The RAC fried my car....
Discussion
After a bit of help.
I had a flat battery on my M5 recently. I called the RAC to jump start it and they duly turned up in a patrol van. The 'technician/moron' did the usual with the jump cables and then asked me to start the car. Nothing.
This then went on for 25 minutes, at the end of this time he then checked his cables and discovered they were faulty and the earth cable was not working!
The car had to be low loaded to BMW after this who then told me that the DME Module (AKA ECU)had been fried and it was the best part of £2000 for a new one! I've paid it and the car is now up and running but i'm having a ding dong with the RAC who are washing their hands of any liability.
So, my question to you is two fold.
1. Would faulty earth cables from the RAC allow the DME unit to effectively 'fry'? The RAC say it would not!
2. Assuming the answer to the above is yes and the RAC stick to their 'it's not our fault' ethos where can i go next as i know 100% that the moron that turned up from the RAC melted my ECU! Small claims court etc?
I had a flat battery on my M5 recently. I called the RAC to jump start it and they duly turned up in a patrol van. The 'technician/moron' did the usual with the jump cables and then asked me to start the car. Nothing.
This then went on for 25 minutes, at the end of this time he then checked his cables and discovered they were faulty and the earth cable was not working!
The car had to be low loaded to BMW after this who then told me that the DME Module (AKA ECU)had been fried and it was the best part of £2000 for a new one! I've paid it and the car is now up and running but i'm having a ding dong with the RAC who are washing their hands of any liability.
So, my question to you is two fold.
1. Would faulty earth cables from the RAC allow the DME unit to effectively 'fry'? The RAC say it would not!
2. Assuming the answer to the above is yes and the RAC stick to their 'it's not our fault' ethos where can i go next as i know 100% that the moron that turned up from the RAC melted my ECU! Small claims court etc?
You broke down... RAC turned up but couldn't help... you try and blame them for break down.
That's how I see it from an outside point of view. How can you possibly prove otherwise. How can you prove the ECU being fried did not cause the breakdown.
I think your clutching at straws, but good luck.
That's how I see it from an outside point of view. How can you possibly prove otherwise. How can you prove the ECU being fried did not cause the breakdown.
I think your clutching at straws, but good luck.
To clarify, the car was serviced by BMW the week before, it did 300 between that date and then and was sat doing nothing for 4 days which, on the original battery meant it died and the RAC were called. The car ran perfectly prior, it strikes me as either a great coincidence that the RAC's earth not working and a load of positive charge was going into the car which melted everything or a major bit of bad luck.
Obviously I've only got my own thoughts on what happened and the RAC have their's which is why i'm trying to find out who's more likely to be right/wrong.
thanks
Obviously I've only got my own thoughts on what happened and the RAC have their's which is why i'm trying to find out who's more likely to be right/wrong.
thanks
batmanreturns said:
To clarify, the car was serviced by BMW the week before, it did 300 between that date and then and was sat doing nothing for 4 days which, on the original battery meant it died and the RAC were called. The car ran perfectly prior, it strikes me as either a great coincidence that the RAC's earth not working and a load of positive charge was going into the car which melted everything or a major bit of bad luck.
Obviously I've only got my own thoughts on what happened and the RAC have their's which is why i'm trying to find out who's more likely to be right/wrong.
thanks
Would your car normally run out of battery after four days idle? Was the cause of this known?Obviously I've only got my own thoughts on what happened and the RAC have their's which is why i'm trying to find out who's more likely to be right/wrong.
thanks
Some differences from your original thread in November, and i wasn't snooping just googling (BMW M5 DME MODULE). Your original thread was the second hit.
http://www.pistonheads.com/GASSING/topic.asp?h=0&a...
http://www.pistonheads.com/GASSING/topic.asp?h=0&a...
batmanreturns said:
The battery was the original and on it's last legs, i noticed it struggling the week before. M5's are well known for draining perfectly good battery's in a short period of time if sat idle.
Have you told the RAC this?;batmanreturns said:
Quick update on this. The garage still have the car, it now looks like water leaked into the DME as the seal around the DME cover had perished. Worth checking how yours is looking as i'm sure with age more and more of these issues will occur and a seal is cheaper than the bill i'm about to pick up on monday.
They also said it's worth clearing the drain holes under the microfilters (it's a ten minutes job apparently) as leaves and general debris collect there and prevent water flowing away. Once it gets to a certain height it's bye bye DME and hello to a big bill!
They also said it's worth clearing the drain holes under the microfilters (it's a ten minutes job apparently) as leaves and general debris collect there and prevent water flowing away. Once it gets to a certain height it's bye bye DME and hello to a big bill!
Since then it's been concluded by BMW that the fault codes logged at the time were not water related and cussed by some kind of surge. The seal was apparently brittle but still doing its job but was replaced anyway as a safe guard. This argument has been ongoing for months following various statements between BMW and the RAC and i'm now thinking of taking it further.
batmanreturns said:
The battery was the original and on it's last legs, i noticed it struggling the week before. M5's are well known for draining perfectly good battery's in a short period of time if sat idle.
Why didn't they pick that up on the service then? Not like a dealer to miss a chance to sell you something if they can claim it's knackered. 4 days of standing idle to drain a battery isn't normal for any car.Seems to me that the ECU and battery failure could well be linked .. possibly something mucked about with during the service? In any case I wouldn't hold your breath to get any compo from the RAC.
V8covin said:
Connecting the positives together but no earth means there was no circuit so the RAC man couldn't possibly have fried anything,no circuit means no voltage,no current,nothing...I've not heard of a faulty jump lead before though
Indeed. Imagine he hooked his positive to your positive with a good lead. Then put a piece of string from his negative to your negative. How will that fry your circuit?From the info provided so far I'm on the RACs side at the moment.
Common problem the battery is flat as a pancake. The charger used put a high voltage into the battery. The high voltage fried your ECU. Not sure why the fuses didn't protect your ecu though. The easiest way to kill an ecu is to remove the battery and connect any charger the wrong way round on the remaining leads, or possibly if the battery has a sort in it.
Problem is two fold.
1) You won't be able to prove the cause of the failure.
2) You let BMW sort the car out for you.
In the last year with software easily gained from the internet for about £50, I have bought one DME from a breakers for a three series, one transmission ECU for a five series, and one airbag unit for an M5. All recoded without a hitch, and all are fully working.
The cost of the Airbag unit was £40 from ebay, The DME £55 and the transmission ecu for the E46 was £15. None of those units took mor ethan five minutes to replace because they are all easily accessible.
The information is all out there.
Problem is two fold.
1) You won't be able to prove the cause of the failure.
2) You let BMW sort the car out for you.
In the last year with software easily gained from the internet for about £50, I have bought one DME from a breakers for a three series, one transmission ECU for a five series, and one airbag unit for an M5. All recoded without a hitch, and all are fully working.
The cost of the Airbag unit was £40 from ebay, The DME £55 and the transmission ecu for the E46 was £15. None of those units took mor ethan five minutes to replace because they are all easily accessible.
The information is all out there.
batmanreturns said:
To clarify, the car was serviced by BMW the week before, it did 300 between that date and then and was sat doing nothing for 4 days which, on the original battery meant it died and the RAC were called. The car ran perfectly prior, it strikes me as either a great coincidence that the RAC's earth not working and a load of positive charge was going into the car which melted everything or a major bit of bad luck.
If I'm understanding what you're saying correctly, that's so not how electricity works.Jump leads, being essentially heavy copper stranded flex, will gradually fatigue fracture at the clamps and lose strands of conductor one-by-one. This could mean that the very last strand to break did so as the batteries were connected and this could cause arcing. Whether the electrical 'noise' caused by this arcing would be enough to damage an engine management computer or not I cannot guess. Trying to lay the blame at the door of either the rescue operator or the BMW workshop might be as easy as holding water in a colander with your fingers.
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