Get missing dash pixels repaired by BMWNA (E39)

Originally Posted by jiggapoo

Just purchased my '98 540i with problematic pixels and 117k miles. I sent my request email today. I'll post back to the thread with a timeline of progress. My local dealer is BMW of Chattanooga, TN.

I received a response email within 24 hours. I responded to their resopnse email on the same day and received a call from BMWNA about 2 days later. Just today (9 days after that original email) I received a call from Tim Green of BMWNA who offered to pay 50% on parts and 50% on labor. My "case": I've lived in Chattanooga for about a year and used the dealer for service twice. I've purchased at least $1000 worth of parts apart from dealer service, also. Both times I went in for dealer service they took three times as long as they said they would. I've not been impressed with this dealer. However, I've been to BMW dealers in Macon, GA, Knoxville, TN, Nashville, TN, and Oklahoma City--all were wonderful and did work on time! I'll post back when I get a final quote and take it in for service.

Interesting that BMW is only offering 50% towards the instrument cluster now. You guys should dig further...maybe even point them to this thread and ask, "Why?"

My dealer just referred me to Customer Service at (800) 831-1117 for reimbursement. I paid full-boat to have a new one installed and today the Service Advisor acknowledged that BMW is covering the costs "primarily for original owners." Fortunately I am the OO.

I talked to a helpful and cherful woman named Karen this afternoon at BMWNA. She is forwarding my information to a group that is handling requests for reimbursement and said I can expect a call in the next few days. Thanks to bimmerfest I expect to be reimbursed. I will post the final resolution.

I contacted Leonora and inquired about the pixel replacement. She replied within an hour saying that with 49K miles I was still covered under warranty.

Took it to the dealer and replaced no questions asked.

Jim

Closing the loop, BMWNA has agreed to reimburse me for parts. I had the work done earlier this year. Would have liked labor covered as well, but this will help. The root issue for me is still the fact that the dealer didn't step up and handle this as a wide-spread issue & fix.

A thank you to those on the forum for getting this topic on BMWNA's radar!

They just fixed my 540, only paid for labor...I pick it up tomorrow. I also dealt with Lenora. She approved it about a year ago...I finally got around to dropping it off Wednesday. Looking forward to seeing the results.

I e-mailed Leonora and she requested some info (contact, registration, VIN etc.) in order to assign me a representative. I supplied all info but haven't heard back from these clowns in a month. I sent another follow-up e-mail 2 days ago and still complete radio silence.

In all of my correspondences I've been extremely nice and will continue to be patient. I just hope at some point they can get their act together...

*update*
Leonora just called me said I'll get a call on Monday from a rep. She apologized for the wait and said that my info. e-mail had just somehow gotten lost in the shuffle. The call 2 days after my follow-up made me feel a bit better. They seem to be on the ball. Now I just have to wait to see how much this'll cost.

Originally Posted by coelacanth

*update*
Leonora just called me said I'll get a call on Monday from a rep. She apologized for the wait and said that my info. e-mail had just somehow gotten lost in the shuffle. The call 2 days after my follow-up made me feel a bit better. They seem to be on the ball. Now I just have to wait to see how much this'll cost.

I just got a call from Jay at BMWNA. He said that they'd pay opr 50% of the part and I'd have to pick up the rest and labor. I asked him why I was getting 50% when other people have gotten 100%.
He said:
"We deal with this on a case by case basis"
I told him that I don't need the dash replaced if that's the way it's going to be. He said he'd put in the authorization in case I ever wanted it done anyway.

It's time to write a letter.

Originally Posted by coelacanth

He said:
"We deal with this on a case by case basis"

So what was special about your case that they aren't willing to pay for 100% of the part?

Actually, my dealer will pay for the whole thing. no need to pay for labor or parts. Not even the 50 dollar copay. its all taken care of. So for all of you out there, try to tell them that its not your responsibility to pay for the labor since its CPO and all electronics are covered under the warr.
The only thing you might pay for is the copay.

Has anyone had any success getting this replaced in Canada?

I emailed Leonora and in her email she says they can only assist those in the US.

I just had some work done on my 2002 530i at the dealer. (Out of warranty with 70k miles) I asked them about the pixel issue and they referred me to BMWNA Customer relations. Placed a call, and they took the info, and said someone would get back to me within 2 days. The next day, they had called and said to call the dealer and ask for a specific service advisor, and BMW was paying 100% parts, and all I had to pay was labor. Placed a call the next day, and was told the part would be in sometime next week. They would call me to arrange a day to make the swap, once the part arrives. So far I've been very pleased with my dealer and BMW!

I just wanted to briefly say that my dealer ordered the whole dash piece at no cost and will replace it tomorrow. It is covered by the CPO.

Does anyone know if this is a kit that BMW has readily available at the stealership? If so, in your opinion would it be possible to skip the faxing- Email deal and pay a bit more? Or would it be ALOT more?

Just left the BMW dealer in Hilton Head South Carolina.

Bad news from what the service manager at Hilton Head told me. I will tell you what he said, and you folks can tell me if you think this guy is full of beans or not. He tells me regarding the repair of the LED read out doo dads above the steering column.

1) He stated that this is a dealer specific opt in. In other words; the dealer that sold the car, can fix the car. No other dealers will be allowed to do this "good faith" repair as he put it. If they are not the ones that put that car on the streets new from Germany, they can fix the car under this little deal.

2) The original owner of my car missed some of the services. This manager stated that if you or the previous owner missed services. NO DICE. Services have to be up to date with no misses. Apparently, in 107,000 miles, my car was serviced 4 times! (although I think that the original owner didn't like paying BMW shop rates and had them done at a German motorwerks type shop)

3) This gift of faith is only good to the original owner.

4) He stated that my 540i/6 had too many miles to qualify for a good faith repair on the dash pixels.

I then asked about replacing the entire instrument cluser (as mentioned before in this thread) it is $600. For about $400 the manager said that he heard that there is a company somewhere that has been known to replace these little micro LED's. But then you get NO WARRANTY whereas for 600 bones, if you just replace the whole instrument panel you get a two year BMW warranty, and then as soon as 1 fricken pixel goes out, you get it replaced....hopefully every two years.

I asked about going to a salvage yard and replacing the cluster with a junked set of instruments (hopefully with working micro LED's) and he said that it would not work?!!! So why would a NEW cluster from BMW work, but a used one from a salvage yard not work??? I read here that the cluster has to be reprogrammed once replaced, so wouldn't that be the same process for a used instrument cluster? Have it programmed at a cost from BMW?

****, I'm so screwed, there is no way the wife is going to let me plop down $600 bones for a new instrument cluster. This blows. My dash looks like ass with half of the LED's out.

Any thoughts? Is this manager full of **** or what?

Worldtraveler...I am by no means an expert, but my take is..... it sounds like your dealer is "full of beans". I would hope there is another dealer nearby. Either way, what I was advised to do was call BMW NA Customer relations (sorry....don't have the number right now, but I think it is noted somewhere in this thread). They are the ones that gave the authorization to swap. It only took them about 1 business day to get back to me and say they approved the swap and BMW will pay for parts and I only had to pay for labor, which turned out to be $98. One of the parts I can't speak to is regarding the number of times serviced and such. I bought mine used, and I didn't have a maint. history, but that also shows that his comments about original owner only, is proof about his "beans" status! All I can say is place the call the Customer Relations and see what they say. I did hear that they are using a "case by case" process, but don't know the criteria. If it helps, I spoke to a guy named "Guy", and again, I'm sure this didn't make a difference, but I used the "butter up" approach, saying how I was new to BMW, and how great I felt their product was, but was a little concerned with the pixels failing so soon on a 2002 model. Good luck!!

I searched Ebay last night for 6 hours. Yes....6 hours. Of the 3055 BMW parts on Ebay I found 5 Bmw instrument clusters that MAY fit. However, I don't know if the USED instruments need to be programmed, or can I just plug them in and expect them to work?

I'm thinkin' about buying a used one for 150 bones.

Thoughts?

Originally Posted by worldtraveler

I searched Ebay last night for 6 hours. Yes....6 hours. Of the 3055 BMW parts on Ebay I found 5 Bmw instrument clusters that MAY fit. However, I don't know if the USED instruments need to be programmed, or can I just plug them in and expect them to work?

I'm thinkin' about buying a used one for 150 bones.

Thoughts?

I think they have to program. On mine, they said the actual part swap was about 20-30 min, and the rest was to "program". This is where they transfer the correct mileage.

Originally Posted by worldtraveler

I searched Ebay last night for 6 hours. Yes....6 hours. Of the 3055 BMW parts on Ebay I found 5 Bmw instrument clusters that MAY fit. However, I don't know if the USED instruments need to be programmed, or can I just plug them in and expect them to work?

I'm thinkin' about buying a used one for 150 bones.

Thoughts?

Why would you buy a used cluster for $150, that still has to be programmed, and may have broken pixels when you can go through BMWNA and get a new cluster including installation for $100? You should get in touch with BMWNA following the directions in this thread. Only after they turn you down should you even consider other methods.

You'll see my earlier posts in this thread. Like many others, I am not the original owner, didn't have a complete service history and my car was 6+ years old when I had them replace the cluster. It took a couple weeks, but I have a new cluster for $100.

Originally Posted by Charlutz

Why would you buy a used cluster for $150, that still has to be programmed, and may have broken pixels when you can go through BMWNA and get a new cluster including installation for $100? You should get in touch with BMWNA following the directions in this thread. Only after they turn you down should you even consider other methods.

You'll see my earlier posts in this thread. Like many others, I am not the original owner, didn't have a complete service history and my car was 6+ years old when I had them replace the cluster. It took a couple weeks, but I have a new cluster for $100.

I agree...and now mine is also warrantied for 2 more years!

Originally Posted by Ågent99

So what was special about your case that they aren't willing to pay for 100% of the part?

I was told (by Jay at BMWNA) that my car is too old (1997 BMW 540i 6, produced September 1996), has too many miles on it (114K), and I'm not the original owner, so I would not be able to get a new cluster with BMWNA picking up 100% of the parts cost.

I asked Jay why other 1997 BMW owners had gotten their clusters replaced while only having to pay for an hour of labor. Over and over again, despite my best arguments he kept saying, "We look at this on a case by case basis". The guy is seriously like a broken record. No matter what I said, that was his answer.

Originally Posted by Charlutz

Why would you buy a used cluster for $150, that still has to be programmed, and may have broken pixels when you can go through BMWNA and get a new cluster including installation for $100? You should get in touch with BMWNA following the directions in this thread. Only after they turn you down should you even consider other methods.

You'll see my earlier posts in this thread. Like many others, I am not the original owner, didn't have a complete service history and my car was 6+ years old when I had them replace the cluster. It took a couple weeks, but I have a new cluster for $100.

Like worldtraveler said, it seems BMWNA isn't playing ball anymore. I got the same message from Jay at BMWNA. I talked to Jay twice, tried to negotiate. I was very nice but he just stone-walled. Why would I pay 50% of the part ($300) + an hour of labor ($125 at my dealer) = $425 when I can just get it repaired at www.vdorepair.com, which claims to have better then OEM parts for $199?

It's an economic decision for BMWNA. Likewise it's an economic decision for me to get their crappy cluster fixed elsewhere.

I haven't yet written a letter or anything, but maybe I should document the cases in which people with 1997 540s have gotten the part replaced and then make the case that they're discriminating against me.

Originally Posted by coelacanth

I was told (by Jay at BMWNA) that my car is too old (1997 BMW 540i 6, produced September 1996), has too many miles on it (114K), and I'm not the original owner, so I would not be able to get a new cluster with BMWNA picking up 100% of the parts cost.

I asked Jay why other 1997 BMW owners had gotten their clusters replaced while only having to pay for an hour of labor. Over and over again, despite my best arguments he kept saying, "We look at this on a case by case basis". The guy is seriously like a broken record. No matter what I said, that was his answer.


Like worldtraveler said, it seems BMWNA isn't playing ball anymore. I got the same message from Jay at BMWNA. I talked to Jay twice, tried to negotiate. I was very nice but he just stone-walled. Why would I pay 50% of the part ($300) + an hour of labor ($125 at my dealer) = $425 when I can just get it repaired at www.vdorepair.com, which claims to have better then OEM parts for $199?

It's an economic decision for BMWNA. Likewise it's an economic decision for me to get their crappy cluster fixed elsewhere.

I haven't yet written a letter or anything, but maybe I should document the cases in which people with 1997 540s have gotten the part replaced and then make the case that they're discriminating against me.

My question for worldtraveler was because his post indicated he had gone through the dealer, not BMWNA. I know first hand that my dealer had no idea BMWNA was covering the cost of the part for these repairs until I told them about it. (My dealer also recently told me that the 2000 M5 xenons I have on my car couldn't be adjusted for height or windage -- then what are the big black adjustment knobs on the back of the headlight housings for?!?! Don't believe the dealer.) If you get stonewalled by BMWNA, then sure, ebay or a used cluster is a good option, but you have to try BMWNA first.

For your issue, you are being told some things that aren't true. Maybe they aren't paying for the cluster anymore, but the reasons you are getting -- too old, too many miles -- are inconsistent with others' experience. I didn't go back to your earlier posts. Have you tried getting in touch with Leonora again? We all have certain limits of patience to hunt down deals or free repairs. Up to you when you want to stop pushing, but I think I'd start back at the beginning, email Leonora again and try and get a straight answer.

Does BMWNA attend requests for this issue only for CPO or cars still under warranty? I own my '02 530i for around 4 months now and some of the pixels in the odometer are not working anymore; my car has now 96k miles on it.
If BMWNA won't do this, do you have an idea about cost of repair and if can be a DYI job?

Just an FYI, my 540i6 pixels are out and I emailed the rep as mentioned above (about 10 days ago). She responded to me within 4 days...its been 3 since I responed to her with the required info, waiting for my BMW service center to call me.

I just wanted to let everybody know that I just got my dash fixed. Yes it cost me $98.80 dollars to cover the shop time- install and reprograming. I am the 2nd owner and I have 80000 miles. I let Leanora know that and asked her if this was a problem, which she said no and that she would pass it on to the underwriters. After that it took 2 months and repeated emails back to her. I got a phone call from her back in late Oct. stating that they had moved into a new building and they were backed up.
Ok speed up to last week ( I had a few busy weeks proventing me to get this done earlier) I went to the dealership to make a appointment and they asked me for "paperwork". I didn't have any and wasn't sure what they were asking for. So I made the appointment anyway and told them I'll get it I called Lenora again for the reps name (I forgot it) and she is like, the service manager has everything
OK so that is what I told the service writer and he looked at me like I was a IDOIT
After all was done (2,5 hours later) and after they kept calling the old owners I was paying and out the door! Oh and yes the manager knew all about the fix

So I hope this gives anyone hope that it can be done.
They call it a goodwill fix. Sorry so long

Happy Holidays to all!