AC quit working and compressor is back-ordered two weeks!

[ArieArie]

While driving this past weekend my AC quit in the middle of the highway. It went from cool air to hot and humid is a few seconds.
Next time I got into the car the same thing happened, after 5 minutes of driving the AC quit. The AC will not work for more that a few minutes,

The dealer diagnosed this as a compressor clutch issue, and said the parts have to come from Germany. Really? Is the F80 compressor so unique that it is not in stock? From the invoice: "A.C. COMPRESSOR IS S.O.P. NO E.T.A."
That's nuts!

Attached image is of the explanation on the service invoice.

The first line of the text is on the previous page and it says:

"VERIFIED A.C. SYSTEM NOT PRODUCING COLD AIR, CONNECTED DIAD EQUIP...." Continues in attached image.

[Tommy L Garage]

German car
Very rare thing to fail
Understandable timeframe

[N1rve]

Originally Posted by Tommy L Garage

German car
Very rare thing to fail
Understandable timeframe

Is dis sarcasm? LOL

[Tommy L Garage]

Originally Posted by N1rve

Is dis sarcasm? LOL

Nope. It’s my honest opinion

[Kooch]

Understandable from my experience. I had to wait four weeks last year for a headlight model from Germany. And I was in a rental car out of pocket as the body shop had the car for repairs. Overall I was 8 weeks and the last four were only waiting for the part... at least you are still in your car but certainly feel your pain.

[NSX2M4]

A funny story, my 2019 AC froze up the first weekend owning the car on the way to Key West for an offshore fishing trip. It stopped working half way there in Key Largo.Had to drive 2 hours in blistering heat with the closest BMW dealer in Miami. The ironey is that I have been in the ac business since 1998. Mine froze up, bad evaporator sensor. Easy fix, but it still sucked and was like getting kicked in the teeth.

[Taco_Bueno]

This happened to me on a long drive through Texas. I did some very sweaty research when I pulled over in a small town and read somewhere that it had simply frozen the compressor.

I continued to drive with the AC totally off for about 10 minutes then turned it back on and it worked.

I also read somewhere that turning on and off the entertainment center does it.

German engineering

[ArieArie]

-
The compressor has arrive tuesday and today (Thursday) I get this text message from my "service advisor":

Due to the system being open
BMW is requiring us to replace
the AC evaporator as well.
I won't have this part until Tuesday.
Sorry for the repeated delays

What does it means "Due to the system being open.." ?


a

[knightarmor]

When they replace the compressor the a/c system (all the lines where the freon goes) will be open exposing the system to the elements aka:moisture so they always recommend replacing the evaporator. It's always recommended to replace the evaporator when doing a job like this, if the SA had any experience he would have known and ordered everything at the same time.

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

dont u got a loaner?

[ArieArie]

AFter replacing the AC Compressor, and after "realizing" that when they open the system they must replace the evaporator, I was told that the car is going to be ready at 5 (Thursday). At about 3:30 I get this text:

Hi, I have bad news unfortunately. 
Car won't be ready today. AC system is working and cooling properly 
but we found fault codes for your auxiliary cooling fan. 
We're going to need to do some more testing.

Today (Saturday) I got this text:

Hi, we found a small piece of rubber that was trapped in the cooling fan 
and causing it to malfunction. 
Taking it on an extended test drive currently-
if all goes well I'll have it ready today before we close at 5pm

I brought the car in on July 9 for an AC problem, today is July 27.
I'm not going to pick up my car until I get a message that says the it is really really ready.

[allinon72]

I wonder if the compressor really failed or the dealer is just parts changing. I'm not sure I've ever read or heard of a compressor failure on this platform.

[ArieArie]

Originally Posted by allinon72

I wonder if the compressor really failed or the dealer is just parts changing. I'm not sure I've ever read or heard of a compressor failure on this platform.

Yes, I think so too..

Im going to post the service description here.. It is almost funny to read.

[ArieArie]

Here is the service summary for the AC problem.

[allinon72]

Yeah that tech has not a clue what he or she is doing.

[blockdoc]

Originally Posted by allinon72

Yeah that tech has not a clue what he or she is doing.

Agreed. That description was pretty comical. Glad the "shop foreman " was available for conferencing. Lol

[joooiiiiii]

Question: Does BMW provide loaner vehicles for situations like this? Oil changes? Major repairs? Here in Germany they don't give you anything and you basically pay out of pocket for everything so I'm just curious how the dealerships are over there.

[ArieArie]

Originally Posted by joooiiiiii

Question: Does BMW provide loaner vehicles for situations like this? Oil changes? Major repairs? Here in Germany they don't give you anything and you basically pay out of pocket for everything so I'm just curious how the dealerships are over there.

It varies from dealer to dealer. In the case of this dealer, if the car is under warranty, and the repair is not a scheduled maintenance, and you reserve a loaner car ahead of time, you will get a loaner.

When I brought the car originally I didn't get a loaner (I forgot to reserve). But when I was told that they are waiting for a part, I asked for a car and got an X1 for almost 3 weeks.