HELP determining WHEN M2 has been chipped/remapped/dme unit
Discussion
Hello,
I am looking for help to gather evidence of when my M2 (2017) has had its DME unit modified, aka when it was remapped / chipped.
I am very much looking to understand the details around how to evidence WHEN it has been modified. Not IF it has, as I have already discovered it has been modified.
The reason I ask is that my M2 is a used car, and the previous owner is not taking responsibility for selling it to me having been modified, and not announcing it had been modified at the point of sale.
I have not had any luck when speaking to private garages nor BMW dealerships / service centres
Thank you for any help!
This is my first post on the forum, apologies if this topic has already been raised as I could not see it.
Jonathan M
UPDATE:
I should have mentioned originally, the car is from an approved used BMW dealership, so BMW have been unhelpful in helping provide such evidence of when it occurred!
I am looking for help to gather evidence of when my M2 (2017) has had its DME unit modified, aka when it was remapped / chipped.
I am very much looking to understand the details around how to evidence WHEN it has been modified. Not IF it has, as I have already discovered it has been modified.
The reason I ask is that my M2 is a used car, and the previous owner is not taking responsibility for selling it to me having been modified, and not announcing it had been modified at the point of sale.
I have not had any luck when speaking to private garages nor BMW dealerships / service centres
Thank you for any help!
This is my first post on the forum, apologies if this topic has already been raised as I could not see it.
Jonathan M
UPDATE:
I should have mentioned originally, the car is from an approved used BMW dealership, so BMW have been unhelpful in helping provide such evidence of when it occurred!
Edited by Jon Man on Sunday 7th July 13:16
Thank you all for the responses! Much appreciated!
I called Imran from Evolve, he says only BMW can access the information, known as 'faster data'. Which is unfortunate because my car came from an approved BMW dealership! So BMW have been unhelpful is sharing this evidence! (I'll update my OP with this, I should have mentioned).
Appreciate the DIY suggestions with apps/software, I'm looking into this.
Also, interesting to read the discussions about remapping.
I called Imran from Evolve, he says only BMW can access the information, known as 'faster data'. Which is unfortunate because my car came from an approved BMW dealership! So BMW have been unhelpful is sharing this evidence! (I'll update my OP with this, I should have mentioned).
Appreciate the DIY suggestions with apps/software, I'm looking into this.
Also, interesting to read the discussions about remapping.
Apologies for any lack of clarity from my posts.
It is as M5 and cuprabob understood, I purchased a BMW approved used car (M2) from a BMW dealership. The dealership denies any responsibility, including claiming to have asked the previous owners if they modified it.
A bit more information if interesting/relevant, which I didn't want to over complicated the initial request with at the start:
2 weeks after purchase (june 2018) my M2 broke down in dangerous conditions (drive train and cruise control failure on the motorway, leading to power completely cutting off). In short, my local bmw service centre didn't find anything wrong (not the same place I purchased the car from).
The same issue reoccured in exactly the same way around 10 months later, my local bmw service centre then discovered the DME was modified.
Skipping ahead of everything I've gone through with BMW (and the many departments), here I am, trying to gather evidence.
It is as M5 and cuprabob understood, I purchased a BMW approved used car (M2) from a BMW dealership. The dealership denies any responsibility, including claiming to have asked the previous owners if they modified it.
A bit more information if interesting/relevant, which I didn't want to over complicated the initial request with at the start:
2 weeks after purchase (june 2018) my M2 broke down in dangerous conditions (drive train and cruise control failure on the motorway, leading to power completely cutting off). In short, my local bmw service centre didn't find anything wrong (not the same place I purchased the car from).
The same issue reoccured in exactly the same way around 10 months later, my local bmw service centre then discovered the DME was modified.
Skipping ahead of everything I've gone through with BMW (and the many departments), here I am, trying to gather evidence.
Edited by Jon Man on Monday 8th July 14:24
Edited by Jon Man on Monday 8th July 14:25
Hi all,
I appreciate all the responses! This has certainly been a stressful time in my life caused by BMW, so I appreciate the responses and discussion.
I'll try to respond to most of them in chronological order from my last post.
@Max from Monday - indeed my car should not have been sold to me if only the dealership I purchased my car from was as supportive.
@Autohead from Monday - in dealing with BMW (dealership & financial services) you're right I have got nowhere. I'm currently waiting for BMW Customer services to finish (many months in the waiting, but I believe they have nearly finished), after which I will be considering escalations routes like the ombudsman. I would have rather had BMW deal with it, but as you say, sadly that's not the case that they would own up to the mistake. I've been reaching out to tuners, but unfortunately no luck so far (a following post mentions tuners I haven't reached out to yet).
@Driver from Monday - I didn't, the dealership claimed to have asked them if they had done the work, to which the dealership claims they said they did not. Not an overwhelming level of independent evidence in that statement. I asked them for the previous drivers but they said they can not share the names due to GDPR.
@BFleming from Tuesday - you're right about them not sharing the names.
@KPB from Tuesday - Thanks! I'll reach out to Simon @ eMaps to hear his thoughts. I'm sure it will echo what I have heard so far from others!
@ the various comments around reaching out to the main tuners, many thanks. I have reached out to around 4 so far with no luck. The dealership I purchased the car from is in Blackpool, so I am not sure if anyone is aware of who the main tuners are that work around that area? (I'll reach out to local tuners if the main ones offer no luck).
@xjay from Tuesday - Interesting to hear your thoughts. Do you think the maximum torque register can lead to evidence of when the modification occurred?
You've understood and summarised the situation nicely.
Many thanks for the list of suggested tuners, there are a few I have not reached out to!
I'm doing my best to get BMW to sort this out (i.e. provide real evidence), but unfortunately, it seems the only relevant person is the head of the BMW technical team, whom I can not contact directly. I've exhausted communications through my local BMW service centre, BMW financial services, and the BMW dealership I purchased it from - currently I'm trying to go as far as I can through BMW customer services, but I'm not hopeful.
@Max from Tuesday - certainly an escalation route, but I would prefer to exhaust their normal process first, despite it taking months so far!
@NW from Tuesday - one company (out of 40+) claimed they MAY be able to check but opening up the DME unit, but it would invalidate the warranty.
What is IPNA? I tried googling it with little results.
I've certainly become aware of the FASTA or FASTER data seeming to be a key factor in determining evidence of when the DME unit was tampered with.
I think that letter to the top will be after I exhaust the BMW customer service route (as mentioned above in my response to xjay), certainly happy to give their process a chance despite the poor results and inefficiency so far.
@groundeffect and @verysideways from Tuesday and Wednesday - I mean, if a car having it's power completely cut off on a motorway at 70mph isn't dangerous, I don't know what is!
@Adrian from Wednesday - yeah the dealership doesn't want to admit fault, I don't mind to progress legally but I would think BMW should be able to sort this out without the need for it.
I'll post any further notable updates as they come, as I appreciate the interest gathered so far.
Thanks again to all the responses.
Kind regards,
Jonathan
I appreciate all the responses! This has certainly been a stressful time in my life caused by BMW, so I appreciate the responses and discussion.
I'll try to respond to most of them in chronological order from my last post.
@Max from Monday - indeed my car should not have been sold to me if only the dealership I purchased my car from was as supportive.
@Autohead from Monday - in dealing with BMW (dealership & financial services) you're right I have got nowhere. I'm currently waiting for BMW Customer services to finish (many months in the waiting, but I believe they have nearly finished), after which I will be considering escalations routes like the ombudsman. I would have rather had BMW deal with it, but as you say, sadly that's not the case that they would own up to the mistake. I've been reaching out to tuners, but unfortunately no luck so far (a following post mentions tuners I haven't reached out to yet).
@Driver from Monday - I didn't, the dealership claimed to have asked them if they had done the work, to which the dealership claims they said they did not. Not an overwhelming level of independent evidence in that statement. I asked them for the previous drivers but they said they can not share the names due to GDPR.
@BFleming from Tuesday - you're right about them not sharing the names.
@KPB from Tuesday - Thanks! I'll reach out to Simon @ eMaps to hear his thoughts. I'm sure it will echo what I have heard so far from others!
@ the various comments around reaching out to the main tuners, many thanks. I have reached out to around 4 so far with no luck. The dealership I purchased the car from is in Blackpool, so I am not sure if anyone is aware of who the main tuners are that work around that area? (I'll reach out to local tuners if the main ones offer no luck).
@xjay from Tuesday - Interesting to hear your thoughts. Do you think the maximum torque register can lead to evidence of when the modification occurred?
You've understood and summarised the situation nicely.
Many thanks for the list of suggested tuners, there are a few I have not reached out to!
I'm doing my best to get BMW to sort this out (i.e. provide real evidence), but unfortunately, it seems the only relevant person is the head of the BMW technical team, whom I can not contact directly. I've exhausted communications through my local BMW service centre, BMW financial services, and the BMW dealership I purchased it from - currently I'm trying to go as far as I can through BMW customer services, but I'm not hopeful.
@Max from Tuesday - certainly an escalation route, but I would prefer to exhaust their normal process first, despite it taking months so far!
@NW from Tuesday - one company (out of 40+) claimed they MAY be able to check but opening up the DME unit, but it would invalidate the warranty.
What is IPNA? I tried googling it with little results.
I've certainly become aware of the FASTA or FASTER data seeming to be a key factor in determining evidence of when the DME unit was tampered with.
I think that letter to the top will be after I exhaust the BMW customer service route (as mentioned above in my response to xjay), certainly happy to give their process a chance despite the poor results and inefficiency so far.
@groundeffect and @verysideways from Tuesday and Wednesday - I mean, if a car having it's power completely cut off on a motorway at 70mph isn't dangerous, I don't know what is!
@Adrian from Wednesday - yeah the dealership doesn't want to admit fault, I don't mind to progress legally but I would think BMW should be able to sort this out without the need for it.
I'll post any further notable updates as they come, as I appreciate the interest gathered so far.
Thanks again to all the responses.
Kind regards,
Jonathan
Driver101 said:
I doubt the previous owner would have owned up to mapping it even if the dealer did contact him. He'd likely have had the car on finance and shouldn't have been touching it.
It's a tough situation you're in now especially as your local dealer also missed the tuning first time around.
Hopefully you get to the bottom of this and find out when it was remapped.
I agree. Even if the previous owner did admit it (which would be unlikely as they would get in trouble), the dealership would not be likely to share this, as they would be open to getting in trouble for if there were issues around their presale checks (auc).It's a tough situation you're in now especially as your local dealer also missed the tuning first time around.
Hopefully you get to the bottom of this and find out when it was remapped.
Thanks, I'll keep you all posted.
Hi all,
Apologise for my delayed response, I missed some email notifications on this thread, luckily I caught the emails from yesterday.
Autohead and xjay1337, thanks for checking in. Some good news, some bad news. A different BMW dealership helped me out and worked with BMW technical team to provide the information stating I did not modify the car! This went through acknowledgement of BMW customer services, back in December.
Bad news, in dealing with the dealership I purchased the car from and BMW finance, they have both stopped replying to my emails for over a month now since I provided the above information!
Any suggestions on how to proceed are welcomed, I am looking at various routes of escalation and welcome everyone's perspective.
T1berious, I completely agree, best to get a car with less than 1k mileage in my opinion.
Apologise for my delayed response, I missed some email notifications on this thread, luckily I caught the emails from yesterday.
Autohead and xjay1337, thanks for checking in. Some good news, some bad news. A different BMW dealership helped me out and worked with BMW technical team to provide the information stating I did not modify the car! This went through acknowledgement of BMW customer services, back in December.
Bad news, in dealing with the dealership I purchased the car from and BMW finance, they have both stopped replying to my emails for over a month now since I provided the above information!
Any suggestions on how to proceed are welcomed, I am looking at various routes of escalation and welcome everyone's perspective.
T1berious, I completely agree, best to get a car with less than 1k mileage in my opinion.
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