[tikiking]

I took my BMW to Crevier BMW in Orange County. I’m having a stalling issue and they want to update my computer. No parts are involved. It’s just apparently labor. $600 to update a computer that’s not bad. It just needed to be updated. Something smells funny to me, has anybody else had this problem or experience?

[G30M]

bot

[Mosaud1998]

[Joe-BMW33]

“My Computer” 😂😂😂

[eric_gm]

I think you are the one who needs an update

[tikiking]

I was looking for your help. But this is a real problem. I can post the bill when I receive it. I am new here.

[tikiking]

I have a 2018 540i. The car is out of warranty so I’ve been taking it to local mechanic Who used to work for BMW. The car has been stalling every once in a while maybe twice a week. I took it back several times and he said that I would have to take it to the dealer because his computer says the car is fine. So it must be the computer in the car. I took my car to the dealer and he said the computer needed to be updated. Not replaced. Not broken. Just updated. And that would cost $600. I’m only on here to see if anybody else has had a similar experience. Or if there’s any way to avoid a future update that would cost another $600.

[tikiking]

I will receive an itemized bill on completion. And for certain will be posting it here.

[tikiking]

The BMW website has details on updating the computer yourself. According to my service person at Bmw, he says that’s not for the engine diagnostics.

[arkhi]

It's 2 hours of labor. So if your center has $300/hr (mine was $270) it will cost that much and yes, that is correct.

You can do this yourself if you're handy but you'll need $36 for the Techinfo subscription, a ENET (or ICOM) interface, and a good 14V 50A power supply to do this.

[tikiking]

Originally Posted by arkhi

It's 2 hours of labor. So if your center has $300/hr (mine was $270) it will cost that much and yes, that is correct.

You can do this yourself if you're handy but you'll need $36 for the Techinfo subscription, a ENET (or ICOM) interface, and a good 14V 50A power supply to do this.

Thank you for your response. The service department told me that the update that I can do myself will not solve the problem. They are updating the computer that controls the analytics of the engine. It was a little confusing to me, but I’m just going on what the service department told me. I am very technically savvy and updating a computer would be very simple for me. Unfortunately, the BMW service department told me it was not an option to fix my car.

[arkhi]

Originally Posted by tikiking

Thank you for your response. The service department told me that the update that I can do myself will not solve the problem. They are updating the computer that controls the analytics of the engine. It was a little confusing to me, but I’m just going on what the service department told me. I am very technically savvy and updating a computer would be very simple for me. Unfortunately, the BMw service dep told me it was not an option to fix my car.

I don't know what they're on about, but if they can touch it, so can you. https://bmwtechinfo.bmwgroup.com/

This is a little bit more complex than updating a computer, unless you have experience with updating and manipulating firmware of microcontrollers.

Because if you do it wrong, you can brick your say, DME (controls the engine) and you'll have a lot of hurt $$$ wise.

Also, it's actually $32 for the subscription (not $36).

To give you an opinion: I know how to do this myself, but I don't have a decent power supply. I also don't have an OEM ICOM (I don't want the cheaper knock-offs on ebay, and the OEM is $600), just ENET so the update will take 2-4 hours. A decent power supply will run me ~$250 (it's $1k+ for a BMW-approved one, I also don't want to jerry-rig a server power supply, which you can do for cheap). So I paid the dealer $570.

[magbarn]

Originally Posted by tikiking

I took my BMW to Crevier BMW in Orange County. I’m having a stalling issue and they want to update my computer. No parts are involved. It’s just apparently labor. $600 to update a computer that’s not bad. It just needed to be updated. Something smells funny to me, has anybody else had this problem or experience?

I have a 2017 540i with 59000 miles. It hasn't stalled on me yet. I'm curious why your car would need reprogramming all of a sudden. What year is your G30 and how many miles?

Nevermind 2018 540i I assume? So we have basically pre LCI 540i's that might need a reprogram.

[DaWhole9]

Originally Posted by tikiking

I have a 2018 545i. The car is out of warranty so I’ve been taking it to local mechanic Who used to work for BMW. The car has been stalling every once in a while maybe twice a week. I took it back several times and he said that I would have to take it to the dealer because his computer says the car is fine. So it must be the computer in the car. I took my car to the dealer and he said the computer needed to be updated. Not replaced. Not broken. Just updated. And that would cost $600. I’m only on here to see if anybody else has had a similar experience. Or if there’s any way to avoid a future update that would cost another $600.

2018 545i?

[tikiking]

Originally Posted by DaWhole9

2018 545i?

It’s a 2018 540i

[jcy]

maybe try an OBDII scanner first and see for yourself what codes come up, do you know anyone else with a BMW who might have a scanner