls power management and stuff. I have picked up the car a while back and will know in a day or so if things are working normally.

I spent a lot of time trying to understand what could have gone wrong due to which battery failed but again, both service head at Gurgaon & BMW won't know for sure, some of the possible things they suggested, can be usage of battery when car was parked even beyond a point when system should have switched off all non-critical resources. I asked service head at Gurgaon, how much time do they normally take to identify and lodge a claim for battery if it's beyond repairs. So they will first charge the battery for around 6 hours and then depending on the report they get, will take a call. In my case, it would not have taken Chandigarh dealership that much time as my battery was beyond service and was not getting charged so they must have spent the whole day looking for an approval for the battery which never came. For under warranty items, it's regular for them to get a claim approved in a couple of hours whereas for cars outside warranty or not in BSI, they decide on a case by case basis. Both of them tend to agree that this incident has not been handled in a correct way and is not a normal for them to decline such claims.

As a well-wisher of the brand, I can only hope that both dealership and the company can learn from errors and improve their systems so that no one has to go through the troubles I had to face.

Any accessories/camera/tracking devices etc fitted in the car which would cause the battery to drain

apart from the BMW Advance eye (camera), there are absolutely no accessories, they have rechecked the wiring and everything was correct. Though they have an internal circular, that some error can cause drainage of battery but they are not clear if this can actually result in complete failure of the battery. Still, I have asked to them to keep it disconnected for some time to check if that could be a cause. I got this camera installed sometime in end November and have driven the car only for 50-60 km so this may be a culprit.

Check if the dealer has registered the new battery in the module..

They have to register else car will throw up an error every time we try to switch it on.

At the very minimum they should now make it good by rectifying the fault and throwing some other goodies to make it sweet for the client

Not so lucky yet, though I have asked Mr. Joshi when he called me in the evening on how does he plan to make up for all this fiasco let's see, btw, I got 2 passes for Auto Expo from BMW along with the invitation to their VIP lounge.

You don't have anything plugged into the 12v socket right?

Nothing, in fact BMW now gives USB chargers complimentary with car as they had some issues relating to these chargers when plugged in 12 V sockets

Would you consider writing to the country head of BMW India and strongly and professionally state your case and the goodwill they lose with this attitude of chalta hai.

I actually marked copies to some senior guys due to which they probably replied on 26th despite being a holiday but I feel they must be used to such complaints or at least I feel that way. When I went to pick the car, 99 % of cars were being handled by company drivers, I think most of the corporates won't even care what's going on with their cars.

but my guess would be that for the individual BMW buyer, there is not an alternative. If one really wants BMW, how could there be?

True sir, most of us were deprived of basic things while growing up, I remember how as a child I sort of smuggled Panasonic Radio while crossing the border from Nepal on a rickshaw(sometime in 80s) and do have a pull for the brands we used to admire as we grew up. But things are changing fast and newer generation is fortunate to have a lot of luxuries and for them, these brands may not be so aspirational at all.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Update

Mr. Joshi from BMW called me in morning and tried to explain how they handle warranties on battery but won't have a clear answer on why will Chandigarh dealership raise an Invoice for a change of battery on a 4-month-old car..... As a well-wisher of the brand, I can only hope that both dealership and the company can learn from errors and improve their systems so that no one has to go through the troubles I had to face.

Thank you for the update. Would you consider writing to the country head of BMW India and strongly and professionally state your case and the goodwill they lose with this attitude of chalta hai.

[Jeroen]

Based on the message on your dash, the dealer should already have a pretty good idea from which system and or compnents this fault can occur.

For those interested to understand BMW power Management

http://freemaxx.de/e90forum/03_Power%20Management.pdf

Jeroen

[goingout]

Great to hear that it's getting rectified. I'm sure BMW will look into this and understand what failed in the process. Wishing you trouble free miles ahead!

PS: Can you post photos of the camera? I've never seen it installed in a car here.

[quickdraw]

Hey Turbanator,

Feel really sad to read up on what happened, I have been at the receiving end of this 'waiting for the email from BMW' and it's really annoying. Your encounter is going to make me question the PDI which they did for my Mini, it had not even done 200km at the first service (1 Year) before I took the car, now I am getting service due warning at 5-6k kms and 6 months. I should look into this if they did actually do a proper PDI and try to get them to produce reports for the same.

BMW Batteries are excellent, I sold my 328i with a 5-year-old factory battery which was still going strong so I am surprised that they are not looking into the issue more thoroughly instead of passing the buck. The most surprising thing to me is that it is not covered by BSI. So there is nothing as 'complete' peace of mind and always a caveat emptor.

Nevertheless, making a customer of a crore rupee car wait around for days on end just doesn't make sense. I think the problem with most luxury car service centres is they are built to cater to cars coming in with drivers and not customers and you see the quality severely lacking there.

[Turbanator]

I got a call from the workshop in charge at Bird in the morning and now from Mr. Joshi asking for current status. He tried to explain the diagnostic report, apparently, there were some faults/ errors in the car relating to the battery. They are checking for a software upgrade for the Advance eye and will do some other tests next week. Overall, my yesterday's visit to Bird workshop was handled well where service advisor and the technician showed me results and walked through the processes they carried out. Followup calls from today from Bird and BMW are well appreciated. I recollect this used to be the norm before when service guys will take a feedback and understand if there are any issues left from past work.

I have suggested BMW to ask their dealers to introduce their service head at the time of delivery, maybe the service guy at Bird could have supported me but since I had no contact information and sales guy won't bother even forwarding to his service colleagues I was left helpless. They also need to improve relations between dealers probably and must keep sales totally different from service.

Hope they take a note of this incident and bring changes for betterment in future. I will update this thread when I take the car later next week.

[ACM]

Coincidentally I too just received a call from my service advisor for feedback on any pending issue for a service visit that resulted in replacing a 7 yr old Battery (lasted really long) again within warranty.

The initial glitch in my case was multiple faults that required the car to be sent to the service centre 3 times in 2 weeks and a total of 25 days out of commission till they solved all issues. Extremely polite but too slow.

Finally to force them to speed up I insisted on and got a loaner car for last few days.

In your case too BMW seems to have taken major efforts to rectify earlier handling goofups

[mustysekhon]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

I got a call from the workshop in charge at Bird in the morning and now from Mr. Joshi asking for current status. He tried to explain the diagnostic report, apparently, there were some faults/ errors in the car relating to the battery. They are checking for a software upgrade for the Advance eye and will do some other tests next week....... the car later next week.

4 months old and they still don’t know what’s wrong with the vehicle? I don’t think it is reliable any more so you should give it back to BMW. If they won’t buy it then gift it to them.

Premium cars depend heavily on electronics and imagine a failure while you are overtaking at a decent speed and the car dies while you look at an overloaded and over speeding truck coming head on. Not worth the risk for your self, family or friends. Give it back to BMW.

Shame on BMW for such practices and playing with lives of customers.

[Turbanator]

I don’t think it is reliable any more so you should give it back to BMW.

Being from an engineering background, I can understand, things can go wrong. Someone rightly said, we have no controls on the problems but have full control on the way we handle problems. As you might have noticed from the link Jeroen has posted, too complex electronics being involved, anything not done in a particular order or even a small fault can create a large issue. Let's see if everything remains correct.

If they won’t buy it then gift it to them

nah, not so rich or carry an ego to undermine a large corporate, faced few bad things first hand and shared here with an aim that they can do changes and everyone comes happy from their dealership, that's the motto for any manufacturer or vendor.

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

nah, not so rich or carry an ego to undermine a large corporate, faced few bad things first hand and shared here with an aim that they can do changes and everyone comes happy from their dealership, that's the motto for any manufacturer or vendor.

Absolutely, I think you have reacted very maturely throughout this ordeal. The mail communication about servicing you shared in OP, also reflect that.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

I got a call from the workshop in charge at Bird in the morning and now from Mr. Joshi asking for current status....
Hope they take a note of this incident and bring changes for betterment in future. I will update this thread when I take the car later next week.

Turbanator, could you share with us a rough estimate of the time you spent in trying to resolve this and the number of visits and phone calls you made to BMW/Dealer. I am trying to gauge the time and effort (not to speak of the aggravation) caused by a battery/leakage. Thanks - Narayan

[phreakv6]

In stark contrast is the way Skoda India has handled battery failures arising from the Varta batteries that came in the earlier batches of our Octavias. In my car even though there wasn't a failure, they still went ahead and changed it to a locally sourced Exide which was known to work better. Never would have expected BMW to be so callous.