Help!!

M

MsSalt1

Member
I bought a 2.0 55 reg z4 on Friday privately. Saturday the engine management light has come on and the steering is pulling, particularly when I break (buying from a dealer now seems a much better idea!! but oh well!!). Think it may be the traction?? Going to take it to the garage but wondered if anyone has a ball park figure of what it costs to get traction/steering sorted? thanks :)
 
See if you can find an independant specialist local to you with an autologic or OBD-II reader to diagnose the fault - go to a dealer and they will sting you just to spend 5 mins plugging it in.

Where are you based?

The steering pulling may be unrelated and due to the wheel alignment/ or just tramlining on the road you were on.

Get the fault diagnosed and see what it throws up.
 
thanks very much that's really helpful. I'm live on the hampshire/surrey border. oh gosh i was going to run it into my local garage, do i need to go to a specialist instead then? thanks again!
 
Agree to get the fault diagnosed by an indie - hopefully someone can identify one for you in your neck of the woods. The brakes pulling could be several issues. The first thing to do would be to look at the state of the discs and pads, caliper could be binding etc. Difficult to give you a definitive answer - the EML good be totally unrelated to the brakes.
 
Just google 'BMW Specialist' and your postcode.

Then google the company name of the BMW Specialists you find and see if you find links to good/bad reviews...

I expect your local garage has an OBD II reader and can give you an idea of what the fault is. If you know your local garage well and trust them, you might wish to go to them, otherwise I would say find a specialist.

By the way if it's any consolation, dealers (some, not all) sometimes sell cars with 'issues' hoping new owners won't notice. The place I bought my car from told me rear tyres would last 25000 miles :rofl:

Don't beat yourself up for buying private. That said, you might wish to give the seller a call and tell them you're not happy. The worst they can do is not want to get involved, the best is that they may offer to contribute to the cost!
 
if you local garage has an OBD reader then using this page: http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9444&p=141252&hilit=error+codes#p141252

You may be able to work out what is wrong.

There are a few members from the surry area which may be able to help with a recommended specialist.
 
the garage said they couldn't read it properly but that it is something to do with the cat and I'd need to take it to BMW. The guy i bought it from has said the EML was on when it had it's MOT in January but that it's a known fault with the z4 that the sensors think the emissions are higher than they actually are so the light was reset (or something like that) and that I may need to change the sensors. I've put a little plea out to see if anyone on here can recommend a good independent garage in my area so fingers crossed.
 
MsSalt1 said:
The guy i bought it from has said the EML was on when it had it's MOT in January .
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Did he tell you that at the time he sold it to you? Or when you went back to him? If he told you after, then you have some comeback on him for not revealing this issue at the time you purchased it.
 
it was after i bought it that he imparted that little gem of knowledge! I reckon he must have known the light would come on again soon as thinking about it he did say it had been in his garage (maybe he was deliberately avoiding driving to avoid light coming back on). who knows, all rather annoying (but still i luuuuuurrvve the car!)
 
MsSalt1 said:
I bought a 2.0 55 reg z4 on Friday privately. Saturday the engine management light has come on and the steering is pulling, particularly when I break (buying from a dealer now seems a much better idea!! but oh well!!). Think it may be the traction?? Going to take it to the garage but wondered if anyone has a ball park figure of what it costs to get traction/steering sorted? thanks :)
Click to expand...

Is the steering pulling all the time, or just at certain times?

Is the Engine Management Light (EML) on all the time, or just at certain times?

It's unlikely to be the traction control (I think), but you would be able to diagnose that by pressing and holding the "DSC" button on the centre console (just in front of the gear stick) for about 3 seconds, if you don't press it long enough then DTC will appear on the dash instead, so make sure you hold it for 3 seconds. That disables the Traction Control system completely, so would remove it from the mix. There'll be a warning light on the dash pops up, little triangle if I remember correctly. Be careful when the DTC/DSC is turned off as the car can be a bit of an animal and it won't do anything to help you :)

The Z4 is prone to tramlining, which is when the car seems to follow bumps in the road - depending on the types of road and how inflated the tyres are, this can feel like pulling and it can be quite alarming at first. It could be that as you're getting used to the car you're noticing the tramlining where perhaps you didn't notice it on a test drive (I certainly didn't, I was too caught up with having a drive of the car and looking for other issues to spot the details of the handling!). You get used to the tramlining though and it's also mostly curable by changing the tyres. You do notice the tramlining under braking too, especially on bumpy roads.

Hopefully that'll help rule out a couple of possibles, but as everyone else has said an OBD diagnosis will find out exactly why the EML is coming on. Any garage will be able to do that for you, so as a starting point maybe just get a local trustworthy garage to have a look at it - should take them no more than 10 minutes to check the OBD codes for you.

Hope that helps :)
 
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