Newbie Needs Some Help

[Hoppy]

Hi all,

Great to find this site.

Now I am hoping some lovely people can help me.

I own a 55 120d - which I will add I love. Now I recently went to have it in for a service (by a service this one is a look under the bonnet and that's it pretty much). They hooked it up to the diagnostics as I have had problems with my rear wiper.

So two things - the glow plugs need changing - is this quite a simple job to do? The garage want to charge approx £200 for new set of glow plugs and labour. Has anyone done this?

Secondly has anyone had a problem with their rear wiper not moving? I had thought that it was the motor as there is no sound being emitted when trying to engage the rear wiper and also I have had difficulties getting into the boot which I understand is a problem due to the wiper. I had checked as best I could for the wiring and I have checked the fuse. What are people's thoughts on this? Any similar experiences? If so how did you fix this?

Any information is greatly appreciated. I am willing ( though maybe not a good thing) to tinker with the car if its possible to do so.

Cheers

[G4VHD]

£200 for glow plugs!!!!! Serious?

Can I ask what issues your getting for someone to suggest glow plugs?

[shadowface]

I almost fell from my chair when I read that they wanna charge you £200 worth of parts and labour. Either the garage is full of incompetent fools or they are trying to charge you for all the standing around which is probably part of their "service".

Anyhow, if those guys would've plugged your 1er to their diagnostics properly, they would have probably found the fault with the wiper, as most of the electrical stuff is hooked to on-board diagnostics system anyway.

There can be several reasons, as to why your wiper isn't working. The wiring may be loose (a bit unlikely), you said you checked the fuse, so I would suspect a faulty wiper motor. Only a proper diagnostics check could help you figure out what's going on.

Is the wiper really not working AT ALL, or does it engage at random times? Do you have a rain sensor with automatic wipers on your spec, or is it manual? If it's the former, do your automatic wipers work correctly? Turn them on and splash some water onto the front windshield's sensor (it's close to rear-view mirror).

Also, if there's a malfunction with the auto wipers, diagnostics should pick it up too.

[Hoppy]

Hi both,

Well the wiper first - sorry I wasn't clear, it is my rear wiper so it's not as bad as the front not working. Apparently they set it up to the diagnostics and they said nothing came up about the motor, which I find a little odd but maybe it's worth me trying to look at the wiring? I do have rain sensor wipers (obviously on the front)and these work fine - when I say fine, on the rain sensor motor it is a little intermittent when working. The rear wiper is not working at all. It was a little intermittent but then just gave up.

With regards to the glow plugs - again this came up on the diag test. The garage said that they needed to be done as on cold days he reckoned the car had trouble starting - jeez doesn't every car when it gets cold? So other than the garage recommending that it needs doing I don't really know how else I can check. Any ideas? It is a huge amount of money and I have recently forked out for five tyres (no I'm not an idiot - one of the new tyres managed to get a nail through it and was not fixable after three weeks of being on the car) not really wanting to spend loads of money on the car if I can investigate things myself - but a little advice on the issues would be cool.

Thanks

Grace

[shadowface]

In regards to the glow plugs, they are designed to heat up the engine block in the immediate area of fuel delivery and burning, to allow your car to start when the engine is cold.

Glow plugs are one of those components that are hard to estimate when they require changing. They should last you about 3-4 years or around 50k miles. If your garage really gets fault code for those, you would have to change them, as they may fail at some point, rendering your starter useless in cold temperatures.

What is surprising, is the price they've quoted you for. Main BMW dealer in Manchester charges £35 + VAT per hour of labour, and plugs cost about £10 each on avg.

This shouldn't require more than 2-3 hours of labour by a skilled technician.

As for the rear wiper, I have no idea what could it be. You can check the harness, the motor, the wiring. It's best to do it with the probe, to see if the current is passing through the wiring.

I bet you can easily get to the wiper motor inside the hatch door.

[Gloco]

Hi had same issue with same year model in feb. does the car start ok? Very common for glow plugs to die. Only make start a little rough belay below freezing. So unless you feel engine is compromised leave it....

Wiper sounds like a) fuse is blown- have you tried to switch on whilst it was frozen over? B) dodgy relay

G

[Hoppy]

Hi shadowface and Gloco,

Regarding the glo plugs - ill shop around. Currently not using the car as much but she starts fine when we go out.

The wiper seems to be a bigger project - fuse checked, relay checked. I have looked at the wiring but yeah I'll borrow a probe off someone. When I have time to do a proper look of the car rather than snatch time here and there ill let you know the outcome.

Grace

[Guest Mister Dabsy]

I don't even think the rear wiper will give a reading via ECU/OBD, just as your cigarette lighter won't !! Unplug the wiring at the motor and test for live/continuity ! If positive then motor is faulty... If no result then switch/wiring fault. ;)

Don't get me started on them "Professionals" about the 200 quid FFS :angry: