Strange Quality Problem!

[Vintage]

Okay - my wife's new Z4 35i finally arrived from Euro Delivery to our Arlington, TX dealer Saturday. Yippie, except the truck carrier scraped the front spoiler that now has to be repaired. In addition, a "shock absorber" symbol keeps appearing shortly after start-up with an exclamation mark; I have no idea what it is trying to tell me. We drove this thing 753 miles in Europe in August with no trouble and now this??? Could the same incompetent trucker have messed up our Sport Suspension adaptive shpocks by strapping the car down too tight during shipment? Finally, after detailing the car myself last night (wash, wax, vacuum, clean glass, cleaned leather and conditioned, etc.), I pulled it out in the sun for pics and the passenger side rear view mirror is black sapphire metallic!!!! Nope, you guessed it the rest of the car is jet black like my wife ordered.

[riccis]

Sorry to hear about the issues. Must be heart breaking given as it's a brand new car.

I would insist on a new spoiler, not a repair.

Regarding the shock issue.....it's difficult to say what the cause is. Personally, I doubt it was because the car was too tightly strapped down; when the secure the car they normally strap the car down in such a way that the shocks are not compressed or at least certainly not fully - to do that, they would have to strap the car from the body work or chassis itself which is very unlikely as it could very easily damage the body work etc. They normally, from what I've seen, secure the cars on the transporters via the wheels so that, over bumps etc, the cars also 'bounce' so I would imagine that the shocks are free to work But I stand to be corrected and maybe someone else on the forum can confirm or otherwise.

Either way, you should be covered under warranty so have a word with your dealer and ask for the shock to be replaced (although they may repair it depending on the cause of the issue).

Lastly, regarding the wing mirror.......sounds like it's been damaged (perhaps in transit?) and been replaced and incorrectly painted it or whoever replaced the mirror the mirror, took it off another car that was metallic black! I'd call the dealer and get that replaced too.

[richard in NC]

All good points and I agree exactly. All items could be attributed to problems/repairs during shipping. Work with your dealer until you are satisfied. I hope you get things resolved.

[Vintage]

Great - less time with the car and a lot more time at the dealer. I guess I should not complain as I expect they will take care of the issues.

[Z4Andy]

Scraped it or dropped the car hard coming of the transporter damaging the spoiler and the cars suspension?

Hope you get it sorted. Give them hell.

[mav5125]

Originally Posted by VintageBMW

Okay - my wife's new Z4 35i finally arrived from Euro Delivery to our Arlington, TX dealer Saturday. Yippie, except the truck carrier scraped the front spoiler that now has to be repaired. In addition, a "shock absorber" symbol keeps appearing shortly after start-up with an exclamation mark; I have no idea what it is trying to tell me. We drove this thing 753 miles in Europe in August with no trouble and now this??? Could the same incompetent trucker have messed up our Sport Suspension adaptive shpocks by strapping the car down too tight during shipment? Finally, after detailing the car myself last night (wash, wax, vacuum, clean glass, cleaned leather and conditioned, etc.), I pulled it out in the sun for pics and the passenger side rear view mirror is black sapphire metallic!!!! Nope, you guessed it the rest of the car is jet black like my wife ordered.

The shock with an exclamation mark on your instrument panel means that your dynamic damper control is faulty. When you change from normal to sport to sport + the suspension isn't changing to the different setting. Your car is currently on normal mode. When you change to sport everything else is changing (steering response, acceleration response) but your suspension is still stilling in normal mode.

I know i have the same issue, and i'm taking it back to the dealer to get the struts replaced. He had to order the parts from Germany. Getting it done this week.

So my advice would be: take it back to the dealer pronto and get them to fix it.

btw you should see a dynamic damper control failure message in your car settings 'check control' where you can check your tyre pressure etc.. have a look.

good luck with it. Pain in the ass i know. It's a brand new car for crying out loud.

[Vintage]

Thanks a bunch - what is very disturbing is that it was NOT a problem for 753 miles in Germany. It seems that hey have damaged the car in shipment - what the hell do I do now?????

[mav5125]

Originally Posted by VintageBMW

Thanks a bunch - what is very disturbing is that it was NOT a problem for 753 miles in Germany. It seems that hey have damaged the car in shipment - what the hell do I do now?????

It happen much more earlier on in my car. Either way it's covered by warranty and they have to fix it.

[Roadstergal]

VintageBMW, sorry to hear of your troubles. I am sure it will all get worked out, but I feel for you. I was happy to read that you finally received your car, but not under these circumstances. I watched some videos on you tube that showed how some of the drivers drive these cars on and off the vessels and it wasn't pretty. I am sure some of the truckers do the same. I am going to check my car out with a fine toothcomb when I get the call. Good luck and keep us posted.

[puyo]

We took delivery of our Black Sapphire sDrive35i this Saturday, and had the exact same fault message: damping control malfunctioned or failed. I felt so miserable because I had a brand new Z4, but didn't dare driving it anywhere. I spoke with the SA this morning, and he thinks that the problem is they didn't do the "transport mode deletion correctly, and/or did not initiate the system upon completion." His explanation certainly made sense, and I hope yours and mine problems are as simple to solve. Anyhow, it's going back to the dealership tomorrow AM.

PS Your Jet Black mirror was not on my car.

[Vintage]

Originally Posted by puyo

We took delivery of our Black Sapphire sDrive35i this Saturday, and had the exact same fault message: damping control malfunctioned or failed. I felt so miserable because I had a brand new Z4, but didn't dare driving it anywhere. I spoke with the SA this morning, and he thinks that the problem is they didn't do the "transport mode deletion correctly, and/or did not initiate the system upon completion." His explanation certainly made sense, and I hope yours and mine problems are as simple to solve. Anyhow, it's going back to the dealership tomorrow AM.

PS Your Jet Black mirror was not on my car.

Thanks for the helpful information - I will pass this on to my dealer when I take the car in this week. For everyone that has ordered a car - check it over very carefully before taking delivery. I really am pretty easy going but there is little excuse for damaging cars in transport, especially when if you do not see it you will be stuck with it.

[puyo]

Good Luck to you VintageBMW. Unfortunately, for me it wasn't simply a code reset. A front strut was replaced. My car's back, and so far so good. Keep us updated after you get yours checked out.

[Vintage]

Originally Posted by puyo

Good Luck to you VintageBMW. Unfortunately, for me it wasn't simply a code reset. A front strut was replaced. My car's back, and so far so good. Keep us updated after you get yours checked out.

how long was your car at the dealer? was the strut in stock?

[puyo]

Originally Posted by VintageBMW

how long was your car at the dealer? was the strut in stock?

Took them two days to get the strut. They installed it the same morning they got it. The strut is a slide in replacement. I have the schematics at work, I'll post it Monday.

[Vintage]

thanks - called the dealer today and made an appointment for this week

[puyo]

Here's the front strut schematics.

[Vintage]

The dealer admitted today that the car was in fact damaged in port according to their records (New Jersey Port where all Euro delivery goes go to when they enter the States). This is why it sat there for 3 weeks before making it to Texas - so they could put a black sapphire metallic passenger rear-view mirror on it with a damage lower front spoiler and a bad paint rub at the front right hood line - NICE!!!! What should I do - I guess just take the abuse.

[riccis]

Originally Posted by VintageBMW

What should I do - I guess just take the abuse.

No. Take it back and tell the dealer to put it right. You didn't pay good money for a damaged car. Part of your reason for choosing BMW was surely because of quality. If you wanted a car with mis-matched parts and poor paint quality and a damaged spoiler, you could have got one for a lot less!

[Z4Andy]

Reject the car!

It's obvious that something bad has happened here and as I have already said they might have just stuffed the suspension as well.

[Vintage]

The car is going back in on Monday - and then I will sit down with the General Manager to see how we will resolve this. I love BMWs and even own BMW motorcycles, but this is ridiculous.

Originally Posted by Z4Andy

Reject the car!

It's obvious that something bad has happened here and as I have already said they might have just stuffed the suspension as well.

[riccis]

Originally Posted by Z4Andy

Reject the car!

It's obvious that something bad has happened here and as I have already said they might have just stuffed the suspension as well.

Just a note, if you do decide to reject the car, do it quick. I'm no legal expert but if you are going to reject it, then I believe you only have a short period of time in which to do it from when to take delivery. And if I'm not mistaken, that time in which you can reject a car is measured in weeks!

Sorry....the above may not apply to Vintage BMW as he's from the US. But if anything the US gives consumers better protection than us in the UK.

[richard in NC]

Originally Posted by VintageBMW

The car is going back in on Monday - and then I will sit down with the General Manager to see how we will resolve this. I love BMWs and even own BMW motorcycles, but this is ridiculous.

Good plan. Aim to reject the car. If not, get some sort of resolution guarantee (extended warranty) and compensation for the car getting repaired, like a decent loaner and 1st month payment on the house.

I purchased a '95 3000GT VR-4 that had an alignment issue. I noticed it on the drive home from the dealer. It took 3 shops 3 weeks to find a bent lower control arm, probably from being too tight on the car carrier. It was repaired but I had to drive a cheap loaner while I still paid the 1st month payment. Later I had balance issues with the car and assumed it was related but that ended up being 2 bent rims.