Hey everyone,
So I had Checkers in the shop this last week. My SES and EML lights came on and the car was running really rough at time like it wasn't getting enough fuel. This was the third time it happened in the 3 weeks I owned the car and I suspected a spark plug or something like that. I was up at my parents for the holiday weekend visiting so I wasn't home in San Diego where I could easily have a mechanic that I knew to diagnose and work on my car. The couple times the symptoms showed up before, shutting off the car and restarting seemed to "fix" the problem. The SES and EML lights would eventually go out after several times I would drive the car. The last time the symptoms showed up they wouldn't go away and it took me several city blocks to accelerate up to 30mph and I wasn't able to drive my car back home, over 100 miles away.

My brother-in-law is a mechanic and recommended a shop next to his that works on BMWs, MINIs, MBZs, VWs, etc. so I took my car there on Monday. The shop owner had my car for several hours and eventually diagnosed the issue as the throttle body needed replacing. He quoted me $1270 to repair but since I was related to Kevin, who works next door, he said he would do it for $870. I said go ahead and do the work and had to leave back for SD because I had class at UCSD the following day. I drove my moms Mercedes back to San Diego and left my car for repair. The more I thought about the price the more uneasy I felt. I did some research about the throttle body and I came up with this:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...dy-how-to.html

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...=13&fg=15&hl=2

So after I realized I could buy the parts (cheaper than he would charge me) and essentially replace them myself, I called the shop owner who had my car and told him not to do the repair, I would have AAA tow my car back to San Diego and I would do the repair myself. The shop owner said that would be okay but I would still need to have the new part programmed and the system updated. I didn't know what or how to do that and really don't have the time so I told him to go ahead and repair it thinking it was probably a different part than I was thinking of and not the one shown on the thread above.

Fast fwd to today and I pick up my car. I get home and look at the receipt, of which I was charge $869.05 for repairs. I look at the part numbers of the parts replaced and they match exactly to the part numbers of the parts I had researched earlier in the week. In the thread above where RandyBMC is replacing his throttle body it has no reference to system programming or updating. So now I kind of feel I was really screwed. Hindsight is always 20/20, I know that but I just want to know if whatever was replaced really required the system programming or updating. Sorry this is kind of long but I just wanted to get the whole story in there. Please advise. Thanks!!!!

 

There is no reprogram need for a throttle body. Plug and play. The faults must be cleared after but any car quest or auto zone can do that.

 

Yeah that's what I thought. I just bought the Kiwi wifi and Rev2 iPhone app do I should be able to clear the faults now. Live and learn.