Service Engine

[flex]

Hello, the service engine light appeared on my console. I took it to the dealer and they told me it was due to a bad catlytic converter. They quoted me a price of $1,400.00! The service light is intermittent and goes on and off.. It will stay on for a few weeks.. then turn off itself for a couple days... then it'll cycle over and over again. The dealer told me that I wouldn't pass emissions inspection if they see that light on. A buddy of mine who drives a Nissan Maxima said that he has a reset button that he can press to turn off that light... does the 318ti's have a similar feature that anyone knows of? The car runs fine and I don't have any problems with it.. I just hate to spend that much $ on something as trivial as that.... please help!

[ZeroG]

Hello, the service engine light appeared on my console. I took it to the dealer and they told me it was due to a bad catlytic converter. They quoted me a price of $1,400.00! The service light is intermittent and goes on and off.. It will stay on for a few weeks.. then turn off itself for a couple days... then it'll cycle over and over again. The dealer told me that I wouldn't pass emissions inspection if they see that light on. A buddy of mine who drives a Nissan Maxima said that he has a reset button that he can press to turn off that light... does the 318ti's have a similar feature that anyone knows of? The car runs fine and I don't have any problems with it.. I just hate to spend that much $ on something as trivial as that.... please help!
They're smog related so you can put it off if the car is running fine until the smog check time comes up.

-Chad

[aceyx]

see this thread:
http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2964&highlight=catalytic

you may be entitled to a free cat under recall. if that's the case, get your work done at a different dealer and never go back.

[Jeff Spooner]

we put one on a customers car recently and it was only @ $400 installed, @ $250 for the part.

[Guy Massey]

I can't comment on the 318ti but I had a similar problem on my 525i whereby the service lights kept coming on.

I took the dash out and cut the wire to the service lights. They didn't come on after that.

A touch drastic, I accept, so I don't recommend you do this.

[mrnine]

I just had some muffler problems that led me to believe at first that it was my catalytic converter. I checked into it and was not in the production period for a free replacement.

I shopped around a bit and found that BavAuto sold cats (BMW1461) for $420 at least for my '98.