Quote:
Originally Posted by w5pwr
Started the M5 on Thursday and it indicated it needed 1 litre of oil, drove it around on Thursday, only short journeys, each time it displayed the same message. On Friday called my local dealer to check they had some top up kits in stock and was told I needed to book a service call so they could top-up the car, spoke to the service department, but they couldn't fit me in at a convenient time....
Luckily I live in the middle of two different dealers, so I drove to Elms in Cambridge. BMW will only provide a top-up kit when the the key confirms the message on their wonderful system, so I hand over the key, he plugs the key in and takes a reading, oil level okay! Service advisors goes to the car, starts it up takes a reading and sure enough the warning chimes in! Back to their system and the key is still saying oil level okay. He checks the FAQ's on the system and there is update for the keys which he loads, but still does not pick up the message from the car! Service Manager comes over and explains BMW will not reimburse them unless the key confirms the need for oil on the system!
As an act of 'goodwill' Elms handed over a top up kit at their cost.
Now a £20 top-up kit is not going to break the bank, but I did pay £1000 for the service plan and oil is included, but not sure how many times I can handle the hassle of going through that again!!
Luckily this is only the second time its needed topping up in 7,000 mile, the first time was also a similar experience........
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They make it such a hassle to get a single litre of oil, it makes you not want to bother and simply buy it - that's probably deliberate. First time I got them to do it, it took ages for them just to go out and check the car - Also, I asked for a couple of litre bottles so that I wasn't caught out when the car's idrive oil warning went off again and the best they could do was sell me them at a very slight discount.
It's not that the oil is expensive, but it's just the principle - why can't they do the top up and give you a spare litre to carry in the car? Not sure I'd bother with the Service Inclusive next time, it's too much of a pfaff.