Private shop finally fixed sticky brake pedal - BMW NA denies reimbursement

[minn19]

Originally Posted by IK6SPEED

Suggest you read the actual law from your reference link (the entire document).

33,000 > 18,000

Again, $30 for small claim filing....and not an arbitration as California Lemon Law provides for.

They will most likely just pay it instead of having a high priced lawyer(s) and representative show up as I cannot imagine the fix was that much in reality.

Gotcha, I just read the first page. Odd that they wouldn’t mention that right away.

Sorry OP, good luck.

[paliknight]

Originally Posted by yaymitch

This sucks. I hope you and anyone else that has these types of issues blasts these dealerships on YELP, google, etc. This is the only way these guys will feel any pain. I've found 1 out of every 4 or 5 BMW dealerships is any good at all.

I think you're being generous. As of now, it's 1 for 10 across 3 states (Texas, Georgia and California).



My dealership told me this is normal wear and tear with 200 miles on the odometer.

[audihere]

Originally Posted by shortseller

Good service departments are hard to find and even when you do...service writers and technicians tend to move around.

This is so true.

How's BMW expect to retain customers if they can't/won't/don't fulfill their warranty obligations??

[audihere]

I just got a call from BMW NA once again stating they will not reimburse this repair under my warranty. Totally pitiful and I've lost all respect for BMW.

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by audihere

I just got a call from BMW NA once again stating they will not reimburse this repair under my warranty. Totally pitiful and I've lost all respect for BMW.

What was the amount of the repair as you never stated it.

Again, spend $30 and file in small claims.

[audihere]

Nearly $2K.

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

the hoops you gotta jump through to get something fixed. every oil change the teach forgets to reset the service indicator. shits a joke

[mindspin311]

My pedal has a slight stick after it hasn't been touched for a few minutes. I have a friend who is a tech at a local dealer, wonder if I can get him to take a look and possibly have the parts replaced.

[overlook637]

Originally Posted by darkbluemn

The only thing dealer good at is changing oil. They even don't know how to torque lug nuts. First few times they change my tires, my lug nut was torqued to about/over 300 lbft.

I never trust a dealer to change oil. Way to easy to use the wrong oil or simply not even change it.

Dealerships are only good for a remove and replace with an associated check engine light. The techs mostly lack any common sense troubleshooting skills.

[Ru35ian]

Originally Posted by audihere

After 2 years of attempting to get Irvine BMW and Crevier BMW to diagnose and repair the sticky/clicky brake pedal on my F80 M3 but given a major run around by the service advisors and shop foremen, I finally took matters into my own hands.

I've read other posts about experiencing a random click when depressing the brake pedal while at speed, but couldn't find the solution online anywhere. Brought my car into dealer several times for what seemed like weeks at a time. Scheduled rides with the shop foreman a couple times only to show up and embarrassingly discover my car all taken apart in no condition to test drive (leaky intercooler replacement). These rides never happened. In fact nothing really ever happened except being told "it's normal". But believe me, when your brake pedal randomly sticks a little in the up position every several minutes while driving, that's not normal!

I wound up bringing my car into a highly recommended shop owned by a former BMW Master Technician. He had the car for a few days and said he thought the brake booster or master cylinder was the culprit here and it was not a small job to swap these out. I was at the end of my rope with irritating brake pedal and fruitless dealerships.

Fixed the problem! No more clicky brake pedal at all!

I filed a case with BMW North America for reimbursement. MY CAR IS STILL UNDER WARRANTY with 33K miles. After several phone calls back and forth with a very nice representative I was told any sort of compensation was denied. No specific reason. It's pretty sad really. Such a great car but not such a great company.

Hi, I'm pretty sure that I'm hit with the same issue. Trying to resolve it through a dealer. So far, they "can't replicate it." Can you reply here or PM me who you went to to get the work done? Did they have any trouble replicating? Any advice on how to handle it from the start knowing what you do now? My M4, is at 1200 miles, issue noted since the start, and I'm really not trying to pay out of pocket for what should be a simple warranty fix on a car I rolled out of the showroom in just 3.5 weeks ago, but it's really unacceptable to not be able to smoothly modulate brakes on my 101k (MSRP) car!

Thanks in advance!

[audihere]

Originally Posted by mindspin311

My pedal has a slight stick after it hasn't been touched for a few minutes. I have a friend who is a tech at a local dealer, wonder if I can get him to take a look and possibly have the parts replaced.

Did you ever check with your friend on this?

[audihere]

Originally Posted by Ru35ian

Hi, I'm pretty sure that I'm hit with the same issue. Trying to resolve it through a dealer. So far, they "can't replicate it." Can you reply here or PM me who you went to to get the work done? Did they have any trouble replicating? Any advice on how to handle it from the start knowing what you do now? My M4, is at 1200 miles, issue noted since the start, and I'm really not trying to pay out of pocket for what should be a simple warranty fix on a car I rolled out of the showroom in just 3.5 weeks ago, but it's really unacceptable to not be able to smoothly modulate brakes on my 101k (MSRP) car!

Thanks in advance!

Hi, I wish I had an answer for you. To this day, my car still has that damn random sticky brake pedal feel.

I spent around $2200 replacing the brake booster and master cylinder. It seemed better for a short period of time (I wasn't driving the car much) but it's back to the same old thing.

Dealerships and BMW NA were absolutely useless. I've never felt this clicking sensation on any other car I've owned and never really got any help after multiple posts to this forum.

IF YOU FIND A SOLUTION, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

I did buy a brake pedal assembly on eBay to see how it worked. At some point, I plan on making a small block to prevent the pedal from going all the way up to see if that makes any difference.

The only time it always clicks is in the morning after sitting overnight. Any other time, I have not been able to find anything that can reliably trigger the sticky feeling. Just drive for a few minutes and then softly press the brake pedal.

What have you found?

[audihere]

There's always a problem "replicating" this issue. I old my mechanic, drive the car on the freeway for a few minutes, don't touch the brake pedal and coast, gas it, etc. Then lightly press the brake pedal and you'll have a good chance of it clicking when it first begins movement.

I've literally tried everything to figure out what triggers it.

Maybe it has something to do with the hill assist brake feature. Maybe that's leaking or malfunctioning. I don't know.

IF ANYONE KNOWS HOW TO FIX THIS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW

[audihere]

OK, I fixed this!

F u Crevier BMW. F u Irvine BMW. F u BMW NA. Sort of in that order.

With that said...

I'd been thinking this over for a very long time. I actually purchased a used brake pedal assembly to better see what's going on with the pedal linkage.

(No need to remove brake pedal from car)

Being at home during this Covid time, I've been working on my cars and finally decided to try something on the brake pedal I've been mulling over in my head.

I pulled the trim cover off the pedal area *again* and looking at that, in combination with analyzing the eBay pedal assembly I found this:

When you let off the brake pedal, the return spring pulls the rod coming thru the firewall all the way back until it stops. However, there is some slop in the linkages, so the after the rod is fully back, the return spring actually pulls the pedal back just a tiny bit more!

Now if for any reason, the rod gets sticky after driving around for a while, when you I press on the brake pedal, it moves about 1/16" to take up the slop before actually pressing on the rod. That's the clicking sensation - a slight pedal movement before a click to get the rod moving.

So, what I've been wanting to try, is to take up this slop. Get rid of that pre-movement and just start off up against the rod. Using the eBay assembly, I fabricated a high precision spacer. OK, no I didn't, I cut a piece of wood I had in my garage and put some felt on it for good measures.

I did measure my car's pedal position with some digital calipers to find out where it was sitting when not depressed. Using that measurement, I added a little thickness to take up that "slop".

Before, my F80's brake pedal will ALWAYS click very noticeably in the morning one time when starting the car cold. Always. (Subsequent presses are silky smooth) While driving, it would randomly click every 1-5 minutes or so. I was never able to figure out how to force it to click. Car has 40K miles on it now.

I press fit the wood block into the brake pedal channel. First morning, no click! Test drive no click! It hasn't clicked since. In fact, brake pedal feels better than ever beyond the no clicking, not totally sure why.

Here's some pics. YMMV on measurements. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xbshwkox7...mGxwvk3ja?dl=0

Audihere

[coldsteelrain]

Originally Posted by audihere

OK, I fixed this!

F u Crevier BMW. F u Irvine BMW. F u BMW NA. Sort of in that order.

With that said...

I'd been thinking this over for a very long time. I actually purchased a used brake pedal assembly to better see what's going on with the pedal linkage.

Being at home during this Covid time, I've been working on my cars and finally decided to try something on the brake pedal I've been mulling over in my head.

I pulled the trim cover off the pedal area *again* and looking at that, in combination with analyzing the eBay pedal assembly I found this:

When you let off the brake pedal, the return spring pulls the rod coming thru the firewall all the way back until it stops. However, there is some slop in the linkages, so the after the rod is fully back, the return spring actually pulls the pedal back just a tiny bit more!

Now if for any reason, the rod gets sticky after driving around for a while, when you I press on the brake pedal, it moves about 1/16" to take up the slop before actually pressing on the rod. That's the clicking sensation - a slight pedal movement before a click to get the rod moving.

So, what I've been wanting to try, is to take up this slop. Get rid of that pre-movement and just start off up against the rod. Using the eBay assembly, I fabricated a high precision spacer. OK, no I didn't, I cut a piece of wood I had in my garage and put some felt on it for good measures.

I did measure my car's pedal position with some digital calipers to find out where it was sitting when not depressed. Using that measurement, I added a little thickness to take up that "slop".

Now, my F80's brake pedal will ALWAYS click very noticeably in the morning one time when starting the car cold. Always. (Subsequent presses are silky smooth) While driving, it would randomly click every 1-5 minutes or so. I was never able to figure out how to force it to click. Car has 40K miles on it now.

I press fit the wood block into the brake pedal channel. First morning, no click! Test drive no click! It hasn't clicked since. In fact, brake pedal feels better than ever beyond the no clicking, not totally sure why.

Here's some pics. YMMV on measurements. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xbshwkox7...mGxwvk3ja?dl=0

Audihere

Good job man
You should probably make a new post, it would be very helpful for people with same issue so they can get to the "how to fix it post" right away.
Maybe make a few of your solutions and for a small fee give it to who needs one

[audihere]

I forgot to mention. I had to press the non-contact brake light switch sensor in a couple notches to account for the spacer installed. Eazy Peazy.

[Yessir]

Glad you got it sorted out. It's sucks that you spent thousands and was able to fix it yourself with a part that costs pennies. Either way, I'm sure you will have much more enjoyment driving your vehicle once again and never have to think about that stupid clicking anymore.

[hC1001]

Should probably update original post that replacing master and brake booster was not the cure.

[audihere]

Originally Posted by hC1001

Should probably update original post that replacing master and brake booster was not the cure.

Good idea.