Key central locking issue

inkey$

inkey$

Lifer
 Sevenoaks & Suffolk
I just ordered a new key for my E36 based S50, as the car came with just one that was in pretty bad shape. Ordered through my local dealer yesterday for £140 and it arrived today, which was great.

However when they guy goes to do the key press/door open/close routine to pair it to my car, the results don't work and the key doesn't operate central locking.

We then discover that the process of trying to pair a new key has 'locked out' my old, original key that was working. Now I own two keys, both of which work manually but neither of which work the central locking!

Stephen James have said it could be any number of problems and that they need to get it on their £99 per hour diagnosis machine to find out what's at fault.

Anybody any ideas? Should I get my indy to diagnose the problem, or should I just bite the bullet and see what BMW diagnose and take it from there?

On the flip side I did have pretty much every mechanic at the Stealers checking out ///Poppy!
 
I don't see why you should have to pay. The knackered your old key programming.

Kick up a fuss first and go from there. If they don't help try an Indi as you say.
 
srhutch said:
I don't see why you should have to pay. The knackered your old key programming.

Kick up a fuss first and go from there. If they don't help try an Indi as you say.
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Thats kind of what I thought. But then I guess if there's a problem with the module then they wouldn't have known, so Im in a sort of catch-22. You reckon I should email them and kick up a fuss then!
 
If it is a problem with the module then offer to make a goodwill payment of £45 for the diagnosis then take it to your indie :lol:

However, your old key worked just fine, so I have no clue how trying to 'pair' a new one would knacker the module :?
 
It's a bitch. Just tried pairing myself and still no luck. Might see if they'll diagnose for free then work out what I want to do from there.
 
Just been thinking about this and the first person to try and pair my car failed before suggesting I drive it round the back to the workshop where somebody else would try. Same issues and didn't get it working, but if the first guy mucked up the pairing procedure with the new key would that mean that he effectively also erased the coding for the original in the process?
 
I have a feeling today is going to get worse. Just tried to call Stephen James to speak to them about diagnosing my car for free as a gesture of goodwill and put through to the service dept. After 14 minutes on hold I hung up and called again only to be told they'd call me back.

Can BMW reprogram me keys effectively from scratch? EG can they take two unpaired keys that work and match them to the car on their machine so they both work again?
 
Yes, they can.

The reason you have to bring all keys is that they re-program them all, otherwise if you program one key, the other one does not work anymore. You have to program them together.
 
inkey$ said:
I have a feeling today is going to get worse. Just tried to call Stephen James to speak to them about diagnosing my car for free as a gesture of goodwill and put through to the service dept. After 14 minutes on hold I hung up and called again only to be told they'd call me back.

Can BMW reprogram me keys effectively from scratch? EG can they take two unpaired keys that work and match them to the car on their machine so they both work again?
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Dude, seriously, you need to take a 100% no nonsense attitude.

It sounds like they're not willing to help, so you may have to get inventive.

To start with, the charge you've paid originally, the £140 or whatever, should include pairing the key, right? So they've essentially broken something whilst providing a service. I'd be questioning whether if a technician returned a car after doing an oil change, and the car wouldn't start, would you be paying for a diagnostic then?

You 100000% shouldn't be paying for them to look into the fault, prior to the incident you had a working, but shabby, key. Now you have two keys, neither of which work.

If they really get moody about it, I'd be parking my car infront of BMW this Saturday, blocking up as much space as possible, informing customers that BMW have locked you out of your car and want you to pay £99 so they can look at getting you back in.

If you get really stuck, I can go speak to a neighbour tonight who is a tech at BMW Ruxley and see if he'll do the decent thing and help you?

The very least I'd want to walk away with, is your old key working, refund on the new one, and go somewhere else.
 
Just to give you an idea of what kind of swindle BMW seem to be on lately, bought a bumper bracket, come to fit it, it didn't fit.

Took it back and informed them that it was no good, must have 100% been faulty in terms of manufacture and asked for another. They told me they'd do what I asked, if I paid half hour labour and let their tech try to fit it.

I won in the end and got a new one, but I didn't half have to kick up a fuss.
 
I have read nothing but bad things about Ruxley. On the M3s the subframe cracking issue is well known by everyone, a few people on M3cutters have asked to book their cars in to be checked and they didn't know anything about it

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I've spoken to a head of service over at Stephen James and he's basically saying he'll ask his boss after I kicked off.

He says that the car may have had an underlying problem with pairing and that until we tried we wouldn't have known. I said that I have two keys that don't work and I'd like diagnosis for free.

When he said it could either have been a fault on the car already (quite often used the words "confirm or deny") he actually admitted that technically his service technician should have explained the risks in coding to me before he did it...which he didn't - so I have them on that!

I also asked him if the diagnosis machine could resent the keys to work with the car and he again said he could "neither confirm nor deny that the machine works like that" that he'd like to know in case this happens again in the future and that he was sorry I was almost being treated "like a bit of a guinea pig"?!

Quick poll. Do you think they'll…

A) Offer diagnosis as a goodwill
B) Make me pay
C) Not bother calling back
 
Goodwill diagnosis at the very least.

Otherwise my email would read like a massively extended and more professional version of:

I am a BMW enthusiast and someone who is always interested in bringing a car back to as close to "as new" as possible. I took my car to Stephen James due to having a slightly dirty and dingy key, which given the age of the car was to be expected. I was shocked to the attitude of the staff when they effectively "broke" my central locking.

I had been given no indication that the programming of a new key could have a negative effect on my car, or the other key and am quite frankly appalled at the attitude of the service manager, with a simple "The technician should have explained that" and seemingly no intention of fixing the issue created by his staff.

As you can appreciate, I'm currently at a point where I essentially paid for stephen james to break my car, and I hope that you can find a suitable solution or I will be taking this matter further.
 
RJS-Z4 said:
Goodwill diagnosis at the very least.

Otherwise my email would read like a massively extended and more professional version of:

I am a BMW enthusiast and someone who is always interested in bringing a car back to as close to "as new" as possible. I took my car to Stephen James due to having a slightly dirty and dingy key, which given the age of the car was to be expected. I was shocked to the attitude of the staff when they effectively "broke" my central locking.

I had been given no indication that the programming of a new key could have a negative effect on my car, or the other key and am quite frankly appalled at the attitude of the service manager, with a simple "The technician should have explained that" and seemingly no intention of fixing the issue created by his staff.

As you can appreciate, I'm currently at a point where I essentially paid for stephen james to break my car, and I hope that you can find a suitable solution or I will be taking this matter further.
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:thumbsup: I'll keep you posted. Still no call from service reservations or the technician.
 
Easily sorted.

ask for the main manager of the dealership. Very calmly are politely explain the issue, and that this is their opportunity to resolve before you call bmw directly.

I've done this in the past, including being bluffed into making the call. Have the number there and call them, saying you will put on the manager...

it worked very efficiently for me. They dont need the hassle. Just be calm and polite. :D
 
Thanks Zed Five. That might need to be my next call. Just spoke to the service manager who had spoken to the Senior Service Advisor. He said as none of us knew this would happen they can't do the diagnostic for free but could probably do it within half an hour which would be £50.

I think this is rubbish and said I guess there wasn't a lot I could do about that decision as I need my keys fixed, before he put me through to service bookings. Who knows what that will throw up or if they even sort it within half an hour.

Scheduled for Friday but I may drop the main dealership manager a call and explain to him. Ultimately it wasn't explained to me at the start that coding a new key may affect the system or old key.
 
inkey$ said:
Thanks Zed Five. That might need to be my next call. Just spoke to the service manager who had spoken to the Senior Service Advisor. He said as none of us knew this would happen they can't do the diagnostic for free but could probably do it within half an hour which would be £50.

I think this is rubbish and said I guess there wasn't a lot I could do about that decision as I need my keys fixed, before he put me through to service bookings. Who knows what that will throw up or if they even sort it within half an hour.

Scheduled for Friday but I may drop the main dealership manager a call and explain to him. Ultimately it wasn't explained to me at the start that coding a new key may affect the system or old key.
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Inks, call back and explain that you're 100% not happy with their approach.

State that you categorically weren't informed what was going to happen upon trying to code the new key, so because of that, you expect, (for free) for the car to be returned to the state it was in when you brought it to them. It's that simple.

If there's any argument I'd be phoning BMW directly straight away, their whole approach seems mental.
 
RJS-Z4 said:
Inks, call back and explain that you're 100% not happy with their approach.

State that you categorically weren't informed what was going to happen upon trying to code the new key, so because of that, you expect, (for free) for the car to be returned to the state it was in when you brought it to them. It's that simple.

If there's any argument I'd be phoning BMW directly straight away, their whole approach seems mental.
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Okay, I called back and asked to speak to the Dealership Manager. This understandably promoted lots of why/whats it for type questions and I explained what had happened and that although the service people had been very helpful I still wasn't happy with the resulting plan. She said she'd speak to the Senior Service Manager and ask her to call me back.

An hour later I get a call from the guy I spoke to before whose sounds as though he's been told by his Service Manager that there is some ambiguity of responsibility here (possible broken car vs. not telling me the risks on coding).

The upshot is they're going to diagnose for free and if any problems are flagged I need to look at cost wise, which I think is fair enough.
 
Hmmmm, ok, so you're getting somewhere.

Let me know the result of the diagnostic.

Personally, if it's bad, (depends if you want to fix it or not), but I'd be pushing for a large BMW contribution.

"If BMW had highlighted the possible dangers of coding a new key, I would have undoubtedly had diagnostics performed before making a decision on having the coding process carried out.

I am now left in a position where I must spend "x" to get the car back to where it was before BMW were left to work on it. As you can appreciate, this is a significant cost caused by an error on BMW's side, something the service manager has admitted on various occasions. I appreciate the costs that are incurred due to x and x having to be carried out, but do not expect to foot these entirely, as what has happened is due to a mistake on the BMW side of things and not my own."
 
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