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Please help...can someone tell me previous repairs made through BMW dealership

4K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  Jace_91 
#1 ·
Hi,

I was wondering if someone could please help me and run the vin # on a used 2007 BMW 650I to see what previous repairs or maintance was done on the car by any/all BMW dealerships. Or maybe tell me how I can run it. I just bought the car a few days ago. The second day of owning it the transmission shut down while driving it and the navigation screen flashed in orange "transmission fault". So I managed to get the car to the side of the road and called the dealership that I bought it from (it was Infiniti-btw). It was towed to BMW, BMW fixed it and said this happened because there was a new battery put in the car and the defaults weren't set to recognize it. So they reset everything and car ran fine..yay everyone happy. The next day I get in the car and drive about 5 miles and the same thing happens, the transmission shuts down and this time the navigation flashes in red "Transmission Malfunction". I manage to get the car to crawl to the side of the freeway and call the dealership once again. They tow it to BMW and this time they said that it might be the IVM - Integrated power supply Module, so they switched it out and car is running good again. They did however warn me that this may not have completely fixed the problem and that everything right now is trial and error..ugh! I guess the bottom line is they are not 100% sure what is wrong with this car! I've owned three BMW's before and have never had a single problem with them besides minor maintenance issuses. The 650I is 4 years old but the car only has 23,000 miles on it, so it seems odd that it would be having any major problems. I asked BMW if they could check the vin to see if this car has been taken in for repairs by the previous owner concerning the same problem, they checked and said it appears that yes it was brought in because of similar issues 3 times!! I tried to ask about more details and specifics of what was replaced but they were extremely coy and said they cannot share any details because of "privacy policy", which I repect but I don't want to know anything personal about the previous owner or anything. The Infiniti dealership has been very cooperative and has paid for all the repairs, but when I told them I want to bring the car back they said sorry you signed a contract and now it's yours. I am worried that I may have a lemon on my hands :bawling: If this car continues to break down and BMW can't figure how to fix it. I love the car and really hope that this new fix does the trick, but I need to be smart here.....that's why I am curious to see what all has been done in the past to try and repair this problem. Oh and yes I did a carfax on it and no accidents (thank goodness) and it wasn't showing any repairs mechanical wise done to the car. So, if someone out there could please help me I would greatly appreciate it :angel: the Vin # is WBAEH135X7CR51422 Thanks!
 
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#4 ·
The privacy thing is just BS. I took my 645 in to the local dealer and they told me about all the repairs that were ever done to the car. They did not have a problem with privacy.....
I can understand them not being able to give you previous owners names and addresses, but details about repairs??? That's just BS.:confused:
 
#5 ·
I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. These cars are great when everything is worked out. They do require some pampering. I had to do some work on mine when I got it and it was worth every penny. Patience helped me a lot.
The only way to get maintenance records is from a dealer. I sweet talked my SA to get mine. The privacy issue is BS. We are not talking medical records here.
I got a tool from Bavarian Technic to help with diagnosis. The enthusiast kit works fine for $287. This way I know what the fault codes are and can research the issue. For some reason the code may or may not be what the problem is. For example, I had a high emissions error which can be caused by many things. The tool showed a out of range thermostat. I replaced that and went to the next thing. In all, I spent around $800 for the tool, thermostat, coils and plugs. The dealer would have taken days or weeks and charged $3-4 thousand.
From what I can tell is that you have something out of range and not a failure yet. The dealer reset the codes and everything worked until the condition arouse again and set the tranny into a fail safe mode. I suggest either getting the Bavarian Technic tool or having an Indy shop read the codes for you and then letting us know the specifics. A google search on transmission failure is too vague to be of use.
 
#8 ·
Your transmission issues sound like they are all power/battery related. Hopefully they can figure what is causing the power issue and you will be fine. Don't give up, it is probably only a small issue causing this, it does not sound like a bad transmission.

I've seen many threads where people had similar transmission issues and it was related to a dead battery. In your case it sounds like some other system in the car is causing power to drop which puts the transmission into limp mode. It could be a charging issue where the car is not fully charging the battery or some sort of voltage regulation issue.

Even though it's new, the first thing I would do is test your battery at AutoZone or PepBoys for free.

If the battery is OK I would put a voltage monitor in the car so you can watch the voltage while you are driving around. The voltage should be ~ 12.5V when the car is off, if it's at 12.0V the battery is basically dead. Normal just after starting voltage is ~ 14.7V. If voltage ever drops below 13.5V or is fluctuating while driving then you know there is a power issue causing the transmission problems.

I would start keeping records of all the work you've done to the car since buying it.
 
#14 ·
Contact BMW to ensure they have you registered as the NEW owner. After the car is officially transferred into your name at BMWNA they can't refuse to provide you the service history. Just before buying my 645 from an out of town GM dealership, I went to my local BMW dealer and they would not give me a copy of the service history because it contained previous owner information (I already had the owner information because he owned the GM dealership and this was his wifes car)....they did let me look at the records but covered up the previous owner info.
 
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