Steve Dinan - stand up guy

[crzy4135i]

Originally Posted by slickone

Especially when the moron dealer couldn't even figure out what was causing the problem. They had to use the old "its a faulty fuel pump." Even thought the OP said they tested the fuel pump and found nothing wrong with it. It took Steve Dinan to get involved to realize it was the spark plugs and had nothing to do with the flash or fuel pump.

I wonder why a car with such low miles is fouling the spark plugs?

[atr_hugo]

Fuel system additives. The stuff you buy in the plastic bottles and dump in the tank, IIRC.

[AchtungF80]

I wonder if or when a rep from Motor Works West will address the issue online since the actual issue is with them and not Dinan.

[gargoyal]

Originally Posted by AchtungE30

I wonder if or when a rep from Motor Works West will address the issue online since the actual issue is with them and not Dinan.

No the actual problem was caused by Johnnyr and Johnnyr overreacted making the situation worst.

Read the cause. http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14782

Really the whole thing should of come out of his pocket, but DINAN, Motor Works West, the BMW dealer were stand up and took care of him even though it was his fault.

True Motor Works West missed the problem that only happens at +120 MPH, but they did not charge him for diagnostic or shop time once the problem was found to be johnnyr’s fault. Don’t get me wrong I love to fry a vendor that doesn’t keep their side of the bargain, but every shop misses a problem from time to time.

[imported_mega]

Originally Posted by gargoyal

No the actual problem was caused by Johnnyr and Johnnyr overreacted making the situation worst.

Read the cause. http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14782

Really the whole thing should of come out of his pocket, but DINAN, Motor Works West, the BMW dealer were stand up and took care of him even though it was his fault.

True Motor Works West missed the problem that only happens at +120 MPH, but they did not charge him for diagnostic or shop time once the problem was found to be johnnyr’s fault. Don’t get me wrong I love to fry a vendor that doesn’t keep their side of the bargain, but every shop misses a problem from time to time.

WTF? why would he have to pay for any warranty work?

[gargoyal]

Originally Posted by mega

WTF? why would he have to pay for any warranty work?

It’s not warranted work. This is why it is so important to read your warranty.

From the DINAN warranty of what is not covered:

•damage resulting from the use of improper or contaminated fuel

http://www.dinancars.com/bmw/warranty

also read pages 32 and 33 of the BMW Service and warranty Information Manual. It has the same fuel exclusion.

Damage cause by racing gas or octane boosters is NOT covered.

[jeremyc74]

I'm pretty impressed that DINAN backed their product, even though in this case it's entirely possible that they weren't in the wrong (104 racing gas? WTF man?).

It sounds like a real shame it had to get to that point before it got taken care of, but on the other hand maybe (probably) we weren't getting all the information.

I guess this is a prefect example of why things posted on these forums should be taken with a grain of salt.

[AchtungF80]

Originally Posted by gargoyal

No the actual problem was caused by Johnnyr and Johnnyr overreacted making the situation worst.

Read the cause. http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14782

Really the whole thing should of come out of his pocket, but DINAN, Motor Works West, the BMW dealer were stand up and took care of him even though it was his fault.

True Motor Works West missed the problem that only happens at +120 MPH, but they did not charge him for diagnostic or shop time once the problem was found to be johnnyr’s fault. Don’t get me wrong I love to fry a vendor that doesn’t keep their side of the bargain, but every shop misses a problem from time to time.

Thanks for clearing that up! I completely lost track of all these johnnyr threads. Very confusing.

So because he ran octane booster which in turned probably fouled his spark plugs, does this equate to the 120+mph issues?

All this misinformation left me with a bad taste in my mouth about Dinan. I plan to keep the car for 5+ years and don't want the hassle of fighting the BMW service dept that a tune may or may not have caused an issue which could void warranty. Is johnnyr the only Dinan tuned 135i with the issue?

[crzy4135i]

Originally Posted by AchtungE30

Thanks for clearing that up! I completely lost track of all these johnnyr threads. Very confusing.

So because he ran octane booster which in turned probably fouled his spark plugs, does this equate to the 120+mph issues?

All this misinformation left me with a bad taste in my mouth about Dinan. I plan to keep the car for 5+ years and don't want the hassle of fighting the BMW service dept that a tune may or may not have caused an issue which could void warranty. Is johnnyr the only Dinan tuned 135i with the issue?

Octane booster explains why the plugs were fouled. I was having a hard time believing they were fouled with such low miles on the car. I ran NOS offroad octane booster in my old car for awhile and it turned the plugs a nasty orange color. The facts are slowly coming to light.

BTW, if he's driving 120+mph every day he won't need a warranty from bmw or dinan. You don't need a warranty while you're sitting in jail.

[Bruck]

Originally Posted by damian

i still want to know how to pronounce dinan.

call their 800 #, the message says it over and over. Thats how I found out.

[imported_mega]

Originally Posted by crzy4135i

Octane booster explains why the plugs were fouled. I was having a hard time believing they were fouled with such low miles on the car. I ran NOS offroad octane booster in my old car for awhile and it turned the plugs a nasty orange color. The facts are slowly coming to light.

BTW, if he's driving 120+mph every day he won't need a warranty from bmw or dinan. You don't need a warranty while you're sitting in jail.

my car came with a handout on octane boosters

his driving habits should be left to another thread

[gargoyal]

Originally Posted by mega

my car came with a handout on octane boosters

his driving habits should be left to another thread

What did the handout say ?

[imported_mega]

I'll have to get it out of the car tomorrow, if I remember it said only use bmw additives they also have them in little handout holders on every counter at the dealer

[hellrotm]

Originally Posted by gargoyal

No the actual problem was caused by Johnnyr and Johnnyr overreacted making the situation worst.

Read the cause. http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14782

Really the whole thing should of come out of his pocket, but DINAN, Motor Works West, the BMW dealer were stand up and took care of him even though it was his fault.

True Motor Works West missed the problem that only happens at +120 MPH, but they did not charge him for diagnostic or shop time once the problem was found to be johnnyr’s fault. Don’t get me wrong I love to fry a vendor that doesn’t keep their side of the bargain, but every shop misses a problem from time to time.

Unbelievable. I told everyone we were not getting the whole story.

I would be ashamed if I had posted his original hate thread towards Dinan.

[larryn]

To put this into perspective, Johhnyr has a sometimes functioning car, that he paid $2500 to get it that way. The BMW Delaer misdiagnosed the issue, pointed at Dinan. Dinan said initially they would help, then decided to give partial refund, and tried to scoot Johhnyr along. At the time he posted that thread, he was between a rock and a hard place, with both sides calling it quits.

It's as simple as that.

Once Johhnyr found out that Dinan was not abandoning him (only one of the dealer network sites), he did not have any outcome yet, but had already asked me to delete the the "Dinan Stinks" thread.

So, much like people are criticizing the OP for, they are criticizing Johnnyr when not having the whole picture.

Let's lay off the bashing here, for bashing sake.

[hellrotm]

Originally Posted by larryn

To put this into perspective, Johhnyr has a sometimes functioning car, that he paid $2500 to get it that way. The BMW Delaer misdiagnosed the issue, pointed at Dinan. Dinan said initially they would help, then decided to give partial refund, and tried to scoot Johhnyr along. At the time he posted that thread, he was between a rock and a hard place, with both sides calling it quits.

It's as simple as that.

Once Johhnyr found out that Dinan was not abandoning him (only one of the dealer network sites), he did not have any outcome yet, but had already asked me to delete the the "Dinan Stinks" thread.

So, much like people are criticizing the OP for, they are criticizing Johnnyr when not having the whole picture.

Let's lay off the bashing here, for bashing sake.

Almost correct.

1) Dealer misdiagnosed the problem. Use the old "its a faulty fuel pump."
2) Dealer tested fuel pump, no problems. But they stilled blamed it on the fuel pump.
3) OP states in thread Dinan was screwing him, that Dinan would not replace a "non-faulty" fuel pump.
4) Dinan fully refunds OP for the product he bought from Dinan. The dealer install charges were not refunded. Dinan did not do a partial refund. The dealer clearly didn't want to refund their portion of the installation service.
5) OP states in a new thread, Steve contacted him to resolve the matter.
6) With Steve's help the dealer know finds the correct problem, which was fauly spark plugs. HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TUNE.
7) Now in another new OP thread, he was using octance boosters that ruined the spark plugs.

It is almost comical how it all unfolded.

[larryn]

I think you're very close to correct as well. However, you skipped one very important item between 2 and 3, or need to clarify #3:

2b. Dinan initially stated they would do the Fuel Pump replacement for him after his dealer denied service. When he went to have this done they instead just offered him a refund for the tune (not for installation) and told him they were not going to replace his fuel pump. (pretty much to "go away")



I don't think anybody can argue with the likely fact that it would have ended there, if he had not posted the now deleted and infamous "Dinan Screwed Me" thread.

[EspressoBoy]

I have a couple of questions:

What can we all learn from this?
If this were to happen again, how should we conduct ourselves here?

If this happened to us, what specific steps could have been taken? Example: Go to another dealership? Call 1800 dinan direct?

The problem was the truth was not known, now it is. Actually I am amazed that it did come down to 1 thing. BTW, who was it that actually discovered the bad plugs?

Also a big big kudos to those who made this forum!!! ...to those that work hard to keep it clean and running! You people are amazing!

Think about it, if this was not here, this would not have been solved. In some ways Dinan is ahead. They look good! They are closer to us than ever.

A bad thing, has turned into a good thing! Wow!

EspressoBoy

[AchtungF80]

Originally Posted by gargoyal

No the actual problem was caused by Johnnyr and Johnnyr overreacted making the situation worst.

Read the cause. http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14782

Really the whole thing should of come out of his pocket, but DINAN, Motor Works West, the BMW dealer were stand up and took care of him even though it was his fault.

True Motor Works West missed the problem that only happens at +120 MPH, but they did not charge him for diagnostic or shop time once the problem was found to be johnnyr’s fault. Don’t get me wrong I love to fry a vendor that doesn’t keep their side of the bargain, but every shop misses a problem from time to time.

So on that note, can we safely assume that Motor Works West is a dealer we should or should NOT avoid? They are the only Dinan dealer in North NJ, the next one I believe is Flemington BMW which is a little bit of a drive for some, but not unreasonable.

[gargoyal]

Originally Posted by larryn

I think you're very close to correct as well. However, you skipped one very important item between 2 and 3, or need to clarify #3:

2b. Dinan initially stated they would do the Fuel Pump replacement for him after his dealer denied service. When he went to have this done they instead just offered him a refund for the tune (not for installation) and told him they were not going to replace his fuel pump. (pretty much to "go away")

I don't think anybody can argue with the likely fact that it would have ended there, if he had not posted the now deleted and infamous "Dinan Screwed Me" thread.

I disagree with both of you points.

I think you, the OP, and others are mixing up the Dinan dealer and Dinan. Would we like them to be the same ? yes, but they are not. They are different companies with a contractual relationship. Sometime the companies even have different motivations. This is true of BMW and its dealers too.

2b. re-read the OP on this thread. It appears that he now is saying it was a miscommunication between the Dinan dealer and him, not Dinan about the fuel pump.

We also know that the OP was frustrated and had demanded to fix it or refund him at least once. So to say that DINAN let him down is not fair.

8/12

Originally Posted by Johnnyr

Well I just go home from picking up the car, I brought it up to 130mph with no hesitation. So the fuel pump is ok, I then called DINAN and told them I was bringing the car to Motor Werks West tomorrow morning and was not leaving until the car was fixed or I had a full refund. I will let you all know how it goes.

As far as it not going further if he did post the screwed thread here ,we will never know (my guess is he would of been taken care of). From the OP on this thread it looks like he didn’t escalate to DINAN when he had it out with their dealer.

Here is a link on handling warranty issues

http://www.semasan.com/main/main.aspx?id=60128

It is a more complex dealing with the Dinan, BMW, and 2 dealer, but that is the price to play. Also it is a little different because Dinan is an aftermarket provider and not the OEM, but not that different. There are lot of things he didn’t do before he got to the “flaming on the internet “stage.

People need to remember that their warranty is between them and BMW and DINAN , not the dealers. If you don’t like what a dealer says you have to go to the one you have a contractual relationship with (BMW NA & DINAN). Go back and read all of his posts. He always speaks well of his contact with DINAN proper (except for the screwed post).

[gargoyal]

Originally Posted by AchtungE30

So on that note, can we safely assume that Motor Works West is a dealer we should or should NOT avoid? They are the only Dinan dealer in North NJ, the next one I believe is Flemington BMW which is a little bit of a drive for some, but not unreasonable.

:iono: It's hard to tell. Re-read all the Johnnyr threads, call Dinan and interview the service department.

the dealer had something to do with this mess. how much? I have no clue

[Dill Do'Reilly]

This is the type of experience that leads me to believe that Dinan is the #1 choice for ECU tunes above everyone else. Really good customer support.