[tx360modena]

Hi all,

I just finally joined bimmerfest after buying my first BMW 2 weeks ago. I just wanted to get some of you guys' feelings on my situation. I bought a certified pre-owned '05 330Ci with about 14K miles on it. The first time i fueled it up, I noticed some strange things happening with the gas door, but just attributed the problem to my lack of knowledge. The second time I filled up yesterday, I noticed that when I lock the car, the gas door kicks out of place instead of locking because the mechanism is not aligned with the hole. This is because the rubber seal around the tank inlet is not in place. Upon further inspection, I found that the bumper has some clear coat flaking in a tiny area, and that it is not buffed properly in another area. I a friend of mine who works for a Lexus paint shop told me that the bumper has definitely been re-painted before. The dealer failed to mention any of this to me and the car somehow passed their CPO inspection with a malfunctioning gas door. I live 300 miles away from where I bought the car and I have to go get this fixed now here in Houston somewhere. I shouldn't have to pay for this and I'm really pissed off about the situation now.....I e-mailed the dealer that I bought the car from so I should hear back from them tomorrow as to what they intend to do about the situation. I'll update you all on the results.

 

[Eduardo]

Err:eeps: , in the mean time, may you post pictures of your ZHP?

 

[GoHack]

Hi all,

I just finally joined bimmerfest after buying my first BMW 2 weeks ago. I just wanted to get some of you guys' feelings on my situation. I bought a certified pre-owned '05 330Ci with about 14K miles on it. The first time i fueled it up, I noticed some strange things happening with the gas door, but just attributed the problem to my lack of knowledge. The second time I filled up yesterday, I noticed that when I lock the car, the gas door kicks out of place instead of locking because the mechanism is not aligned with the hole. This is because the rubber seal around the tank inlet is not in place. Upon further inspection, I found that the bumper has some clear coat flaking in a tiny area, and that it is not buffed properly in another area. I a friend of mine who works for a Lexus paint shop told me that the bumper has definitely been re-painted before. The dealer failed to mention any of this to me and the car somehow passed their CPO inspection with a malfunctioning gas door. I live 300 miles away from where I bought the car and I have to go get this fixed now here in Houston somewhere. I shouldn't have to pay for this and I'm really pissed off about the situation now.....I e-mailed the dealer that I bought the car from so I should hear back from them tomorrow as to what they intend to do about the situation. I'll update you all on the results.

Did you do a Carfax on it, in order to check on it's history?

Carfax isn't perfect, but it's something start with.

.

 

[adgrant]

The two issues could be unrelated. I am sure that plenty of used cars have resprayed bumpers. It doesn't take much for a bumber to need a respray (just park on tthe street in Manhattan).

I have turned in a couple of lease end BMWs with resprayed bumpers (one my wife was hit from behind at low speed the second she reversed into something).

 

[JayK330]

Err:eeps: , in the mean time, may you post pictures of your ZHP?

I'm with him.:thumbup:

 

[tx360modena]

I have a video that I just took that demonstrated the problem but I don't have anywhere to post it...if anybody has a place to upload a 4 meg avi, let me know...here is one picture of my car (dirty at the moment) and ill post some better ones eventually....it was too bright outside to get any nice shots with my camera right now. i posted a picture of the seal which seems to be obstructing the filler door from closing all the way. It must have been installed incorrectly originally, or reinstalled incorrectly after the bumper was painted. regardless, the dealer should have caught this in their inspection.....I trusted BMW's CPO program too much so I didn't carfax but I guess I should have.

 

[SARAFIL]

I have a video that I just took that demonstrated the problem but I don't have anywhere to post it...if anybody has a place to upload a 4 meg avi, let me know...here is one picture of my car (dirty at the moment) and ill post some better ones eventually....it was too bright outside to get any nice shots with my camera right now. i posted a picture of the seal which seems to be obstructing the filler door from closing all the way. It must have been installed incorrectly originally, or reinstalled incorrectly after the bumper was painted. regardless, the dealer should have caught this in their inspection.....I trusted BMW's CPO program too much so I didn't carfax but I guess I should have.

The rubber seal issue is probably a very easy fix... I've seen this before, and usually it can be fixed as easily as getting a long, flat object to stick in the gap on the bottom of the gas cap between the cap and the rubber seal and pushing it inward... the seal is sticking out because it is not pushed all the way in.

 

[tx360modena]

Thanks Sarafil, that's good to hear. I have to take the car in soon anyways for 15K oil change and maintenance, and to get a couple of little manufacturing defects fixed, such as a finnicky window switch light and a finnicky trunk light. I'll probably point it out and let them decide if they'll fix it first.

Sunset was nice tonight. Here's a pic I snapped a couple of hours ago.