£196 for a BMW Software Upgrade ?

Sneaky Peaky · 8 Mar 2011 at 13:03

A friend of mine is having problems with an intermittent engine warning light (3 Series) and car is in the garage at the moment.

According to her though BMW want £196 for a 'software upgrade' to even allow them to trace the fault :eek:

Does that seem right and what is it ? I though normally ECU flashes were free ?

ta..

Wicksta · 8 Mar 2011 at 13:05

You don't say what type of 3 series, I assume an e9x? Apparently to upgrade these takes hours and they normally do it overnight.

Will Gill · 8 Mar 2011 at 13:08

Yeah I paid a similar amount, no idea what for but an upgrade has to be a good thing....

right?

Gaygle · 8 Mar 2011 at 13:55

Wicksta said:
You don't say what type of 3 series, I assume an e9x? Apparently to upgrade these takes hours and they normally do it overnight.

Woah, i thought it'd take 15-20 minutes! And i also thought that they'd do this as part of a service? Still, £200 is steep!

Irish_Tom · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:06

It's because they have to do the upgrade, test the car, leave it overnight and test it again.

The cost is for man-hours more than anything.

I 'got around' the problem by having an AUX port installed so that I could plug in an external audio source. They upgraded the software at the same time but that was £250.

Firestar_3x · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:10

If it's £196 just for the software update then that seems a bit silly, if it was a map package update for a NAV device i could understand the charge but not something to do with the car software, Microsoft don't charge for security patches.

They should upgrade for free and charge a diagnostics fee imho, unless thats what he means by the £196 total cost?

Just invoice the BMW garage for £201 and say kicks in the nuts used to come free, but i've started to charge.

[TW]Fox · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:14

Another reason not to run a modern BMW without a cast iron warranty.

Will Gill · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:19

oh should the upgrade be paid for under warranty? I didn't even think to ask it came as part of my 2011 sat nav package

Wicksta · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:21

Will Gill said:
oh should the upgrade be paid for under warranty? I didn't even think to ask it came as part of my 2011 sat nav package

If there is a problem which requires the upgrade (as in the case of the OP) then surely the warranty will cover it. But I doubt if "I like teh new fontz, give me upgrade" will be covered though.

[TW]Fox · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:21

It's a bit complicated - if its required as part of diagnosis or something related to a fault the warranty should cover it.

If its not required for a fault, then it doesn't.

[TW]Fox · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:22

Wicksta said:
But I doubt if "I like teh new fontz, give me upgrade" will be covered though.

Even though arguably it should - the problem here is the ridiculous process BMW use to update the software. But they are not bothered as they can simply pass the huge cost of having such a time consuming method on to the customer.

Will Gill · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:23

definitely no warranty/investigative work required, was purely me getting upset my sat nav had no clue where terminal 5 was

Wicksta · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:28

[TW]Fox;18625353 said:
Even though arguably it should - the problem here is the ridiculous process BMW use to update the software. But they are not bothered as they can simply pass the huge cost of having such a time consuming method on to the customer.

Slightly OT but I just wish it was a bit easier for people to upgrade certain elements from home. We have televisions etc. which you can update the firmware for OTA, I'd love various components on the car like the navigation/Connected Drive etc. to be slightly separated off so they could be easily upgradeable like in older ibus based BMWs. But as you say it's probably a bit of a money maker for them which requires basically no effort except for having to own the proprietory equipment for reprogramming and needing space in the workshop for some hours.

Maybe if I ever decide to change careers I'll buy the equipment needed and reprogram people's cars for a living.

Sneaky Peaky · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:46

I think she has an E90 318i, out of warranty now although had a similar issue with no.1 injector last year which was fixed.

Was just suprised I suppose that they can get away with making you fork out for a software upgrade just so they can diagnose what is wrong with it !

Fr0dders · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:48

Sneaky Peaky said:
I think she has an E90 318i, out of warranty now although had a similar issue with no.1 injector last year which was fixed.

Was just suprised I suppose that they can get away with making you fork out for a software upgrade just so they can diagnose what is wrong with it !

BMWs are like Stella Artois

"Re-assuringly expensive"

Pate · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:57

MrLOL said:
BMWs are like Stella Artois

"Re-assuringly expensive"

hahha made me lol.

Enjoy stella more myself.

denon · 8 Mar 2011 at 18:26

Sneaky Peaky said:
A friend of mine is having problems with an intermittent engine warning light (3 Series) and car is in the garage at the moment.

According to her though BMW want £196 for a 'software upgrade' to even allow them to trace the fault

Does that seem right and what is it ? I though normally ECU flashes were free ?

ta..

it is right it does need to be programmed first then they will probs tell you it needs a coil, plug and injector on the affected cyclinder

i would tell them to put a goodwill claim and expect bmw to pay the majorty of the cost

Wicksta said:
You don't say what type of 3 series, I assume an e9x? Apparently to upgrade these takes hours and they normally do it overnight.

Panzerbjorn said:
It's because they have to do the upgrade, test the car, leave it overnight and test it again.

The cost is for man-hours more than anything.

I 'got around' the problem by having an AUX port installed so that I could plug in an external audio source. They upgraded the software at the same time but that was £250.

programming the car can take anytime from half hour to four hours plus depending on the last time it was updated and how many control units it has.

they dont need to leave the car overnight

Wicksta said:
Slightly OT but I just wish it was a bit easier for people to upgrade certain elements from home. We have televisions etc. which you can update the firmware for OTA, I'd love various components on the car like the navigation/Connected Drive etc. to be slightly separated off so they could be easily upgradeable like in older ibus based BMWs. But as you say it's probably a bit of a money maker for them which requires basically no effort except for having to own the proprietory equipment for reprogramming and needing space in the workshop for some hours.

Maybe if I ever decide to change careers I'll buy the equipment needed and reprogram people's cars for a living.

this would be a very bad idea, its very easy to kill a control unit if you dont know what you are doing

[TW]Fox · 8 Mar 2011 at 18:30

denon said:
it is right it does need to be programmed first

What is the reason behind this? I would imagine then that if you took this car to an independant they wouldnt be able to perform any diagnosis on it at all?

denon · 8 Mar 2011 at 18:49

the dme doesnt store faults for a certain type of misfire until its updated, and supposedly updateing it can sometimes stop the car misfiring

[TW]Fox · 8 Mar 2011 at 19:08

So if a car with BMW extended warranty came into the workshop with a misfire and required this update, would Mondial foot the bill?