adrian26
Active Member
Just want to relate my sad story on my face-lifted 630i convertible ...
My wife and I went to Great World City for movie ('Definitely, Maybe' - not as bad as I thought!) and after that and some grocery shopping, we got into my car. I stuck the key in the ignition, stepped on the brake, hit the "Start/Stop engine" button ... and nothing happened. Well, something happened, but it sure wasn't the engine starting ...:furious:
When I stuck the key in the ignition, the usual lights came on (ABS light, airbag light, etc etc) as well as the LCD screen (the iDrive screen), so I thought "surely the battery cannot be dead". In any case, I only took delivery of the car in December '07. Then I took the key out of the ignition and tried the whole "start the car" routine, but this time I noticed that the gear shift made some weird clicking noises. By now, I was saying loudly, "what the shit is happening?" And my wife beside me was asking me what was wrong ... She suggested that I try again by opening and closing the door, locking and then unlocking the car (she was thinking that the alarm system was screwed up), then trying to start the car again. I did as she suggested but nada, nothing, zilch, zippo, zero ...
Then the LCD screen flicked to something I've never seen before and said something along the lines of: "Transmission failure. Please contact your BMW Assist ..." blah blah blah. Then my previous thoughts of "what the shit is happening" turned predictably to "what the f*ck is happening" ...
I pressed the "check" button on the indicator stalk and the data screen (between the rev counter and the sppedometer) had the cheek to tell me "check ok"!!!!! WTF???
I tried a couple more times and the data screen now came up with an exclamation mark!!! And all this time, the gear shift kept clicking from "P" to "R" to "D" and always ending up at "P".
In between all this, my wife had called up BMW Assist and she passed me to a lady whereupon I explained my rather frustrating and failed episode of trying to start the car ... She took down my details and said that she'd call me back in 5min. I tried a couple more times to start the car, but again, nothing except by the grace of God would this thing kick to life ... :furious:
With nothing else to do except sit and sweat in the car, my wife and I adjourned back into the air conditioned comfort of Great World City to await Miss BMW Assist to call. Pretty much bang on 5min later, she called and said that BMW will tow the car to the Kampung Arang workshop as the problem seemed too apocalyptic to fix there and then at the shopping mall car park.
What can I say right? So I said "when is this towing gonna happen?" She pleasantly informed me that the towing dudes would be there in 45-60min (just like the timeline that Starhub gives you right?). And yes, they got there within 45-60min whereupon I cleared the car of my valuables, signed some forms, gave my car key to them and slunk away ...
While waiting though, I sent an sms to my sales rep and complained - I also asked if I'd get a replacement car given that my beloved 630 is only 4 months old and then this shit happens. He called up within 10min of receiving my sms and said that it was now too late to arrange a temp car for me (it was now around 8pm) but that he'd try to arrange something tomorrow... I asked him if this was something that happened frequently to which he replied that this was the first time he'd heard of this happening since the transmission (the SMG box) is new.
What can I say right? Shit happens!!! Guess will update you folks about my travails tomorrow if you're interested ...
My wife and I went to Great World City for movie ('Definitely, Maybe' - not as bad as I thought!) and after that and some grocery shopping, we got into my car. I stuck the key in the ignition, stepped on the brake, hit the "Start/Stop engine" button ... and nothing happened. Well, something happened, but it sure wasn't the engine starting ...:furious:
When I stuck the key in the ignition, the usual lights came on (ABS light, airbag light, etc etc) as well as the LCD screen (the iDrive screen), so I thought "surely the battery cannot be dead". In any case, I only took delivery of the car in December '07. Then I took the key out of the ignition and tried the whole "start the car" routine, but this time I noticed that the gear shift made some weird clicking noises. By now, I was saying loudly, "what the shit is happening?" And my wife beside me was asking me what was wrong ... She suggested that I try again by opening and closing the door, locking and then unlocking the car (she was thinking that the alarm system was screwed up), then trying to start the car again. I did as she suggested but nada, nothing, zilch, zippo, zero ...
Then the LCD screen flicked to something I've never seen before and said something along the lines of: "Transmission failure. Please contact your BMW Assist ..." blah blah blah. Then my previous thoughts of "what the shit is happening" turned predictably to "what the f*ck is happening" ...
I pressed the "check" button on the indicator stalk and the data screen (between the rev counter and the sppedometer) had the cheek to tell me "check ok"!!!!! WTF???
I tried a couple more times and the data screen now came up with an exclamation mark!!! And all this time, the gear shift kept clicking from "P" to "R" to "D" and always ending up at "P".
In between all this, my wife had called up BMW Assist and she passed me to a lady whereupon I explained my rather frustrating and failed episode of trying to start the car ... She took down my details and said that she'd call me back in 5min. I tried a couple more times to start the car, but again, nothing except by the grace of God would this thing kick to life ... :furious:
With nothing else to do except sit and sweat in the car, my wife and I adjourned back into the air conditioned comfort of Great World City to await Miss BMW Assist to call. Pretty much bang on 5min later, she called and said that BMW will tow the car to the Kampung Arang workshop as the problem seemed too apocalyptic to fix there and then at the shopping mall car park.
What can I say right? So I said "when is this towing gonna happen?" She pleasantly informed me that the towing dudes would be there in 45-60min (just like the timeline that Starhub gives you right?). And yes, they got there within 45-60min whereupon I cleared the car of my valuables, signed some forms, gave my car key to them and slunk away ...
While waiting though, I sent an sms to my sales rep and complained - I also asked if I'd get a replacement car given that my beloved 630 is only 4 months old and then this shit happens. He called up within 10min of receiving my sms and said that it was now too late to arrange a temp car for me (it was now around 8pm) but that he'd try to arrange something tomorrow... I asked him if this was something that happened frequently to which he replied that this was the first time he'd heard of this happening since the transmission (the SMG box) is new.
What can I say right? Shit happens!!! Guess will update you folks about my travails tomorrow if you're interested ...
