QuestionHi Emanuel,
I purchased a 1997 BMW 318i 15 days ago,, after a few days i realized that there was a strange sound on the back right wheel,,check engine and ABS lights were on after e few days,, i went to a regular mechanic because i thought it would be so expensive to repair it in a BMW service,, iam a student and i have a limited budget,, my mechanic told me that there was a problem with the bearing on the wheel.. ABS light was on because of this and there was a problem on ignition wire set and spurg plugs,, he changed all of them and he also changed air filter and oil,, the sound problem and check engine was ok,, but ABS light was still on,, he told me to use the car for a while and ABS light will be off after a while but 2 days later ABS light is still on and check engine light is on again,, i paid him $ 650 for all of these but he only figured out the sound problem,, the lights is still on and i am sure if i went to a BMW service,, i would not pay more than this amount and they would give me service warranty for these repairs,, what do you think the problems may be about my car? and what will you advise me to do? and i wonder your idea how much would i pay for these if i went to a BMW service?
Thank you so much for your help.
Mehmet Aydin
Boston, MA
AnswerSounds like all he did was fix the rear bearing. Which parts included shouldnt have cost more then 250 to 300.
The ABS light wouldnt have anything to do with the rear bearing and the Check Engine Light sounds like a bad 02 sensor...
There are ways to troubleshoot the check engine light. and the abs you would have to electronically inspect, it could be a number of things from the antilock brake system.
To trouble shoot the check engine light, you can simply turn the car off, then turn the key only to get power (all the lights will come on on the dashboard) but dont crank the engine... immidately after stomp on the gas pedal five times) the car will then perform the BMW system diagnostics... it will throw up a few numbers, the needles will move etc. but what you want to look for is the check engine light. It will come on once, then it will blink according to a code. For instance the light will come on, then turn off. then blink once, pause, blink 4x, pause, blink4x, pause, blink once. that code is 1441 which means a bad o2 sensor. etc. if you do this and tell me the code you get I can tell you why the check engine light is on.
As far as ABS you need to go to bmw $100 and they will diagnose that problem.
Sorry about your problems. hope this helps.
