[izzyM2]

Am I to believe that dealers intentionally deny warranty? They do still get paid by BMW if it’s under warranty right? and for good business they want as much customers to be happy and everyone knows nobody wants to pay out of there own pockets if not needed. So why would they deny warranty if it’s not necessary?
The fact is coding items are inactivated functions already available in your car and just had to be waken up. BMW cars have been coded by enthusiast for years and I’ve never encountered anyone being denied because he/she was coded. Maybe you need to stop bitchin of things dealers are not allowed to do so you don’t get bitched slapped by them. It’s like asking an apple tree to grow oranges.

[boostm3]

Nice attitude. My position is a personal one. No one's asking you to buy in. I'm just explaining my rationale. It's not your position, but that doesn't make it illogical. Just hope you're not attacked by any problems with you ecus or have any problems with dealer flashes working. I've been trying to get them to code it out for me to keep it on the up and up, but shop foreman at dealership claims they have no software from bmw to do it. I call bs but this is what they say. The only reason I'm not doing it myself yet is that I've read a few instances here where dealers have responded as I've indicated.

[izzyM2]

Originally Posted by boostm3

Nice attitude. My position is a personal one. No one's asking you to buy in. I'm just explaining my rationale. It's not your position, but that doesn't make it illogical. Just hope you're not attacked by any problems with you ecus or have any problems with dealer flashes working.

How can you say it’s personal when you are here sharing for all to see and comment? And don’t tell me you are not looking for some empathy. And I’m just reacting by what you said and shared and I don’t think your attitude towards by the way you stated can also be considered nice. And like you it’s an opinion of my own. It might not be to your liking but it’s for sure just that, an opinion that you may or may not know you asked for by posting here.

[boostm3]

Empathy? lol.. Its not empathy Im looking for. Its a little more customer focus from bmw and their dealers. Its bad enough that they dont give you the ability as a standard feature to tone this crap down or out, but to refuse to code to their own api themselves to remove it upon customer request , and then to also prohibit customers from doing so without threat of warranty impingement seems to me to be pretty far from 'customer focused'. I love BMW cars, but they do some strange things and have some strange policies. Always have.

Believe me I'd like to do it. But Murphy's law won't allow me. Yet...

On second thought, maybe Ill just go with the technicpnp harness. People seem to very happy with those, and theyre virtually undiscoverable and easily reversible.

[David1]

This is no different than other manufactures. All of this type of systems access will be locked down soon enough so this won't matter. Just imagine if someone fucks up a setting in an autonomous vehicle and kills someone.

[akkando]

Originally Posted by boostm3

Im fully aware of Magnuson-Moss and all its implications, as Ive lived with modified cars most of my adult life. Backups dont always work as users here have reported.. Plus which, shaddow codes in the ecu are created which, if any dealer is looking for a reason to deny warranty coverage, can find. Users here have reported that occasional dealer attempts at flashing ecus where factory ecu configs have been changed have resulted in failure.




Youre very lucky you have a dealer you can work with. However, I dont think theyd even attempt do deny warranty coverage for brake problems... But what if something electronically is afoul? I dont think its a huge stretch for the dealer to try and draw a connection between any electronic problem and any hacked software which was used to interface with the ECU in a non factory change. Listen, Im not trying to make the dealers' case for them, and I wish I had a dealer who was willing to go out on a limb for this. But there are real cases reported here where dealer flashes failed because of a coding changes which customers applied, etc. Each person has to make the determination for themselves whether the reward is worth the risk. The approach Im taking is that the dealer, not unlike most Insurance providers, will look for any opportunity to deny coverage, and its up to the owner to not give it to them.. Is this right? Absolutely not. But I think its the reality most of us have to live in, unless we dont mind spending lots of bucks and time in court.

As an aside, I used to have an E36 M3 which I bought new from a bmw dealer who was also a Dinan dealer.. I had the car outfitted with Dinan vortech supercharger, Dinan Koni suspension, and Dinan exhaust among a lot of other stuff.... In time, to get more power, I changed the pulley size on the blower to develop a couple more psi and HP... Not long after, the Dinan muffler blew a weld. While still under warranty, I went to Dinan for redress, and was informed that they had been reading the forums and know for a fact that I upped the boost... Its that small boost increase which they lorded over my head as to why I wont find any help from them in replacing the exhaust.. I guess Ive been around long enough to expect the worst rather than the best of many dealers in the field.

I everyone decided to not put up with nonsense then BMW wouldn't bother fighting everyone, it wouldn't be worth it on their end and dealing with the bad press.

[akkando]

Originally Posted by izzyM2

It’s like asking an apple tree to grow oranges.

Oh man I love it!

[akkando]

Originally Posted by boostm3

Empathy? lol.. Its not empathy Im looking for. Its a little more customer focus from bmw and their dealers. Its bad enough that they dont give you the ability as a standard feature to tone this crap down or out, but to refuse to code to their own api themselves to remove it upon customer request , and then to also prohibit customers from doing so without threat of warranty impingement seems to me to be pretty far from 'customer focused'. I love BMW cars, but they do some strange things and have some strange policies. Always have.

Believe me I'd like to do it. But Murphy's law won't allow me. Yet...

On second thought, maybe Ill just go with the technicpnp harness. People seem to very happy with those, and theyre virtually undiscoverable and easily reversible.

But what if they DO discover it! Could deny you warranty if they know you were digging around pulling the trunk apart, disconnected cables, connected cables. You never know.

[boostm3]

Originally Posted by akkando

But what if they DO discover it! Could deny you warranty if they know you were digging around pulling the trunk apart, disconnected cables, connected cables. You never know.

No. Its not the same as hacking the ecu at all.. The harness sits between the asd module and the amp. Thats it. Produces no codes, and the asd amp remains able to receive signals so future flashes are not impacted. They would have to show precisely what system this harness impacted and how. And theyd have to be explicitly tearing the trunk apart to look for it which theyd have no reason to do. And since it doenst impact any, they wont be able to demonstrate anything. Is it as vanilla as doing nothing? No.. But its a far cry from giving anybody the chance to claim you hacked into the ecu and made changes to factory settings you are not supposed to have access to. Dont forget that many times, people have fooked things up royally with the ecus from attempting this. There are loads of examples over at bimmerfest as well as here. Hacking into closed systems is never a sure thing.. 'i flipped this switch, and now my mirrors wont fold'.. etc, etc.. Happens all the time. And if you cant fix it, off to the dealer you go, tail between legs begging for mercy. Far worse things can happen when it comes to electronics. I know a guy with a fancy Mercedes van... Whole electrical system flaked out.. $30k repair the dealer will take care of.. Wonder what would have happened had he been founding making unauthorized changes to ecus with unauthorized sofftware. Whoops....

[akkando]

Originally Posted by boostm3

No. Its not the same as hacking the ecu at all.. The harness sits between the asd module and the amp. Thats it. Produces no codes, and the asd amp remains able to receive signals so future flashes are not impacted. They would have to show precisely what system this harness impacted and how. And theyd have to be explicitly tearing the trunk apart to look for it which theyd have no reason to do. And since it doenst impact any, they wont be able to demonstrate anything. Is it as vanilla as doing nothing? No.. But its a far cry from giving anybody the chance to claim you hacked into the ecu and made changes to factory settings you are not supposed to have access to. Dont forget that many times, people have fooked things up royally with the ecus from attempting this. There are loads of examples over at bimmerfest as well as here. Hacking into closed systems is never a sure thing.. 'i flipped this switch, and now my mirrors wont fold'.. etc, etc.. Happens all the time. And if you cant fix it, off to the dealer you go, tail between legs begging for mercy. Far worse things can happen when it comes to electronics. I know a guy with a fancy Mercedes van... Whole electrical system flaked out.. $30k repair the dealer will take care of.. Wonder what would have happened had he been founding making unauthorized changes to ecus with unauthorized sofftware. Whoops....

I mean that sounds good to me but I would hate to be the one explaining that to BMW when they think it could have caused a problem...

[boostm3]

Well look. All I know is a lot of owners have inserted the harness and I've yet to read of a single case where it caused any problems with the car or the dealer or anyone else.

[robbo78]

Hi, I own an F25 X3 with the standard halogen headlights. If I turn on the DRL setting within the idrive it just turns all of my lights on even the dash lights.

Is there a way to code the DRL setting to only turn on the sidelights and no other? (thinking of getting some nice LED sidelights and using those as the DRLs).

Thanks!

P.S. I do own the bimmercode app and wifi dongle.

[geogerf]

Originally Posted by boostm3

Empathy? lol.. Its not empathy Im looking for. Its a little more customer focus from bmw and their dealers. Its bad enough that they dont give you the ability as a standard feature to tone this crap down or out, but to refuse to code to their own api themselves to remove it upon customer request , and then to also prohibit customers from doing so without threat of warranty impingement seems to me to be pretty far from 'customer focused'. I love BMW cars, but they do some strange things and have some strange policies. Always have.

Believe me I'd like to do it. But Murphy's law won't allow me. Yet...

On second thought, maybe Ill just go with the technicpnp harness. People seem to very happy with those, and theyre virtually undiscoverable and easily reversible.

They can only deny warranty on the items that you had modified and they would have to prove that it affected that part. Coding out ASD won't affect something like suspension, for example. It's not like you're SOL on your entire warranty.

Morale of the story: don't ask the dealership to do something they aren't comfortable with. Their response will always be to frighten you with invalid warranty issues.

[boostm3]

Originally Posted by geogerf

They can only deny warranty on the items that you had modified and they would have to prove that it affected that part. Coding out ASD won't affect something like suspension, for example. It's not like you're SOL on your entire warranty.

Morale of the story: don't ask the dealership to do something they aren't comfortable with. Their response will always be to frighten you with invalid warranty issues.

Of course.. Im not concerned about any systems that arent ECU controlled. Its any kind of failure in an ECU controlled system that I figure they could try and lay blame to coding on. I dont need the agita.

[PackPride85]

Originally Posted by geogerf

They can only deny warranty on the items that you had modified and they would have to prove that it affected that part. Coding out ASD won't affect something like suspension, for example. It's not like you're SOL on your entire warranty.

Morale of the story: don't ask the dealership to do something they aren't comfortable with. Their response will always be to frighten you with invalid warranty issues.

That may be true, but the burden of proof is on the consumer. You'll have to lead that fight with BMW USA and possibly court yourself. In the meantime while all that unfolds you sit without a working car that you are probably still making payments on.

[boostm3]

Originally Posted by Dabozo

They said they cant diagnose further my problem because of my coding...that it would raise a flag against my car.

They blamed faulty coding for my battery issue....That certain systems dont shut down properly as a result..therefore a constant, slow drain on my battery even with car turned off.

No matter how small the coding change, I think they would take the position that in order to effect ECU changes, youd have to be using unauthorized software to effect the changes. They would also say that the api that exists in the ecus allowing the unauthorized software to make these changes contain lots of options for lots of models, and not every switch is applicable to every model, etc, etc.. But in general, since you're not using BMW software to interface with the ECUs, theyre going to claim it throws the integrity of the whole system into question.. I think the customer would have a hard time disputing that should this argument arise.

[boostm3]

Originally Posted by ///M²

Just had my service done at Pfaff BMW, no issues with the car being coded, the service was great, I highly recommend them to anyone in the GTA.

Thanks to the people in this thread who recommended them!!

Was this a scheduled service? I wouldnt think there'd be any problem with scheduled service. Its when something goes askew with a component controlled by an ECU that has been coded where there Might be a problem in getting warranty coverage. I say Might, as not all dealers will react the same, obviously.

[monkiboy]

Originally Posted by PackPride85

That may be true, but the burden of proof is on the consumer. You'll have to lead that fight with BMW USA and possibly court yourself. In the meantime while all that unfolds you sit without a working car that you are probably still making payments on.

amen to that. been down that road with BMWNA and the dealer. they will pass blame in the most illogical unreasonable ways to avoid doing what is right. they will find any aftermarket part to make a scapegoat for your issues and it does not have to make sense in the least. then they will tell you how much they have invested in trying to figure out your problem and how thankful you should be. it took a lot of emails (45+), phone calls, escalations up to VP-level to get a reasonable resolution.

all that being said, coding of my car never came up and they seemed clueless it was even done.

[geogerf]

Originally Posted by PackPride85

That may be true, but the burden of proof is on the consumer. You'll have to lead that fight with BMW USA and possibly court yourself. In the meantime while all that unfolds you sit without a working car that you are probably still making payments on.

Well if someone doesn't want the risk, then don't mod the car. Its that simple really.

[///M²]

Originally Posted by boostm3

Was this a scheduled service? I wouldnt think there'd be any problem with scheduled service. Its when something goes askew with a component controlled by an ECU that has been coded where there Might be a problem in getting warranty coverage. I say Might, as not all dealers will react the same, obviously.

Just scheduled service, no issues with the car.

[Project_F87]

Originally Posted by izzyM2

I think its reverse. When it say its active its gone and inactive is the norm showing the gears.

Which interface is the gear display under? I could not find it anywhere!

[twin fed]

So I had my software updated at BMW yesterday and all the coding was erased. I went back and recoded everything and it went fine. EXCEPT that the ability to change the indicator amount of times is not there anymore. It used to be and I had it set to 5 times and it was great now I can't and it sucks. Anybody know why? I emailed through the app but have not heard back yet.