Unable to Fix my '12 135i

[modriven]

The dealer has been unable to fix my '12 135i. I had my car towed about two weeks ago because it wouldnt start . The dealer supposedly did a diagnostic and told me it was the starter. Since I am out of warranty already at 75,000 miles, I had to cough up $1300 for just the starter. I know its obscene and I threw a fit because i felt ripped off.
Anyway they informed me the car was fixed and I had gone to pick it up. Now this is where everything goes wrong. When they brought my car up, I saw the key in the slot so I turned it off and put the key in my pocket. CA is so convenient but not this time. The car wouldnt start again.
My advisor told me that the CA is not related to the car not starting. Even after putting the key back in the slot, the car still wouldnt start. Today I get the call that the car is fixed. Again, the car wouldnt start.
I'm just frustrated and stressed out that its going to cost me even more because the dealer cant pin point whats wrong. What should i do or ideas what could be wrong?

Update:
So I finally got my car back from the dealer after they failed to fixed it twice. Turns out it was just a faulty cable to the terminal. Now my other dilemma is whether the starter needed to be replaced after all. My SA assured me the diagnostic came back with a faulty code for the starter but there is no way a cable would be determined to be bad. I asked him why the same clicking noise was happening after they replaced the starter (2 failed attempts to pick up car). Couldnt give me a direct answer other than what the diagnostic showed in the beginning. I feel like I lost 1300 bucks for something that didnt need to be replaced but just a cable.

[Yeineken]

Get in touch with BMW North America before you dish out any more money. Getting them involved in any case always seem to make dealerships straighten up.

[modriven]

Originally Posted by Yeineken

Get in touch with BMW North America before you dish out any more money. Getting them involved in any case always seem to make dealerships straighten up.

Should I get BMWNA involved to investigate? I dont think my SA is responsible but i dont want this to happen to other people for work that is really not needed. Check the cables first

[dtla1]

Hmmm, hard to say how you can prove it either way unless they still have the old starter sitting somewhere.

Reminds me to check the box that says something to the effect of "customer wishes to receive replaced parts".

[Yeineken]

Originally Posted by modriven

Should I get BMWNA involved to investigate? I dont think my SA is responsible but i dont want this to happen to other people for work that is really not needed. Check the cables first

Absolutely or tell them put the old starter back in since it was not the fault and refund the money. No need to pay that kind of money on a repair for a part that didn't need it.

[wobbles1]

There is no such thing as a faulty starter code.

[JimD]

I do not know of a specific code for the starter but P0512 is for the starter circuit. It is generated when the car senses an open circuit in the starter wiring. Could be the starter but it could be the wires. My guess is the mechanic checked the connection at the starter and it looked good so he concluded it was the starter, never checking the wire. Somewhat understandable because wires don't fail often but it is also not hard to check starter resistance to see if it is really failed.

[DSSG]

This is common garbage that happens all the time with any repair shop. You need to find an independent repair shop that has the respect of BMW owners.

You should always ask to have the parts returned. That way you can have them checked out. If you look in the Yellow Pages, you find shops that do repairs on starters, generators, and alternators that can check the part out. In fact, they can even rebuild it.

In your case, the problem was a bad cable connection. This should have been the first thing a good mechanic would have checked. The problem is they rely too much on this computer crap.

[IEDEI]

i'm VERY impressed you've put 75k miles on your 135i, man! well done. Driven like it should be driven

i think you should ask for your money back for the starter. Tell them to put the old one back in (if you or they have it) and say that it shouldn't have been done in the first place. Speak to the manager/owner of the dealer, if necessary. If they do NOT understand---tell them that you would like to speak to BMW NA about this issue and they will reconsider.

[DSSG]

Good luck finding the old starter. Yikes $1,300 for a starter? That's insane.

[yllwwgn]

I second what everyone has said about pursuing the dealership and/or BMW NA for a refund of the starter. I would suggest this:

1. "BMW, please return to me my old starter"
-"Well Mr. Customer, we already disposed of it and no longer have it."

2. "Ok BMW, since you no longer have it, than please show me in your diagnostic logs that the starter was faulty."
- At this point the dealership should be able to provide a printount of any/all codes that showed up. Assuming there is a code that stated the starter system is faulty, than you can pursue what the CORRECT and RESONABLE fix to the root-cause it... is it to check the wire? (A 5 minute job), or to skip that step and jump to a "Here is your new $1,300 starter solution"

I think if you approach it this way, you may be able to prove to BMW NA that a reasonable/prudent problem-solving solution was not followed, and you as the customer should not have to pay for their employees error, or lack of proper training,etc.. if the dealership eats the $1,300 than they eat it, but it's not YOUR responsibility.

[cvandenhaute]

Just a thought: The "faulty cable" could it be possible it would have anything to do with the recall that occurred last year?

[zoomnad]

Somehow the BWM dealers think everybody is really rich and really stupid. $1300 for a starter, $432 for a battery and the list goes on. No wonder the call them "stealerships".