Dme unlocking for tuning watch out!!

[Bmwtb]

Just this month bmw has started a team to check faults at dealers for unlocked dme and they are flaging vins! Just a heads up for everyone.

[JamesGames]

Originally Posted by Bmwtb

Just this month bmw has started a team to check faults at dealers for unlocked dme and they are flaging vins! Just a heads up for everyone.

Where did you get this information?

[G1n Mast3r]

Subscribed as I'm curious as to this as well. It was my understanding that they only check for these types of things when a major warranty claim is filed. Which in my eyes makes sense. But just to screw over consumers? That seems highly unlikely. Plausible but highly unlikely. BMW, I would assume, has to know that their cars are for 1. Underrated from the factory and 2. The tuning capability of cars, specifically BMW's has been around a very, very long time.

Albeit, to be perfectly honest I wouldn't doubt BMW WOULD do something like this.

[YMB_F80]

Originally Posted by G1n Mast3r

Subscribed as I'm curious as to this as well. It was my understanding that they only check for these types of things when a major warranty claim is filed. Which in my eyes makes sense. But just to screw over consumers? That seems highly unlikely. Plausible but highly unlikely. BMW, I would assume, has to know that their cars are for 1. Underrated from the factory and 2. The tuning capability of cars, specifically BMW's has been around a very, very long time.

Albeit, to be perfectly honest I wouldn't doubt BMW WOULD do something like this.

Oh trust me BMW in Socal has been bad.... My car got flagged for slotted rotors... and won't do brake pad change... I went in for a oil change once and the car had issues, brought it back and they tried blaming me for my mods.. they took a bunch of pictures of my car and tried denying me any kinda warranty work

[x.shell]

Originally Posted by YMB_F80

Oh trust me BMW in Socal has been bad.... My car got flagged for slotted rotors... and won't do brake pad change... I went in for a oil change once and the car had issues, brought it back and they tried blaming me for my mods.. they took a bunch of pictures of my car and tried denying me any kinda warranty work

Which dealer is this?

[AutoTalent]

I've been hearing about this as well. Trusted SA's flagging cars for everything recently.

[YMB_F80]

Originally Posted by exo-shell

Which dealer is this?

New Century and Pacific, some dealerships have BMW NA stationed there now just to flag cars. Just FYI!

[x.shell]

Originally Posted by AutoTalent

I've been hearing about this as well. Trusted SA's flagging cars for everything recently.

Originally Posted by YMB_F80

New Century and Pacific, some dealerships have BMW NA stationed there now just to flag cars. Just FYI!

Thanks for the heads up.

BMW is probably using more aggressive methods to muscle their way into the modding market and push their M-Performance products.

[G1n Mast3r]

Yeah that would be my guess exo-shell. Which is super lame. But to each his own I guess. but YMB_F80 Thanks for the heads up. I'll have to ask my SA the next time I see him which should be pretty soon. Although it is my assumption, exo and YMB correct me if I am wrong but the burden of proof lies on BMW to confirm that the mods you've installed directly correlate to the issue that the car is having? I could be wrong though.

In either case this really sucks...Hopefully they won't flag me for a full coilover setup when I take my EDC shocks....

[alex310]

Originally Posted by G1n Mast3r

Yeah that would be my guess exo-shell. Which is super lame. But to each his own I guess. but YMB_F80 Thanks for the heads up. I'll have to ask my SA the next time I see him which should be pretty soon. Although it is my assumption, exo and YMB correct me if I am wrong but the burden of proof lies on BMW to confirm that the mods you've installed directly correlate to the issue that the car is having? I could be wrong though.

In either case this really sucks...Hopefully they won't flag me for a full coilover setup when I take my EDC shocks....

Flagging is much different than "voiding." When a vehicle is flagged it just means BMW has to look at it before any work is done. My guess is BMW had many lawsuits before with voiding warranty. You'll never hear your warranty is thrown out or void. They will flag the car, a second set of eyes will look at it and decide if it is manufacture defect or caused by the consumer and deny service.

Remember dealerships are privately owned (franschised from BMW.) The dealership would rather have your vehicle paid for and fixed so they get paid. They can take the complaint from customer, submit a claim to BMW, BMW approves (pays) or denies it.

The service advisor & technicians are not generally out to get you, it is the diagnostics computer that submits the information to BMW that is the bad guy!

Regardless if you are flagged it is not the end of the world; just going to be more difficult to get warranty work done.

[Arcades]

Originally Posted by YMB_F80

New Century and Pacific, some dealerships have BMW NA stationed there now just to flag cars. Just FYI!

Yeah I heard about this from Eric.

I don't have any mods that is on the "uh oh" list as far as I know so I'm pretty safe. The only thing is my soon to be rims, that is it.

My exhaust is only slip-on, at least for the moment. I swear this has something to do with VW and all of their diesel scandal now it has spread over to everywhere else. Akrapovic stopped officially selling Evo Mid Pipes, I heard REMUS and Eisenmann will stop too.

[G1n Mast3r]

Originally Posted by Arcades

Yeah I heard about this from Eric.

I don't have any mods that is on the "uh oh" list as far as I know so I'm pretty safe. The only thing is my soon to be rims, that is it.

My exhaust is only slip-on, at least for the moment. I swear this has something to do with VW and all of their diesel scandal now it has spread over to everywhere else. Akrapovic stopped officially selling Evo Mid Pipes, I heard REMUS and Eisenmann will stop too.

Thankfully mine is all slip on, granted I feel like if they really wanted to stick it on us, they would. I would really really having to go back to stock. The only only "uh-oh" I have would be spacers and spring currently...well actually there might be a few other things.....full coilovers soon and new wheels..yikes....

[Arcades]

Originally Posted by G1n Mast3r

Thankfully mine is all slip on, granted I feel like if they really wanted to stick it on us, they would. I would really really having to go back to stock. The only only "uh-oh" I have would be spacers and spring currently...well actually there might be a few other things.....full coilovers soon and new wheels..yikes....

I'm on HAS and soon new rims as well. I don't think they are a problem. Full coilovers might, air suspension is definitely a "uh oh"

[G1n Mast3r]

lol Arcades That's definitely true. Although one might say I'm making my car less prone to failure since i'm taking out the EDC shocks and and what not and replacing them with something less prone to failure, IE Full Coilovers... but we'll see I'll talk with my SA and see what the Dealership that I go to has to say about this whole thing.

[Arnold_Powers]

A dealership in socal even tried to tell me I have a aftermarket exhaust system because of my bolt on tips ... also I had a problem w the driveshaft connection to the diff and one dealer tried to tell me it's because my "suspension looks tampered with" .. took the vehicle in all oem spec (was lowered)

[TRACK M4STER]

Originally Posted by Bmwtb

Just this month bmw has started a team to check faults at dealers for unlocked dme and they are flaging vins! Just a heads up for everyone.

Bmwtb, I'm a service consultant and only in-house M-specialist. As SA's we PREFER to have BMW cover your concerns under warranty because we get paid, you're happy and it's the path of least resistance. I can tell you I'm ALWAYS on the owner's side. We want you to be happy, buy more BMW's and keep you in the family. I also understand the power of social media so I personally wouldn't want any negative PR against me or my store.

However, certain BMW centers are on watch due to a higher propensity of fraudulent buy backs. 91% of these vehicles had been tamper sealed after evidence of self-sabotaging. But, it's less expensive for BMW just to mediate and repurchase the vehicle rather than hire expensive attorneys to fight long-drawn out court cases.

Pacific BMW is located in Glendale where a certain "community" knows the game and how to successfully get their vehicle repurchased 4 and 5 times over. Build a case, get repurchased, repeat process. Eventually BMW spent millions and hired a team of specialists.

Unfortunately that means those of us who are honest and just attempting to get legitimate warranty repairs are subject to higher scrutiny simply by virtue of the dealership you're servicing your vehicle at. Is Pacific BMW overzealous or doing their due diligence?

Nonetheless, check the online reviews and if you're not getting the service you'd expect owning a BMW you have many choices in LA.

Just remember SA's and technicians want to get paid for repairing cars. Flagging vehicles is not done at the dealership level--it's done by BMW NA.

Hopefully this makes sense.

[Arcades]

Originally Posted by TRACK M4STER

Bmwtb, I'm a service consultant and only in-house M-specialist. As SA's we PREFER to have BMW cover your concerns under warranty because we get paid, you're happy and it's the path of least resistance. I can tell you I'm ALWAYS on the owner's side. We want you to be happy, buy more BMW's and keep you in the family. I also understand the power of social media so I personally wouldn't want any negative PR against me or my store.

However, certain BMW centers are on watch due to a higher propensity of fraudulent buy backs. 91% of these vehicles had been tamper sealed after evidence of self-sabotaging. But, it's less expensive for BMW just to mediate and repurchase the vehicle rather than hire expensive attorneys to fight long-drawn out court cases.

Pacific BMW is located in Glendale where a certain "community" knows the game and how to successfully get their vehicle repurchased 4 and 5 times over. Build a case, get repurchased, repeat process. Eventually BMW spent millions and hired a team of specialists.

Unfortunately that means those of us who are honest and just attempting to get legitimate warranty repairs are subject to higher scrutiny simply by virtue of the dealership you're servicing your vehicle at. Is Pacific BMW overzealous or doing their due diligence?

Nonetheless, check the online reviews and if you're not getting the service you'd expect owning a BMW you have many choices in LA.

Just remember SA's and technicians want to get paid for repairing cars. Flagging vehicles is not done at the dealership level--it's done by BMW NA.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Thank you.

I'm a bit tired of false information lately. I will never unlock DME on my cars.

[hdubf80]

These are scary times

[NorCal f80]

question on two scenarios ... - would it get flagged with DPs [ non visual ] and macht shnell device to hide the CEL ...

second scenario ... - JB4 installed and disabled MAP 0 when brought in ?

[YMB_F80]

Originally Posted by 0-100 ninja real quick

question on two scenarios ... - would it get flagged with DPs [ non visual ] and macht shnell device to hide the CEL ...

second scenario ... - JB4 installed and disabled MAP 0 when brought in ?

depends on your SA really

[Arcades]

Originally Posted by 0-100 ninja real quick

question on two scenarios ... - would it get flagged with DPs [ non visual ] and macht shnell device to hide the CEL ...

second scenario ... - JB4 installed and disabled MAP 0 when brought in ?

Downpipes is SA that would look but I never heard about it ppl getting in trouble for it.

JB4 is unknown at this point because once again the ones that flag your car is BMW NA through the computer not the SA or the technician, it is out of their hands. I would unplug jb4 to be safe.

[schnell1982]

Originally Posted by Arcades

Downpipes is SA that would look but I never heard about it ppl getting in trouble for it.

JB4 is unknown at this point because once again the ones that flag your car is BMW NA through the computer not the SA or the technician, it is out of their hands. I would unplug jb4 to be safe.

I have had notes added to my file on an engine oil service of "aftermarket tuning harness" installed in engine.
I know of more then 1 person with the same at different dealers.
It is what it is..we all know what we are potentially getting involved with dealing with aftermarket tuners.
Dinan looks really good about now, peace of mind of zero hassles