[Joburg Beemer]

My E90 320d has been a disaster since almost the beginning of my ownership.

The first thing to piss me off was that the steering wheel stiching on the leather came loose. Nice one BMW... They replaced the whole wheel.

Then the Turbo Vibration Dampner failed very early on, and it and the turbo was replaced at a cost of R10 500 (That about $1590)to BMW SA under warranty. BMW never officially recalled the batch of cars with the problem, but I was told that there was a specific batch that had the reject parts. They just sat back and waited for the parts to fail. As an owner, it was upto me to identify the noise in my engine bay and take the car in. Anyway, with a black mark against BMW, they replaced the part with a new upgraded part.

Then to my utter disbelief, my Turbo just failed to kick in yesterday when leaving work. No power... Nothing. Just felt like a 316i of days gone by.

The dealership's official response it that BMW have acknowledged a fault on the Turbo Activation Valve. They have not upgraded the part and it will only be ready around 8 January. Geee, lucky me, I get to go on holiday with a car that might decide to be very lazy one day, and very active the next. There is no point in repalceing the Turbo now, as the problem exists until the part is upgraded... So this leaves me in the enviable position of owning a brand new BMW 320d with problems under the bonnet that cannot be solved. Fantastic !!! I paid R300k for this vehicle, my first new one after haveing owned 5 three series previously.. All used vehicles, and not one of them gave the same problems as this. I want my 2004 320i E46 M - Sports back.. I hate my new car. I have wasted my money... No pleasure in owning this car !!!!

[spax]

Did you ever get the fault sorted on the activation valve? If so what were the remedials carried out.
Mine has just started having the same problems as you detailed and the dealer is being very vague about sorting the problem.

Thanks