Engine Light Concealed on Secondhand Car

Hi

This is my first post and I'm looking for some advice please. I bought an 02 BMW in Oct 07 from a dealer in Dublin. The car runs fine and has done since I bought it. Like most 2nd hand cards there are one or two things missing or broken.

The Reset knob for the odometer doesnt work so I took out the instrument panel to have a look myself. I was shocked to discover that two of the warning light bulbs had putty pressed into them to cover up the bulbs. One was the washer fluid bulb and the other was the Engine Light. I took out the putty and as expected when I reassembled everything the Engine Light is in fact illuminated.

There is no way I can tell if the coverup was done by the dealer or the previous owner.

Should I just learn from my mistakes when buying secondhand cars or would I have any recourse with the dealer at this stage?? It seems very underhanded whoever did it.


Many thanks

JR

I take it you didn't get the car independently checked?

I wouldn't necessarily blame the dealer for this though - more likely the previous owner I'd say. Garage are unlikely to have needed to remove the instrument panel so probably wouldn't have noticed anything.

Anyway - bought in Oct 07 and you just noticed this now? I think nearly 18 mths after purchase of a second hand car would be too long ago for any warranty/recourse.

Thanks for the reply Caveat, no I didn't get it fully checked - just had someone do a quickie. I realise now that had we got it plugged in to a fault reader at the time we would have spotted something funny. Live and learn!!

Needless to say I've just bought a fault code reader on ebay so will just take it on the chin and get it sorted myself.

JRD said:

Needless to say I've just bought a fault code reader on ebay so will just take it on the chin and get it sorted myself.

Click to expand...

Sounds good - do you mind me asking how much this set you back?

I saw a pretty basic one in Argos for €40 and got the same one on ebay for about €30 including p&p from UK. If it does what it says it should be fine and will be useful when buying in the future.

I guess there's no gaurantee that these lights would actually have been on when the car was bought?

Sometimes (when there is something wrong) warning lights are great-other times (faulty sensors/fuses/relays etc) they are a pain in the ar$e-it could just be that they were blanked out for this reason.

Hopefully there is nothing serious wrong with the car causing the engine management light warning....

JRD said:

........ I've just bought a fault code reader on ebay.......

Click to expand...

I got a scangauge 2 recently and it will show up any alarms and reset them too, assuming the problem that caused them has gone. It cost 110 euro and will work with any OBD2 compliant car. It also shows up all the ecu signals like intake air temp, coolant temp, mpg, voltage etc. A very handy tool!

ollie

JRD said:

Thanks for the reply Caveat, no I didn't get it fully checked - just had someone do a quickie. I realise now that had we got it plugged in to a fault reader at the time we would have spotted something funny. Live and learn!!

Needless to say I've just bought a fault code reader on ebay so will just take it on the chin and get it sorted myself.

Click to expand...

Seems the best way out tbh.

I hope it works out well for you.