ECU unrepairable, looking for advice in Northampton/Rugby area please

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Poorly Zed

New member
 Northamptonshire
Hello all,
Had a 2.2i 2003 Z4 for about three years, and been lurking on here for a couple of issues before. This time it's something major so decided it was best to ask for advice please!
Three weeks ago I was driving up the M6 and it started 'missing', giving a big jerk, then the famous dashboard warning lights of ECU and EML. Pulled off at the next junction and then it really started misbehaving - stalling at low revs or going uphill. Each time it restarted straight away, until I got into a car park to wait for a nice man with a yellow van :)
The AA man did the diagnostics, and came up with codes 28B2, 2869 and 27A1, which his laptop was saying was the throttle body. He cleaned it up as best he could but it still wouldn't run well, so he towed me the sixty miles home. Came on here and found a previous/older post with a BMW service notification saying those codes mean ECU failure, not throttle body failure, so off it went to ECU Testing (again on forum advice). They've now called me back saying the ECU is too damaged to repair, and at the moment none of their suppliers can find me a new one.
I think I'm headed for a £1300 bill with BMW Wollaston in Northampton, but can anyone local recommend an indy in Northampton or Rugby please? I've not had good experiences with BMW Wollaston in the past...not least that the quote they gave me today included £156 diagnostics before they'd even order the part...they won't accept that two different mechanics have read the same fault codes and that ECU Testing have declared it unrepairable! Would I be out of line to insist that they accept my request to supply/fit/program a new £1k+ part without testing the old one? I have the issue that it's undriveable so anywhere I book into must be able to sort it out as I'll be getting a tow.

Thanks in advance for your time reading this long post and any advice you can give me!
 
Hello

Sorry to hear your story ,im no expert but what about a second hand ecu have you considered that from a breakers or ebay ,it would probably need to be programmed to the car but im sure would be much cheaper
 
alane29 said:
Hello

Sorry to hear your story ,im no expert but what about a second hand ecu have you considered that from a breakers or ebay ,it would probably need to be programmed to the car but im sure would be much cheaper
Click to expand...

My thought to, shouldn't be hard to find especially if all M54 share the same ecu.
 
Couple on eBay (including lock set), albeit for the wrong engine, around £250, so I'd say defo worth hunting the breakers for a 2.2 one.
 
Thanks all for your replies; I was kind of put off from a second hand one by the number of bad ones out there (even low mileage from other posts on this forum) and spoke to another ecu-testing company, ACTronics, who also didn't have any recon ones in stock and also advised me that it was very hard to find a good auto electrician to be able to re-program one from another car....they were a bit of a harbinger of doom, I'm sure, but he seemed to know what he was talking about and I appreciated his honesty! The thought of spending out for a second hand one plus the auto electrician, then possibly still having to go to the stealers leaves me cold! Plus I need the car back on the road asap as it's my daily drive... :cry:
I found a recommendation on the forum for a company in Lutterworth (not too far from me) who have quoted lower than the stealers for a new one plus programming, so I have booked it in for next week - please wish me luck! I'll let you all know how we get on and if it has solved the issues after it's done.

Thanks again!
 
What about Autobahn in Northampton as these are a BMW specialist so should be cheaper than a main dealer.
 
Sorry for the late reply but all seems to be fixed now! AutoTechnik in Lutterworth were very friendly and helpful, and when they had a slight delay in loading the software to the new ECU they offered me a courtesy car straight away, and called me back a couple of hours later to say it was all done. Did not charge a penny more than they quoted even though it took more than double the labour time they had allowed. Apparently this was due to a new version of the BMW software which didn't want to load to the ECU (for my older car) with the coding, so they got a generic code from BMW, loaded the software and then coded it to my car. All seems to work ok; the keys and alarm are both fine.

The car drives great now and no more error codes so far! :D :driving:

Thanks all for your help.
 
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