[GriggsyG22]

How has everyone's experience been with mods and service/warranty work? Primarily bolt-ons like intakes, downpipes, etc.

Honestly don't know if I ever plan to really have the thing tuned but I'm really wanting to get an intake and change out either the primary or secondary or both sets of dp's purely just for the sound because this car from factory (in my opinion) just does not sound aggressive enough.

I'm only asking because obviously no dealer wants to do warranty work because they're not really making any money on it but I've heard of dealer's pretty much trying to blame anything and everything they can on downpipes and idk how I feel about this car still being a BMW and something randomly going wrong and they decide they want to blame the dp's even if they aren't the cause and having to shell our that $$$

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by GriggsyG22

How has everyone's experience been with mods and service/warranty work? Primarily bolt-ons like intakes, downpipes, etc.

Honestly don't know if I ever plan to really have the thing tuned but I'm really wanting to get an intake and change out either the primary or secondary or both sets of dp's purely just for the sound because this car from factory (in my opinion) just does not sound aggressive enough.

I'm only asking because obviously no dealer wants to do warranty work because they're not really making any money on it but I've heard of dealer's pretty much trying to blame anything and everything they can on downpipes and idk how I feel about this car still being a BMW and something randomly going wrong and they decide they want to blame the dp's even if they aren't the cause and having to shell our that $$$

This is going to be specific to your dealer. If they, or BMW NA, wants to find a way to not honor your warranty because of aftermarket modifications, they will.

[AHall]

Originally Posted by ResIpsaLoquitur

This is going to be specific to your dealer. If they, or BMW NA, wants to find a way to not honor your warranty because of aftermarket modifications, they will.

I thought dealers like warranty work as the get reimbursed from BMW.

The most accurate answer to your question would come from the dealership where you plan to have your car serviced. I would get it in writing. It really does not matter what someone told you here.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by AHall

I thought dealers like warranty work as the get reimbursed from BMW.

The most accurate answer to your question would come from the dealership where you plan to have your car serviced. I would get it in writing. It really does not matter what someone told you here.

“I thought dealers like warranty work as the get reimbursed from BMW.”

You’re right, they do. Some dealerships claim they only get costs for some of it though. But I think the dealers find a way to make profit on everything they do no matter what.

“The most accurate answer to your question would come from the dealership where you plan to have your car serviced. I would get it in writing.”

^ THIS.

I get that he wants to get a general pulse of what they do, but at the end of the day, the only that matter is if your dealer will.

[GriggsyG22]

Originally Posted by ResIpsaLoquitur

“I thought dealers like warranty work as the get reimbursed from BMW.”

You’re right, they do. Some dealerships claim they only get costs for some of it though. But I think the dealers find a way to make profit on everything they do no matter what.

“The most accurate answer to your question would come from the dealership where you plan to have your car serviced. I would get it in writing.”

^ THIS.

I get that he wants to get a general pulse of what they do, but at the end of the day, the only that matter is if your dealer will.

Well luckily I have 2-3 dealers in my area. However 2 of them are owned under the same family

[GriggsyG22]

Originally Posted by ResIpsaLoquitur

“I thought dealers like warranty work as the get reimbursed from BMW.”

You’re right, they do. Some dealerships claim they only get costs for some of it though. But I think the dealers find a way to make profit on everything they do no matter what.

“The most accurate answer to your question would come from the dealership where you plan to have your car serviced. I would get it in writing.”

^ THIS.

I get that he wants to get a general pulse of what they do, but at the end of the day, the only that matter is if your dealer will.

If you were to ask and get it from anybody....who would you ask? Service Manager? GM?

[micvite]

Originally Posted by ResIpsaLoquitur

“I thought dealers like warranty work as the get reimbursed from BMW.”

You’re right, they do. Some dealerships claim they only get costs for some of it though. But I think the dealers find a way to make profit on everything they do no matter what.

“The most accurate answer to your question would come from the dealership where you plan to have your car serviced. I would get it in writing.”

^ THIS.

I get that he wants to get a general pulse of what they do, but at the end of the day, the only that matter is if your dealer will.

As someone who owns a shop that does accept various forms of warranties (like silver rock for carvana) its not that they don't get paid, it's that it's a fairly tedious process to get the stuff approved, you have to call in, explain what it is, tell them how many hours and parts it's gonna be, then some kid looks at a chart and says sure! Or sorry we'll only give you 31 hours to pull the motor instead of the 44 you're asking, then a bunch of back and forth explaining why I think i need 44 and why they say they only will give me 31 then we settle in the middle at like 37.5 after a 2 hour debate and much emails back and forth with various labor guides and trying to explain to someone thats never done an oil change why it takes longer than what the warranty sheet says (say add time for rust). Say something else is found during teardown, everything has to stop, call in again to supplement the estimate, repeat whole process. That and dealers charge customers anywhere from 120-250$ an hour, chances are they're getting 55-85 an hour for the warranty work plus no markup on parts where most mechanics make most of their profit anyway (since it's literally just money in their pocket). To put it in simpler terms it's like your doctor dealing with your health insurance, gotta get the pre-certification to do any treatment and some hs kid gets to decide whether the treatment gets done and how much they'll get paid for it😂

Depends how busy the dealership is, if they have nothing they'll kiss your feet for a big warranty job, otherwise? They'll tell you to come back in 3 months in hopes you've gone to bother someone else😂 (how I get a lot of my warranty customers and I don't mind since our labor rates aren't that much higher than what the warranty pays us anyway so I'm happy to get quantity since we all know a 3 hour book job really takes 30-40 minutes to someone that knows what they're doing and has done it 30 million times)

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by micvite

As someone who owns a shop that does accept various forms of warranties (like silver rock for carvana) its not that they don't get paid, it's that it's a fairly tedious process to get the stuff approved, you have to call in, explain what it is, tell them how many hours and parts it's gonna be, then some kid looks at a chart and says sure! Or sorry we'll only give you 31 hours to pull the motor instead of the 44 you're asking, then a bunch of back and forth explaining why I think i need 44 and why they say they only will give me 31 then we settle in the middle at like 37.5 after a 2 hour debate and much emails back and forth with various labor guides and trying to explain to someone thats never done an oil change why it takes longer than what the warranty sheet says (say add time for rust). Say something else is found during teardown, everything has to stop, call in again to supplement the estimate, repeat whole process. That and dealers charge customers anywhere from 120-250$ an hour, chances are they're getting 55-85 an hour for the warranty work plus no markup on parts where most mechanics make most of their profit anyway (since it's literally just money in their pocket). To put it in simpler terms it's like your doctor dealing with your health insurance, gotta get the pre-certification to do any treatment and some hs kid gets to decide whether the treatment gets done and how much they'll get paid for it😂

Depends how busy the dealership is, if they have nothing they'll kiss your feet for a big warranty job, otherwise? They'll tell you to come back in 3 months in [...]

Thanks for sharing this. You much more artfully explained in detail what I meant when I said the dealership will always find a way to make money on it. Book hours (or approved book hours I should say perhaps) vs. how many hours it actually takes you to do it seems to be the (not so) secret sauce.

[micvite]

Originally Posted by ResIpsaLoquitur

Thanks for sharing this. You much more artfully explained in detail what I meant when I said the dealership will always find a way to make money on it. Book hours (or approved book hours I should say perhaps) vs. how many hours it actually takes you to do it seems to be the (not so) secret sauce.

Problem is 3 hours at 55$ an hour is 115... at 200? That's 600$ big difference in pay for the same 30 min job😂. Heck they want a half hour or an hour to code a battery half the time... something that takes 2 minutes or less. They told me before they could proceed with diagnosing an issue on my car that had a warrantable issue that it needed a new battery and programming when I asked how much they said 250 for the battery and 150 for programming. I asked can I just bring a battery and code it? NO! Ok said I, called them the next day and told them the car had a new battery and they're like oh but the coding! It's already done I said. Dejected they replaced my transmission under warranty on my 149897 mile car a job totaling well over 14k out of pocket since the trans itself new shipped from Germany was 9k almost. (In case you were wondering, I went there at 3am, replaced the battery since I had the second key to the car and pretended like nothing happened)

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by GriggsyG22

If you were to ask and get it from anybody....who would you ask? Service Manager? GM?

Maybe micvite has a better answer to this than me. But I would start asking there. Provide the exact mods in terms of parts, agree on who will do their install, and then get all that and the guarantee in writing on dealership letterhead that you won’t be denied warranty coverage for them by that dealer. Managers change all the time. A gentleman’s agreement, and perhaps even a written agreement could still leave a lot of room for issues down the road if they tell you the type of damage that occurred (allegedly) wasn’t of the type the provided guarantee applied to. That’s why this is so dangerous if you’re seriously worried about being denied warranty coverage for a mod. Even if you had that, if they really want, they will find a way to deny you.

As everyone here says, you’ve got to pay to play. You may very well never have an issue, but if you do, the possibility will always exist that your warranty may not be honored.

[micvite]

Originally Posted by ResIpsaLoquitur

Maybe micvite has a better answer to this than me. But I would start asking there. Provide the exact mods in terms of parts, agree on who will do their install, and then get all that and the guarantee in writing on dealership letterhead that you won’t be denied warranty coverage for them by that dealer. Managers change all the time. A gentleman’s agreement, and perhaps even a written agreement could still leave a lot of room for issues down the road if they tell you the type of damage that occurred (allegedly) wasn’t of the type the provided guarantee applied to. That’s why this is so dangerous if you’re seriously worried about being denied warranty coverage for a mod. Even if you had that, if they really want, they will find a way to deny you.

As everyone here says, you’ve got to pay to play.

Agree, service advisor. The GM most likely walks into the dealership once a month to make sure the place hasn't burned down😂. You can also try the service manager, since they'd be above the SA, but realistically for most warranty work that bmw isn't questioning too hard your SA is the person that pushes it through to bmw to ask for the work to be approved. Now the question is who do you think is shady enough to say yes, your service advisor, the service manager? Because realistically if bmw caught them it would be fraud say if your engine blew with downpipe and intakes if they pushed for a new engine and "forgot" to mention you had mods. Now there are some things that certain dealerships will warranty like the carbahn stuff if they install it and whatnot and that just bounced back between bmw and carbahn on whose fault it is and whose paying and they'll just keep pointing fingers until you're fed up with it.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by micvite

Problem is 3 hours at 55$ an hour is 115... at 200? That's 600$ big difference in pay for the same 30 min job😂. Heck they want a half hour or an hour to code a battery half the time... something that takes 2 minutes or less. They told me before they could proceed with diagnosing an issue on my car that had a warrantable issue that it needed a new battery and programming when I asked how much they said 250 for the battery and 150 for programming. I asked can I just bring a battery and code it? NO! Ok said I, called them the next day and told them the car had a new battery and they're like oh but the coding! It's already done I said. Dejected they replaced my transmission under warranty on my 149897 mile car a job totaling well over 14k out of pocket since the trans itself new shipped from Germany was 9k almost. (In case you were wondering, I went there at 3am, replaced the battery since I had the second key to the car and pretended like nothing happened)

where there’s a will, there’s a way.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by micvite

Agree, service advisor. The GM most likely walks into the dealership once a month to make sure the place hasn't burned down😂. You can also try the service manager, since they'd be above the SA, but realistically for most warranty work that bmw isn't questioning too hard your SA is the person that pushes it through to bmw to ask for the work to be approved. Now the question is who do you think is shady enough to say yes, your service advisor, the service manager? Because realistically if bmw caught them it would be fraud say if your engine blew with downpipe and intakes if they pushed for a new engine and "forgot" to mention you had mods. Now there are some things that certain dealerships will warranty like the carbahn stuff if they install it and whatnot and that just bounced back between bmw and carbahn on whose fault it is and whose paying and they'll just keep pointing fingers until you're fed up with it.

I’ve got what I believe to be an awesome SA, but there is absolutely no way he’d do what OP or any of us suggests (for things that aren’t Carbahn/have BMW’s blessing, etc.), even though he’s done many accommodating, bend over backwards types of things for me.

[micvite]

Originally Posted by ResIpsaLoquitur

where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Best part was I could've taken the pan off the transmission and fixed the problem for... 150$ in parts? But I was like nah let's get a new transmission. They literally were like idk how the fk you got a new transmission since the car is like 13 years old and has 149k miles on it under warranty, the dealer had never even heard of this until then and I kinda felt bad for the lady I bought the car from since she took it to ANOTHER dealer that didn't know about this warranty either...

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by micvite

Best part was I could've taken the pan off the transmission and fixed the problem for... 150$ in parts? But I was like nah let's get a new transmission. They literally were like idk how the fk you got a new transmission since the car is like 13 years old and has 149k miles on it under warranty, the dealer had never even heard of this until then and I kinda felt bad for the lady I bought the car from since she took it to ANOTHER dealer that didn't know about this warranty either...

Getting them to get you a new tranny with that kind of mileage, even if there is some obscure warranty that backed you…bravo, sir.

[micvite]

Originally Posted by ResIpsaLoquitur

I’ve got what I believe to be an awesome SA, but there is absolutely no way he’d do what OP suggests, even those he’s done many accommodating, bend over backwards types of things for me (for things aren’t Carbahn/have BMW’s blessing, etc).

There are a few that you can bribe or don't really care or say if they're your friends cousins uncles son they'll hook you up but it's far and in-between because not disclosing mods like I said would be fraud from that perspective and I'm 70% sure bmw doesn't pay for stuff out of pocket for warranty work and it goes through their insurance so you have a wonderful case of insurance fraud and theft of services to name a few (I believe you said you're a lawyer so I'm sure you know better than I do the kind of shit you could possibly get into) is that really worth risking that and or losing your job to help a random stranger because they want to first and foremost break federal and or state laws by tampering with emissions control devices?

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by micvite

There are a few that you can bribe or don't really care or say if they're your friends cousins uncles son they'll hook you up but it's far and in-between because not disclosing mods like I said would be fraud from that perspective and I'm 70% sure bmw doesn't pay for stuff out of pocket for warranty work and it goes through their insurance so you have a wonderful case of insurance fraud and theft of services to name a few (I believe you said you're a lawyer so I'm sure you know better than I do the kind of shit you could possibly get into) is that really worth risking that and or losing your job to help a random stranger because they want to first and foremost break federal and or state laws by tampering with emissions control devices?

Exactly. It absolutely is fraud, and problematic on many fronts. And that’s where he (and almost all) will draw the line. Like I said, has he taken care of me on something under warranty that was borderline that he thought was unfair that happened, but perhaps was partially attributable to me? Certainly. But asking him to commit fraud — isn’t going to happen. And honestly, I’d never ask him to.

[Patton250]

I’d very much want to do evolve intakes myself but I would hate to have something go wrong with the engine and BMW decline warranty work because of that. It’s no secret that any company or manufacture, will attempt to get out of having to pay for something if they can. I just don’t know if intakes will do that or not. I have heard horror stories about downpipes and of course everyone knows a tune instantly eviscerates your warranty.

[GriggsyG22]

Originally Posted by micvite

There are a few that you can bribe or don't really care or say if they're your friends cousins uncles son they'll hook you up but it's far and in-between because not disclosing mods like I said would be fraud from that perspective and I'm 70% sure bmw doesn't pay for stuff out of pocket for warranty work and it goes through their insurance so you have a wonderful case of insurance fraud and theft of services to name a few (I believe you said you're a lawyer so I'm sure you know better than I do the kind of shit you could possibly get into) is that really worth risking that and or losing your job to help a random stranger because they want to first and foremost break federal and or state laws by tampering with emissions control devices?

Just for a funny haha. I'm in Florida so emissions laws/regulations don't really exist here and only the d*ckiest cops, will give you tickets for exhaust. Only have 1 buddy I know of who got one, Catless dp's on a 340i. Cop is a state trooper who lives in my town who's just known to be a dick and hand out tickets left and right....weird part is. He owns a newer ZL1

[GriggsyG22]

Originally Posted by Patton250

I’d very much want to do evolve intakes myself but I would hate to have something go wrong with the engine and BMW decline warranty work because of that. It’s no secret that any company or manufacture, will attempt to get out of having to pay for something if they can. I just don’t know if intakes will do that or not. I have heard horror stories about downpipes and of course everyone knows a tune instantly eviscerates your warranty.

From everything I've always heard. Cold air intakes wouldn't do a single thing to damage anything in your car. If anything they should help the car run cooler and more efficiently putting less stress on the related components

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by Patton250

I’d very much want to do evolve intakes myself but I would hate to have something go wrong with the engine and BMW decline warranty work because of that. It’s no secret that any company or manufacture, will attempt to get out of having to pay for something if they can. I just don’t know if intakes will do that or not. I have heard horror stories about downpipes and of course everyone knows a tune instantly eviscerates your warranty.

The truth is, you can never really know. You just have to know (and be comfortable with the fact) the possibility exists.

[josec70]

OP, the “mod” game is “pay to play” as there are zero guarantees regarding possible outcomes and what may or may not be covered.

If something goes wrong it is BMW NA who will be asking for supporting documentation from your dealer for the warranty claim to be approved. I would be hard-pressed to find a dealer willing to put anything in writing that could lead to money coming out of their own pocket.

Things were not always this way but the days of “easy” approvals from NA became extinct during the F10 M5 era where many a tune lead to blown engines and denied warranty coverages. Saw this 1st hand with several M5 owners in South Florida.

I have always been of the school that anything entering your engine (intake) is riskier than anything exiting it (dps) in terms of damage the respective products can cause.

While not likely, aftermarket intakes can permit dirt and debris into your engine which could lead to damage. Water can also enter your engine causing hydrolock. Air roll issues can also create problems with F:A ratio which can lead to problems.

Are these scenarios likely? Probably not. Can they happen? Yes.

What is certain is if you find yourself with a serious issue, be prepared to pay. Plain and simple as your chances of BMW giving you a pass are slim to none.