So frustrated with BMW dealerships at the moment.

[Serious]

Originally Posted by car62

My car is not very good on cold starts either. Sometimes I have to start it twice. Some common sense things you could consider are running through a few bottles of fuel injector cleaner to see if that helps, or try changing brands of fuel to see if it seems better with a different brand of gas. These engines do seem to be very touchy about fuel brand and quality. Even if you are buying a top tier brand, you never know if the particular gas station you are going to is playing any games with the premium fuel. They often do.

I might be able to accept that except my e46 m3 was run on exactly the same gas from exactly the same stations and it never had these issues in 3.5 years.

[Finnegan]

The engine is the same, but the ECU (and probably the code) are different than the E46 M3.

It could be related to a lot of things:

The cold-start cycle for the cats may be different (related to emissions regulations); the code may have a glitch; other parts may differ.

None of these excuse BMW from addressing the issue however or at least acknowledging it. Sadly, unless it throws a code or simply won't start period they're unlikely to do anything. That's "BMW Policy"--it's not just that way with our cars but with any model they make these days.

[thekurgan]

Did they measure your coil pack resistance? At 50k and any kind of stumble, I'd check ignition first ... coil packs are not expensive and easy to replace, also, how old are the plugs? May be time to do a quick swap for some new ones and see if the stumble goes away .. wouldn't hurt to run two tanks of techron through the thing either.

[Serious]

Originally Posted by thekurgan

Did they measure your coil pack resistance? At 50k and any kind of stumble, I'd check ignition first ... coil packs are not expensive and easy to replace, also, how old are the plugs? May be time to do a quick swap for some new ones and see if the stumble goes away .. wouldn't hurt to run two tanks of techron through the thing either.

they didn't do anything to the car, just ran the codes and said... "no can do"

I'm not worried about the problem, I am fairly sure it is just a normal maintenance issue and the car just needs a new fuel filter, plugs, fuel system cleaner, possibly a new solenoid or whatever BMW uses to control idle on the s54. Nothing too dramatic or expensive. The car runs fantastically other than initial cold start.

It's just the fact that BMW should be the ones dealing with this problem and not me.

The greater problem is their willingness to dance around the problem and straight up lie to customers about issues, most of whom aren't experienced enough to see through their BS.

[thekurgan]

Originally Posted by Serious

It's just the fact that BMW should be the ones dealing with this problem and not me.

The greater problem is their willingness to dance around the problem and straight up lie to customers about issues, most of whom aren't experienced enough to see through their BS.

Agree. Maybe try another dealership or see if you can talk an Indie shop into an exam when the car is left overnight.