Interesting Phone Call From Dealer - My Car Called For Help.. Anybody Ever Seen This?

[jmciver]

So I got a call from my "preferred" dealer today (the one that does the routine service on my F80 which I designated in the BMW Connected app) which was a bit of a surprise. The person told me that she was responding to a SOS/BMW Assist call from my car. This was weird since I know I had not pressed the SOS button or used BMW Assist recently. For a split second I thought my car may have been stolen, but a quick glance out the window revealed that my car was exactly where I had parked it the previous night.

After a few more probing questions by me to possibly figure out what happened, the person on the phone did indicate that sometimes if the car throws a code/CEL, the car will send a message to BMW, who will then inform the preferred dealer on file as the issue is not an emergency. My car does not (and has not) have a CEL or any other locked in code that I know of - at least not one that is obvious. Then of course the person also said it could have just been a glitch. But the person on the phone could not give me any details of what the reason for the call was (i.e. no code, error message, etc), just that the car notified BMW of "something".

I know the car stores all sorts of "shadow codes" that can occur with normal operation, which I can read/clear with E-Sys or the BimmerLink app, but I would think an issue big enough for the car to "phone home" would register as a CEL or some other locked in iDrive notification. The most recent iDrive notification I had was a "hot engine compartment" warning as I had the hood up for an oil change I did a few days ago. But I don't see why the car would phone home for such an indication.

I am not too worried but was wondering has anyone ever seen this before?

[damageprone]

Out of curiosity, does your car have a tune or any mods that could trigger a CEL?

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by jmciver

So I got a call from my "preferred" dealer today (the one that does the routine service on my F80 which I designated in the BMW Connected app) which was a bit of a surprise. The person told me that she was responding to a SOS/BMW Assist call from my car. This was weird since I know I had not pressed the SOS button or used BMW Assist recently. For a split second I thought my car may have been stolen, but a quick glance out the window revealed that my car was exactly where I had parked it the previous night.

After a few more probing questions by me to possibly figure out what happened, the person on the phone did indicate that sometimes if the car throws a code/CEL, the car will send a message to BMW, who will then inform the preferred dealer on file as the issue is not an emergency. My car does not (and has not) have a CEL or any other locked in code that I know of - at least not one that is obvious. Then of course the person also said it could have just been a glitch. But the person on the phone could not give me any details of what the reason for the call was (i.e. no code, error message, etc), just that the car notified BMW of "something".

I know the car stores all sorts of "shadow codes" that can occur with normal operation, which I can read/clear with E-Sys or the BimmerLink app, but I would think an issue big enough for the car to "phone home" would register as a CEL or some other locked in iDrive notification. The most recent iDrive notification I had was a "hot engine compartment" warning as I had the hood up for an oil change I did a few days ago. But I don't see why the car would phone home for such an indication.

I am not too worried but was wondering has anyone ever seen this before?

Yes. I have had it happen when I got a CEL.

Of course they called 2.5 weeks after the CEL and I had taken it to another Dealership 2 weeks earlier to fix.

Mine was an error in the LPFP. iirc, there was a batch with bad sensors and of course one has to replace entire LPFP as sensor is not serviceable.

Stock car with no coding at the time.

[jmciver]

Originally Posted by damageprone

Out of curiosity, does your car have a tune or any mods that could trigger a CEL?

No tune and the only thing close to performance mods are an oil catch can, drop in air filters and charcoal filter removal. And I have never had a CEL in 1.5+ years of ownership. I have had a few "temporary" malfunctions pop up in iDrive after a few coding sessions, but they cleared right away. But the last time I did any coding was several months ago.

[hlothery]

I was in Scottsdale, playing golf. Got a call from my dealer saying my M4 (parked in my garage in San Antonio) had notified them it was ready for service. Actually had about 300 miles until service was due. I scheduled it for a day when I was to return, while waiting for the group in front of me to finish on the green, then continued to play. Damn car is too smart for it's own good, I was going to schedule service as soon as I got back. No codes, no mods, no alterations at all. Just BMW's arranging an income stream for BMW.

[jmciver]

My car has yet to automatically call the dealer for routine service. Or maybe I was too quick to schedule the service myself so the dealer just ignored the call from the car since I already scheduled it ....

[Poiseuille]

I got a series of those calls last year and they are legit. Seems I was doing paid-for oil services in between the free ones and there was confusion about which service to tell the computer about. So the car thought I was overdue for oil service when I just had one four weeks earlier. Same woman called each time, from a local dealer, and she could never answer the question of exactly why she was calling. Took a few calls before I realized what was going on.

[pokerface]

Originally Posted by Poiseuille

I got a series of those calls last year and they are legit. Seems I was doing paid-for oil services in between the free ones and there was confusion about which service to tell the computer about. So the car thought I was overdue for oil service when I just had one four weeks earlier. Same woman called each time, from a local dealer, and she could never answer the question of exactly why she was calling. Took a few calls before I realized what was going on.

For something like this, are you simply not resetting the CBS at the paid oil service so you can still claim the covered scheduled maintenance?

[Poiseuille]

Originally Posted by pokerface

For something like this, are you simply not resetting the CBS at the paid oil service so you can still claim the covered scheduled maintenance?

Correct. That's what I did, on the advice of two different SAs.