Dealers unexpectedly bricking your car

bennywebb · 02-08-2023, 04:29 PM

Hello,

Had my MoT Test recently at my local BWM garage and as usual, spent the day waiting by the phone waiting for the call to tell me how much it's going to cost me. Got the call in the afternoon and the person goes, "So, your car's passed its MoT, but, uh, you can't come and get it yet as it's stuck doing a software update." Odd I thought, not something I usually hear when I go for an MoT.
End of the day comes, get another call, "Yeah, sorry, we're going to have to keep the car over night to reset it and try again. This happens quite a lot."
Oh well I think, bit of a pain as it's a Friday and I had stuff to do on the Saturday. I mentioned that this was a tad... inconvenient, so they agreed to let me have a new 1-Series courtesy car while they sort it out (nice car, not a fan of the interior LEDs).
Monday morning comes round and I get another call. "Yep, the car's buggered. We're going to have to order a new head unit from BMW." Oh Christ I think, how much is this going to cost? "Oh don't worry, it's happened under out watch so you don't have to pay a thing."
Phew.
Anyway, a week later, I get the car back (it was apparently a software recall update for the engine management) with a new headunit on what I believe is the latest revision (NBTEvo Y?) and the good news is it came with the latest map pack. Awesome!
Bad news, it's lost all my codings like switching to ID6 Lite and lost my "aftermarket" CarPlay. FFFfuuu. Fired up my version of esys to be told that it expired a while back. Had a look round for another version but ended up losing the will to live. Jesus, ID5 looks dated when you go back.

TL;dr. BMW garage does a software update without letting me know, bricks the car, had to replace my HeadUnit, lost all my codings.

My question to you all: Has this happened to anyone here and do you normally get told you're getting a software update before they do it?

Opie55 · 02-08-2023, 06:25 PM

I've only had one software update under some recent emissions recall. I knew it was happening since that's the only reason I took it to the dealer. But I also knew I would lose all coding. That's just what happens when they reflash your car. But my coding is all via Bimmercode, so I just pulled out my phone and recoded it all.

bennywebb · 02-09-2023, 03:07 AM

Yeah, I knew that some day I might need to get a software update and lose my stuff, I was just wondering how common it was for dealers to do it unannouced and also how common it is for that update to fail.

Think I'll get Bimmercode as it sounds a lot less hassle than trying to get a working e-sys set up again

02-08-2023, 04:29 PM	#1
bennywebb New Member 1 Rep 7 Posts Drives: BMW X3 Join Date: Feb 2023 Location: Scotland iTrader: (0)	Dealers unexpectedly bricking your car Hello, Had my MoT Test recently at my local BWM garage and as usual, spent the day waiting by the phone waiting for the call to tell me how much it's going to cost me. Got the call in the afternoon and the person goes, "So, your car's passed its MoT, but, uh, you can't come and get it yet as it's stuck doing a software update." Odd I thought, not something I usually hear when I go for an MoT. End of the day comes, get another call, "Yeah, sorry, we're going to have to keep the car over night to reset it and try again. This happens quite a lot." Oh well I think, bit of a pain as it's a Friday and I had stuff to do on the Saturday. I mentioned that this was a tad... inconvenient, so they agreed to let me have a new 1-Series courtesy car while they sort it out (nice car, not a fan of the interior LEDs). Monday morning comes round and I get another call. "Yep, the car's buggered. We're going to have to order a new head unit from BMW." Oh Christ I think, how much is this going to cost? "Oh don't worry, it's happened under out watch so you don't have to pay a thing." Phew. Anyway, a week later, I get the car back (it was apparently a software recall update for the engine management) with a new headunit on what I believe is the latest revision (NBTEvo Y?) and the good news is it came with the latest map pack. Awesome! Bad news, it's lost all my codings like switching to ID6 Lite and lost my "aftermarket" CarPlay. FFFfuuu. Fired up my version of esys to be told that it expired a while back. Had a look round for another version but ended up losing the will to live. Jesus, ID5 looks dated when you go back. TL;dr. BMW garage does a software update without letting me know, bricks the car, had to replace my HeadUnit, lost all my codings. My question to you all: Has this happened to anyone here and do you normally get told you're getting a software update before they do it?
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02-08-2023, 06:25 PM	#2
Opie55 Colonel 1195 Rep 2,907 Posts Drives: '15 650i Convertible Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: US iTrader: (0)	I've only had one software update under some recent emissions recall. I knew it was happening since that's the only reason I took it to the dealer. But I also knew I would lose all coding. That's just what happens when they reflash your car. But my coding is all via Bimmercode, so I just pulled out my phone and recoded it all.
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02-09-2023, 03:07 AM	#3
bennywebb New Member 1 Rep 7 Posts Drives: BMW X3 Join Date: Feb 2023 Location: Scotland iTrader: (0)	Yeah, I knew that some day I might need to get a software update and lose my stuff, I was just wondering how common it was for dealers to do it unannouced and also how common it is for that update to fail. Think I'll get Bimmercode as it sounds a lot less hassle than trying to get a working e-sys set up again
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