5 Major Repairs in 90 days, 4 SES, 3 Thermostats - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

intense321 · 13th June 2006, 00:49

'00 E39 M5, 56k miles..

In the last 90 days, the car has been in the shop more than it's been in my garage. 3 SES lights confirmed faulty thermostats, all of which have been replaced.

In between the SES's for thermostat faults, I've had 1 SES for faulty exhaust purge valve, and a broken Fuel Door Actuator (no SES, just all remote functions disabled with this problem).

Has anyone had this much trouble with faults? What's up with all these bad thermostats? Lately every time I start the car I wonder how many miles I can go before SES pops up again!

Very frustrating and very expensive!

ard · 13th June 2006, 01:15

I'd be VERY concerned with the accuracy of your dealers statements to you...

What were the specific codes you got on three separate occasions "confirming" faulty thermostats??

I'd want to know precisely what the codes are BEFORE they start guessing with my dollars...

A

gsfent · 13th June 2006, 01:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by intense321

'00 E39 M5, 56k miles..

In the last 90 days, the car has been in the shop more than it's been in my garage. 3 SES lights confirmed faulty thermostats, all of which have been replaced.

In between the SES's for thermostat faults, I've had 1 SES for faulty exhaust purge valve, and a broken Fuel Door Actuator (no SES, just all remote functions disabled with this problem).

Has anyone had this much trouble with faults? What's up with all these bad thermostats? Lately every time I start the car I wonder how many miles I can go before SES pops up again!

Very frustrating and very expensive!

OK, I profess ingorance. How many Tstats do our cars have? One for each bank? Most cars just have one. If a new one failed, that should be a warranty repair.

You might want to invest $135 in a Peake code reader. This will allow you to see what the codes are, and clear the SES light, at least temprarily. As ard suggests, just believing the dealer can be $$$.
Regards,
Jerry

intense321 · 13th June 2006, 01:53

Well, all the thermostat replacements (except for the first one) are free of charge because of Parts Warranty, so I doubt that the dealership is trying to make money off of me. The initial thermostat repair was on the order of $1000, so the dealership gains nothing by repeatedly repairing the problem. I'll get the specific code from the SA, but the code reads, "No temperature data input from thermostat". With each repair, the "new thermostat" seems to work ok for about 2 weeks, and then SES comes on again. I'm just wondering if there's a bad batch of thermostats out there or if there is something else wrong with the car that the dealer can't figure out. Does anyone else have repeatedly faulty thermostats with the E39?

trackstar · 13th June 2006, 02:34

I don't have any e39 specific knowledge in this area, but I find it highly unlikely 3 t-stats in a row have crapped out. Possibly some type of sending unit?

wilsodh · 13th June 2006, 02:40

I can't recall the last time I read anything about a thermostats on the board... doesn't seem to be a common issue...

Dave

bob barringer · 14th June 2006, 01:45

01 with 62K miles. I have has the engine service light come on every week or so for over a month. First time was for a smog valve, 3 times same code indicating electrical problems. Last time same engine service light was for a bad thermostat. The part was not in stock and they have had the car for over a week. This tells me there may be bad thermostats in the pipeline. Good luck.

GGarai · 14th June 2006, 01:58

This SES thing is disconcerting - not the frequency of the light going on, but the frequency with which our cars are diagnosed to have something malfunction. Maybe we should do a poll on how often people need to take their cars in for repair as a result of some symptom showing up on the SES light.

tmlesko · 14th June 2006, 03:58

I have found that the codes, if read often and cleared often, sometimes do not return . . . so, what I do is read the codes, record them and if a fault is recurring, then I do something about it, if it is serious, right away. I was told by a former service advisor that the codes are easily tripped - minor voltage fluctuations. 2000 MY, 55K, not many problems, knock on wood!! FYI, YRMV.

Tom L.

ard · 14th June 2006, 04:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmlesko

I have found that the codes, if read often and cleared often, sometimes do not return . . . so, what I do is read the codes, record them and if a fault is recurring, then I do something about it, if it is serious, right away. I was told by a former service advisor that the codes are easily tripped - minor voltage fluctuations. 2000 MY, 55K, not many problems, knock on wood!! FYI, YRMV.

Tom L.

Good advice. The dealership computer will actually pull a log of codes, how many times it occured and when- I had a single code (forget what it was) but it was an occurence of (1)...cleared it and never recurred.

Beamer_usa · 14th June 2006, 05:58

My code reader has paid for itself many times over, a wise investment!