[jcamber]

So I took my car to Discount tire yesterday to replace my aging run-flats (had 33k miles on them) and just as I pick up the car, and turn the car on, the service engine soon light comes on in yellow and when I give it some gas, I hear a low tone from almost below the stick shift. It sounds almost as if the exhaust had a hole or something. I got out of the car, looked under and can't see anything. I brought the manager out with me and upon calling his worker the dude proceeds to say the light was already ON when I brought the car in... BULL!

So needless to say, I told them I would be taking the car to BMW and if they in any way say the issue is due to a messed up the exhaust by say, jacking the car in the wrong spot, they WILL pay for it.

Any of you had this happened by chance?

my car is an '06 E90 w/sport, AT... it's got new tires!

[WWONG]

About two months ago, my sister's Toyota 4Runner Limited 4WD went to Discount Tires to get 4 new tires... the day after, the starter went out. The starter on that car is right by the driver's side wheel well. I found that strange since my dad's '97 Grand Cherokee is an American car, has 50,000 more miles, and has never required a starter change when the 4Runner did. Needless to say, regardless whether that was a coincidence or not, Discount Tires is never getting my business again.

[PoorMan]

Don't any of you guys watch them doing the work?

I have a longtime guy I go to at DT and I still watch em do the work. Hell if you have an appointment tire installs takes no time at all. Minor service, tires or mod installs etc.. It's a golden rule. Don't be one of those tv watching, magazine reading, coffee drinking waiting room lurkers..

[ForTheD]

Originally Posted by PoorMan

Don't any of you guys watch them doing the work?

I have a longtime guy I go to at DT and I still watch em do the work. Hell if you have an appointment tire installs takes no time at all. Minor service, tires or mod installs etc.. It's a golden rule. Don't be one of those tv watching, magazine reading, coffee drinking waiting room lurkers..

Same here, Discount (America's) Tire is the only place I go. I am up to 8 sets of tires, across a few types different cars from them now. I'm also watching from the moment then pull my car in, to when they pull out. I even pull the car out some times.

[jeremicium]

I've been a DT customer for 15 years. Never had any problems...though on the west coast i'd chose Les Scwab over DT.

[gos]

I'm sure it was a coincidence.

Not sure how you'd jack that car up by the wrong spot and mess up the exhaust, you'd really have to be trying to do that.

[nukezero]

my rear tires on the 335i wears 2X faster than the front. DO what I do. Jack the rear end of the car yourself. Dismount the rear tires and take it into the shop> C ome back home and mount it on yourself.

yes it is more tedious this way but the job is always done right and nobody molests your car

[Kolyan2k]

Some lifts are not made for 3. My friend has garage with lift and we couldnt properly lift the car.

[J02 335i]

It would be almost impossible to lift or jack the car up near the exhaust. The exhaust runs right down the middle of the car. I'm interested to see the outcome of this.

[dtc100]

Originally Posted by PoorMan

Don't any of you guys watch them doing the work?

I have a longtime guy I go to at DT and I still watch em do the work. Hell if you have an appointment tire installs takes no time at all. Minor service, tires or mod installs etc.. It's a golden rule. Don't be one of those tv watching, magazine reading, coffee drinking waiting room lurkers..

I am a long time DT customer too, need to watch them work. They are under a lot of pressure need to turn around fast. It is not unusual for the torque wrench to skip a bolt, missing a valve stem cap, or even forgetting to put the wheel center cap back in.

As far as "mod installs" you mentioned. I am thinking about adding wheel spacers, talked to a DT guy, he said they would not work on wheels with spacers on. Do you guys know if this is true?

[ForTheD]

[QUOTE=dtc100;8100209
As far as "mod installs" you mentioned. I am thinking about adding wheel spacers, talked to a DT guy, he said they would not work on wheels with spacers on. Do you guys know if this is true?[/QUOTE]

They don't want to mess with them because they don't want to be liable if something happens because if the spacers.

[J02 335i]

Originally Posted by dtc100

I am a long time DT customer too, need to watch them work. They are under a lot of pressure need to turn around fast. It is not unusual for the torque wrench to skip a bolt, missing a valve stem cap, or even forgetting to put the wheel center cap back in.

As far as "mod installs" you mentioned. I am thinking about adding wheel spacers, talked to a DT guy, he said they would not work on wheels with spacers on. Do you guys know if this is true?

All this and you are "a long time DT customer too"??? Really???

[merlinfe]

Yeah I second the spacer thing. I have 20mm spacers on the rear and 15mm up front. I recently had bought new tires from them and had the install done there.

They said they would be more than happy to take the spacers off the car but couldn't reinstall them. When I pressed they said it was because I probably used the same wheel studs to reinstall the wheels and that they would break. I told them that I had longer wheel studs (bolts) and that it wouldn't be a problem. The manager put his hands in the air and said "sorry its not my policy, its corporate."

So I went home changed clothes and took the damn spacers off, put in the stock wheel studs in and went back. 45 mins later my car had new tires on, another 1/2 hour and my spacers were back on.

Litigation has this country afraid of its own shadow.


OP good luck with your case. Often when you drive the car away from any service center they can claim no fault from there on out. I really hope things go your way.

[John 070]

Originally Posted by PoorMan

Don't any of you guys watch them doing the work?

I have a longtime guy I go to at DT and I still watch em do the work. Hell if you have an appointment tire installs takes no time at all. Minor service, tires or mod installs etc.. It's a golden rule. Don't be one of those tv watching, magazine reading, coffee drinking waiting room lurkers..

That's a good point. Even BMW techs only abuse cars that are left all day. If it's a wait, the chances of the proverbial joyride is far less. But the lying really takes the cake--the SES was already on when the car came in. In that case, you notify the customer as soon as you pull the vehicle in, so there's no question later.

I just imagine these idiots conducting DOT drug testing. As if there's no chain of command.

[dtc100]

Originally Posted by J02 335i

All this and you are "a long time DT customer too"??? Really???

You know why? If you watch them work, you will realize all of them forget things. The only way to make sure is watch them yourself. Else you are taking the car home without knowing what was missing, most time it will be just fine though.

Sometimes see no evil works just fine in life

[dtc100]

Originally Posted by merlinfe

Yeah I second the spacer thing. I have 20mm spacers on the rear and 15mm up front. I recently had bought new tires from them and had the install done there.

They said they would be more than happy to take the spacers off the car but couldn't reinstall them. When I pressed they said it was because I probably used the same wheel studs to reinstall the wheels and that they would break. I told them that I had longer wheel studs (bolts) and that it wouldn't be a problem. The manager put his hands in the air and said "sorry its not my policy, its corporate."

So I went home changed clothes and took the damn spacers off, put in the stock wheel studs in and went back. 45 mins later my car had new tires on, another 1/2 hour and my spacers were back on.

Litigation has this country afraid of its own shadow.


OP good luck with your case. Often when you drive the car away from any service center they can claim no fault from there on out. I really hope things go your way.

Thanks for the heads up. I will just remove the spacers then put them on later.

BTW, did you do the measurement to determine the spacers? I measured mine with the masking tape method, there is no room for spacers in the front (less than 8mm), about 15mm in the rear.

[jcamber]

Originally Posted by J02 335i

It would be almost impossible to lift or jack the car up near the exhaust. The exhaust runs right down the middle of the car. I'm interested to see the outcome of this.

I'm no expert but towards the front-right, there is a section that curves to the right. That's about the only place I think they could have slipped the jack and "pushed" the pipe up enough to do some damage. I'm also barely out of warranty so this should be interesting.

BTW, I drove the car today and I can feel it work at reduced power. I'll let you all know what BMW said.

[jcamber]

So this morning I took it to a shop that specializes in BMW with the hopes of finding out what is wrong. Their scanner gave 3 codes:

2CFB - Throttle valve adaptation value
2D09 - Butterfly valve
2CFD - Throttle valve adaptation value missing

Apparently something to do with the throttle body and the mechanism not functioning property. Funny though, the shop manager was trying a couple things and in minutes the low-tone I heard before went away and as well the notification on the dashboard with the symbol on it (now I only have the Service Engine Soon text up at the top of the dash).

He said I should take it to BMW because he had never fixed that before and was leery about applying a software update that might cause trouble. He also explained there may be a mechanical failure where the throttle valve is getting "stuck" and that's why we could hear that noise at low RPMs... I still have the appt with BMW tomorrow, we'll see what they say (probably that I need to pay up regardless!)

this guy charged me $28 for scanning and while I was at it I had the cabin air filter. Total bill $93... not bad huh?

oh and he confirmed this was 100% coincidence that happened when I had my tires replaced. Definitely not something that could have been caused by Discount Tire.

[jcamber]

All 3 error codes clear themselves this morning so I cancelled my appointment with BMW. Love my self-correcting car!

[I335]

Did DT accept your apology for jumping down their throats?

[jcamber]

Well see, your problem is assuming that I jumped down their throats. You can rise a concern without being condescendent or rude. At least I can.

[michael1284]

yay to overreacting!