BMW E46 Service cost - does this sound right ?

gam3r · 20 Mar 2012 at 20:03

Hi guys,

So I got a quote from an indy to service my e46 and take a look at some of the niggles.
The car is a 318i 2003 model and there are a few additional things that need doing so on top of the service :

Reset the air bag sensor
Take a look at the driver side window ( it seems to be slow to open /close)

He has quoted about 300. Would you say this is too much? Tomorrow I will ring a dealer for comparison and a few other indies

Thanks

[TW]Fox · 20 Mar 2012 at 20:09

That is either an absolutely excellent quote or a ripoff - sadly we are missing a crucial bit of information.

Which service is the car due?

What exactly are you expecting to happen when he 'resets the airbag sensor' by the way? The car has many sensors for the airbag system. There isn't a magic one that fixes problems when you reset it. I presume you have an airbag light on and you want him to clear it? If the light is on then it's indicating a fault, which is almost certainly a faulty passenger seat occupancy mat. These are quite ridiculously expensive, ISTR it being a £500ish job.

gam3r · 20 Mar 2012 at 20:34

Thanks for replying and excuse me for my brevity(iPhone).

I understand it's the occupancy mat issue and all I really want him to do is reset the light, I know the underlying issue won't get resolved.

Looking at the service handbook it needs an inspection 1 along with a brake fluid/coolant doing. I think he's possibly quoted me for an inspection 2.

Regarding the window issue I'm not quite sure what it is.

[TW]Fox · 20 Mar 2012 at 20:42

gam3r said:
I understand it's the occupancy mat issue and all I really want him to do is reset the light, I know the underlying issue won't get resolved.

Reseting the light wont do anything without resolving the issue. The light indicates a fault with the system - the fault still being there will simply trigger the light to come back on again.

Looking at the service handbook it needs an inspection 1 along with a brake fluid/coolant doing.

The actual menu price is £229 for an Inspection 1 at any BMW main dealer. Brake and Coolant are £55ish each. You can probably haggle down from there to get to circa £300-£320ish.

Not entirely sure the indy is particularly cheap - resetting the light (Which as I say wont do anything) is a 30 second job, and the window thing sounds a bit vague - I mean whats he agreed to do for the money?

pepsilol · 20 Mar 2012 at 20:45

Either get a new mat or get a bypass that makes the car think their is a passenger in that seat 24/7.

F355 · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:10

Some silicone spray onto the seals/runners will probably fix the window. About £4 for a can from your friendly DIY store/car accessory shop.

£300 sounds on the steep side. Ask for a break down and speak to other dealers/garages. As fox says an INSP I is £230 from BMW http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/owner/service_value/moreinfo/0,,1312_181248203__,00.html

pepsilol · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:12

Looking closer, hes quoted an inspection 2 and an extra hour labour for your window and diagnostic clearing.

pepsilol · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:15

[TW]Fox;21516547 said:
30 second job,

No it's not.

The guy would have to go to the place where he stores for example his autologic.

Take it out the briefcase, walk over to the car, get in, turn the fans off, turn any lights off, plug the cable in, start up the software, let it initialize, let it read the car, go to the relevant section, clear the error, go back, re read the code, switch it off, pack it up.

No one uses INPA in the professional industry where it literally is 30 seconds.

DIS is even longer where it can take 10 minutes just to get through the relevant place.

[TW]Fox · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:16

Ok, 4 minute job then

You might know this - why can't I get INPA to read the airbag memory on a Z4? It whinges about a version mismatch or something. Everything else works fine and Carsoft will read it.

pepsilol · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:30

Everyone is running a mismatched version of INPA and EDIABAS nowadays.

Is your airbag light on? Is it a red cross or yellow exclamation mark with the error?

[TW]Fox · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:31

It's the red one. The only code I've managed to get was doing a full diagnose. I got something hugely useful like 'Airbag warning light status: on' or something

pepsilol · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:35

The red on is usually IFH service error based? Which essentially means it can't talk to your module at all.

I've never come across a red error with software mismatch involved.

The usual mismatch is where you go to read your errors and it gives the software mismatch, but you just click ok and carry on as normal.

If you're desperate, you may need to back track your inpa version to match with the ediabas version and see if that works.

What cable do you have? Blue VAG USB thats soldered or a genuine EDIABAS based one which is RS232?

[TW]Fox · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:41

Blue VAG one thats soldered. Yea, I get the mismatch when reading the DME on the E39's but it still works fine. When I read the airbag memory on the Z4 it doesnt find any errors logged. Yet the light is on.

pepsilol · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:42

Semi far fetched but that may be the issue. Red plus the words IFH service usually means it can't access the module.

Next time you do it, get a screenshot.

You obviously have a Carsoft cable for Carsoft ?

[TW]Fox · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:43

Yes, I have two different cables. Will get a screenshot at some point

pepsilol · 20 Mar 2012 at 22:16

Cool beans.

Scania · 20 Mar 2012 at 22:32

[TW]Fox;21516239 said:
I presume you have an airbag light on and you want him to clear it? If the light is on then it's indicating a fault, which is almost certainly a faulty passenger seat occupancy mat. These are quite ridiculously expensive, ISTR it being a £500ish job.

£500ish? more like sub £50 from my experience!

My daughter has an annoying habit of slamming the seat down on my e39 which tends to trigger the airbag warning light, this has happened a couple of times now (the last time being last weekend) my garage charged me iirc £40 last time, I assume they merely reset / cleared the fault & the light went out again.....

My Mum has had similar issues with her e46 also, again, not an expensive fix at all!

[TW]Fox · 20 Mar 2012 at 22:37

R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
£500ish? more like sub £50 from my experience!

My daughter has an annoying habit of slamming the seat down on my e39 which tends to trigger the airbag warning light, this has happened a couple of times now (the last time being last weekend) my garage charged me iirc £40 last time, I assume they merely reset / cleared the fault & the light went out again.....

My Mum has had similar issues with her e46 also, again, not an expensive fix at all!

What are you talking about? :confused:

You told me I was wrong and then went on to describe a different fault entirely? Obviously if its not the occupancy mat it wont cost that much.

The E46 has a common issue with the passenger occupancy mat. A replacement is very expensive - the only alternative is a bit of a bodge by fitting a bypass. Hence the use of the phrase 'almost certainly' in my post, indicating this was the likely cause but not ruling out that it could be something else.

Django x2 · 20 Mar 2012 at 22:40

I thought the most common fault on the E46 for airbags lights was the underseat connector which gets kicked / moved ?

pepsilol · 20 Mar 2012 at 22:50

[TW]Fox;21517465 said:
What are you talking about?

You told me I was wrong and then went on to describe a different fault entirely? Obviously if its not the occupancy mat it wont cost that much.

The E46 has a common issue with the passenger occupancy mat. A replacement is very expensive - the only alternative is a bit of a bodge by fitting a bypass. Hence the use of the phrase 'almost certainly' in my post, indicating this was the likely cause but not ruling out that it could be something else.

The mat isn't that expensive, it's around £50-£80.

The bypass will just deploy the airbag no matter what.