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      09-09-2020, 07:13 AM   #1
landrumdh
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Radiator Replacement due to CEL

My CEL just popped last week. My car is 1 month out of warranty, the dealership wants almost $4000USD to replace the radiator and sensor due to the "AIR CATALYST SENSOR" saying there is an issue.

WTF ... time to see if BMW corporate will do any good will cost splitting on this repair as WTF
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      09-09-2020, 01:21 PM   #2
ZZZZ
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Are you sure it was an air sensor / oxygen sensor in your radiator? That doesn't sound right.
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      09-09-2020, 03:40 PM   #3
landrumdh
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If you search for the sensor name there is plenty of documentation that BMW has embed a sensor which tracks the health of some sort of coating on the radiator which is supposed to help reduce emissions. And for our model the sensor is NOT separate part they can replace in the shop.
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      09-10-2020, 02:11 AM   #4
CliveL
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Wow. I've never heard of this before, but Googling the sensor description and various articles about it suggests you are correct. If the sensor fails the entire radiator has to be replaced!?!

I wasn't aware of the ozone-reducing properties of the radiator either. Neat idea, expensive if it goes wrong it seems...
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      09-10-2020, 10:21 AM   #5
landrumdh
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Yeah, and what's stupid is that the sensor is not it's own part ... so when it fails the entire shebang needs to get done.

The BMW overlords did smile upon me and I got a hefty chunk covered by BMW Goodwill, probably since I'm only 1 month out of the b2b warranty.
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      09-10-2020, 11:40 AM   #6
CliveL
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Quote:
Originally Posted by landrumdh View Post
Yeah, and what's stupid is that the sensor is not it's own part ... so when it fails the entire shebang needs to get done.

The BMW overlords did smile upon me and I got a hefty chunk covered by BMW Goodwill, probably since I'm only 1 month out of the b2b warranty.
I read on some other forum posts that came up in the search that some people had claimed on the, apparently separate, warranty that covers emission-control-specific parts for up to 15 years / 150,000 miles. I don't know if that is also country-specific; I've not heard of it in the UK. I'm glad that you have had some success with BMW at least covering some of the replacement cost

I'm interested to know if this catalytic radiator coating and sensor combination are limited to certain markets. I'm also glad that I've got a BMW comprehensive warranty for my 4th and 5th years of ownership as this is quite a scary potential cost!
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      09-10-2020, 04:34 PM   #7
landrumdh
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I looked at the extended warranty but opt'd out as I figured I'd trade it in before costs got out of control. It only took 1 month :-|

I didn't specifically ask about the emissions warranty but what I had read is that BMW explicitly excludes the radiator from the emissions warranty. I figure if it had been covered by that I wouldn't have had to do the run around I did and it would have just been done ... It's not like they said normally this is covered ... but.
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      09-26-2020, 10:36 PM   #8
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$4000 is insane. What the normal life expectancy of this part?
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      10-07-2020, 02:26 PM   #9
landrumdh
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No idea, since it's not replaceable I'd assume the life of the radiator. I no longer own the car.
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      10-07-2020, 07:46 PM   #10
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A number of european cars have this feature. Volvo has had it since the early 2000's, they call it PremAir.

I suspect that there is some sort of environmental credit applied to the car models which ship with this, which is why it's coded and enforced. But I haven't heard of quite such a tamper check in any other brand! I wonder if it's only in certain markets.
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