Dinan Warranty (personal experience)

daixloxbmw · 01-04-2008, 04:38 PM

hi all,

i just wanted to comment on the dinan warranty based on my personal experience. after reading the thread by XxLancaxX, i did not want to hi-jack his tread.

i have an '01 330i with dinan cold air intake, throttle body and stage III flash and i assumed an intact warranty by bmw.

i had a few issues with my car and when i brought it into the bmw dealership to service, they told me the problem (which i will explain later, several problems) was caused by the dinan mods. i tried to contact dinan but was not able to reach them through phone since they (at the time) did not post a customer service number on their website. not sure if thats still true. i went to bmw gallery of norwood (authorized dinan dealer), where i bought and installed the dinan mods and the dinan reps there told me it was a bmw problem and to talk to the service techs. this went back and forth numerous times and in the end... got no where. i paid out of my own pocket and fixed these problems.

the problems, separate incidents:

1. leaky "intake boot", its just a rubber elbow that connects the dinan intake pipe to the intake manifold. service techs claims the dinan intake was putting pressure on the intake boot and causing it to bend and eventually crack. dinan reps claim the heat and dry air must have corroded the rubber. in the end, neither owned up to it and i bought the part myself for $35 and replaced it myself.

2. throttle/acceleration hiccups, surges and hesitations. service reps claim the dinan software is causing this. dinan reps claim the transmission software was to blame. never fixed this problem but it eventually went away on its own.

the moral of my story is that dinan and bmw will both try to point fingers at one another. do not assume that your dinan products will be covered under dinan or bmw's warranty. with that said, i do not plan to buy any dinan products in the future.

just an fyi... i dont mean to bash dinan's products, just their warranty claims... please take this as you will...

stressdoc · 01-04-2008, 04:45 PM

That sucks. Useful info for folks considering something as big a deal as the flash. You hear good and bad stories about the Dinan - BMW relationship. You would think that in situations where they can't agree to full liability they would just split the bill. The customer should never be involved, it's between BMW & Dinan.

HPIA4v2 · 01-04-2008, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stressdoc

That sucks. Useful info for folks considering something as big a deal as the flash. You hear good and bad stories about the Dinan - BMW relationship. You would think that in situations where they can't agree to full liability they would just split the bill. The customer should never be involved, it's between BMW & Dinan.

That's silly for Dinan to do.
It'll be cheaper to pick up the bill rather than hearing it here and loose future sales.

A class act would be to post a message on this thread and offer some compensation. At least PM OP and offer explanation.

XxLancaxX · 01-04-2008, 06:49 PM

Thanks for posting. Im sorry you had a bad experience with Dinan but Im glad you let other people know what happened to you. I chose not to go the Dinan route and instead JB2. That sucks that Dinan and BMW can't just work together. Renntech and Mercedes were awesome. Never had a warranty issue with my Renntech car. Thats the only thing Mercedes has on BMW.

badass335 · 01-04-2008, 07:26 PM

I'm sorry to hear about your issue with your car! It's sad but in the end it's so true. Most companies out there do this. They sell you a product and a warranty but when it comes time to pay up, it's always 'the other guys fault'.

I've gone this route with computers, cars, houses etc and it's never been simple (at least for me). In the end, if it was a few bucks here and there, i've just footed the bill. I actually did fight a claim on my property and they did in the end replace it BUT never did accept blame. I got the old, "We'll do this as a favor for you". I guess the BBB had no part in this decision.

End of the day, it's BUYER BEWARE.

vladinecko · 01-04-2008, 07:50 PM

that blows. i was just considering finally doing some modding but now i'm gonna be a bit more cautious.

dwykstra · 01-04-2008, 08:16 PM

Agree with the posts above. I was leaning towards the Dinan reflash because of the warranty, but now I may wait and see what happens with the possible BMW reflash as it would be hard for them to not take responsibility for their own reflash.

Doc E · 01-04-2008, 08:29 PM

this is exactly what i thought will happen with major damage.
both will play telephone for months, while downtime will cost customers time and $$$

daixloxbmw · 01-05-2008, 01:23 PM

telephone tag is exactly what i ended up doing with both dinan and bmw and they just kept redirecting blame to one another. so in the end, i lost time and money exactly as bimmbo said and i just decided to suck it up and pay for repairs myself.

i just wanted to post this to inform other members that this dinan warranty is not the holy grail of modding that some people seem to think.

caveat emptor!

roadkillrob · 01-05-2008, 01:27 PM

They should have fixed your car because now I would never consider wasting the money (and it is a waste) - I would rather do a piggy back or something that can be removed so at least i have a hope of BMW fixing it since they won't see the mod!

Jeff@Eurobahn.us · 01-05-2008, 01:30 PM

Man I am sorry that happened to you ! I wish I could say it was an isolated experience but I have 10 years doing this and this is a very often told story

Jeff
Eurobahn

sambonator · 01-05-2008, 01:39 PM

Its the same story with those lease-end protection plans as well. Good luck getting anyone to pay for anything with those things...

jon@themshop · 01-05-2008, 02:08 PM

Those intake boots rip off all the time on E46 models on stock air boxes.

jpsimon · 01-05-2008, 02:20 PM

So let me get this straight...

You can't mod the car with anything BUT dinan parts... or else you lose the warranty.

.....and you can't mod the car WITH dinan parts... or else you lose the warranty.

This is exactly why I would never in a million years justify the high price of the dinan flash based upon "keeping a warranty". It's just a big ploy to screw the customer over and to make money. Enjoy those dinan flashes and your "warranty" everyone!

Rugs · 01-05-2008, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daixloxbmw

hi all,

i just wanted to comment on the dinan warranty based on my personal experience. after reading the thread by XxLancaxX, i did not want to hi-jack his tread.

i have an '01 330i with dinan cold air intake, throttle body and stage III flash and i assumed an intact warranty by bmw.

i had a few issues with my car and when i brought it into the bmw dealership to service, they told me the problem (which i will explain later, several problems) was caused by the dinan mods. i tried to contact dinan but was not able to reach them through phone since they (at the time) did not post a customer service number on their website. not sure if thats still true. i went to bmw gallery of norwood (authorized dinan dealer), where i bought and installed the dinan mods and the dinan reps there told me it was a bmw problem and to talk to the service techs. this went back and forth numerous times and in the end... got no where. i paid out of my own pocket and fixed these problems.

the problems, separate incidents:

1. leaky "intake boot", its just a rubber elbow that connects the dinan intake pipe to the intake manifold. service techs claims the dinan intake was putting pressure on the intake boot and causing it to bend and eventually crack. dinan reps claim the heat and dry air must have corroded the rubber. in the end, neither owned up to it and i bought the part myself for $35 and replaced it myself.

2. throttle/acceleration hiccups, surges and hesitations. service reps claim the dinan software is causing this. dinan reps claim the transmission software was to blame. never fixed this problem but it eventually went away on its own.

the moral of my story is that dinan and bmw will both try to point fingers at one another. do not assume that your dinan products will be covered under dinan or bmw's warranty. with that said, i do not plan to buy any dinan products in the future.

just an fyi... i dont mean to bash dinan's products, just their warranty claims... please take this as you will...

Dinan and BMW both trying to point fingers at one another. Wow...sounds like just any other aftermarket mod!

hkj · 01-05-2008, 03:10 PM

Thanks for sharing your story buddy. Real life stories like this are invaluable in keeping the consumers informed.

-hkj

1clean335i · 01-05-2008, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jon@themshop

Those intake boots rip off all the time on E46 models on stock air boxes.

+1
I dont see why you would try to make Dinan cover this part to begin with. Its normal wear and tear.

sambonator · 01-05-2008, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1clean335i

+1
I dont see why you would try to make Dinan cover this part to begin with. Its normal wear and tear.

He tried to get BMW to cover it. They wouldn't, because the BMW "...service techs claims the dinan intake was putting pressure on the intake boot and causing it to bend and eventually crack."

elguevon · 01-05-2008, 03:53 PM

How about warranty issues with JUST the flash, no hardware/engine part mods. (i.e. damage caused to stock BMW engine parts as a result of installing the flash)?

Any experience with this?

Sounds like the center of the warranty issue was around the Dinan part (intake). Would this issue or warranty argument arisen if the OP only had done the flash?

Doc E · 01-05-2008, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elguevon

How about warranty issues with JUST the flash, no hardware/engine part mods. (i.e. damage caused to stock BMW engine parts as a result of installing the flash)?

Any experience with this?

Sounds like the center of the warranty issue was around the Dinan part (intake). Would this issue or warranty argument arisen if the OP only had done the flash?

same thing would prolly happen, because engine/turbo damage is very costly and if it begins to occur on a large scale (like the b5 s4) neither party will want to lose their income.

T Bone · 01-05-2008, 04:07 PM

For those of you who read my thoughts on the Dinan flash, I haven't held back that my view of the flash (and oil cooler) is a complete rip off....

Just because I hate one product doesn't mean Dinan is a bad company, on the contrary, I will vouch for Dinan standing behind their parts. My 3.91 differential on my M6 started to whine. I had it replaced by Dinan without any hassles what so ever. My fellow M5 / M6 owners who had the same problem also experienced the same thing from Dinan.

I think the key for the people who choose to do the Dinan flash, you need to choose your Dinan dealer carefully. The best option is to choose a BMW dealer who is mod friendly and who is also a Dinan dealer.....

daixloxbmw · 01-05-2008, 04:39 PM

in response to "How about warranty issues with JUST the flash, no hardware/engine part mods. (i.e. damage caused to stock BMW engine parts as a result of installing the flash)? Any experience with this?" by elguevon...

my problems with throttle/acceleration hiccups, surges and hesitations is exactly dealing with this issue. bmw service techs blamed this problem on the dinan stage III flash (which is the NA equivelent to the current flash for the 335i). and dinan reps were pointing the finger at my transmission's electronics.

i can imagine this same exact scenario happening with this new dinan flash for the 335i.

dont get me wrong, i really enjoyed the modest performance gains with my dinan mods. it was noticeably snappier with a more direct throttle response. it didnt make the car much quicker... but it was noticeably more responsive than my sisters similarly equipped 330i without the dinan mods. i just wanted to let everyone know of my own experiences with the dinan warranty. it is not my intention to bash their products.

01-04-2008, 04:38 PM	#1
daixloxbmw Lieutenant 141 Rep 571 Posts Drives: Corvette Grand Sport Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: USA iTrader: (0)	Dinan Warranty (personal experience) hi all, i just wanted to comment on the dinan warranty based on my personal experience. after reading the thread by XxLancaxX, i did not want to hi-jack his tread. i have an '01 330i with dinan cold air intake, throttle body and stage III flash and i assumed an intact warranty by bmw. i had a few issues with my car and when i brought it into the bmw dealership to service, they told me the problem (which i will explain later, several problems) was caused by the dinan mods. i tried to contact dinan but was not able to reach them through phone since they (at the time) did not post a customer service number on their website. not sure if thats still true. i went to bmw gallery of norwood (authorized dinan dealer), where i bought and installed the dinan mods and the dinan reps there told me it was a bmw problem and to talk to the service techs. this went back and forth numerous times and in the end... got no where. i paid out of my own pocket and fixed these problems. the problems, separate incidents: 1. leaky "intake boot", its just a rubber elbow that connects the dinan intake pipe to the intake manifold. service techs claims the dinan intake was putting pressure on the intake boot and causing it to bend and eventually crack. dinan reps claim the heat and dry air must have corroded the rubber. in the end, neither owned up to it and i bought the part myself for $35 and replaced it myself. 2. throttle/acceleration hiccups, surges and hesitations. service reps claim the dinan software is causing this. dinan reps claim the transmission software was to blame. never fixed this problem but it eventually went away on its own. the moral of my story is that dinan and bmw will both try to point fingers at one another. do not assume that your dinan products will be covered under dinan or bmw's warranty. with that said, i do not plan to buy any dinan products in the future. just an fyi... i dont mean to bash dinan's products, just their warranty claims... please take this as you will...
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01-04-2008, 04:45 PM	#2
stressdoc Moderator 618 Rep 10,855 Posts Drives: BMW i8; Toy 4runner TRD pro Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Waco TX iTrader: (0)	That sucks. Useful info for folks considering something as big a deal as the flash. You hear good and bad stories about the Dinan - BMW relationship. You would think that in situations where they can't agree to full liability they would just split the bill. The customer should never be involved, it's between BMW & Dinan. __________________ My recent ED photos: http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1026808 my not-so-recent ED: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31829 Please join BMWCCA http://bmwcca.org/index.php?pageid=c...&ref_by=300279
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01-04-2008, 06:49 PM	#4
XxLancaxX Captain 49 Rep 954 Posts Drives: 2008 AW 335xi Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Chicago!! iTrader: (3) Garage List 2006 330xi [0.00] 2006 C6 Supercharg ... [0.00]	Thanks for posting. Im sorry you had a bad experience with Dinan but Im glad you let other people know what happened to you. I chose not to go the Dinan route and instead JB2. That sucks that Dinan and BMW can't just work together. Renntech and Mercedes were awesome. Never had a warranty issue with my Renntech car. Thats the only thing Mercedes has on BMW.
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01-04-2008, 07:26 PM	#5
badass335 Lieutenant Colonel 109 Rep 1,948 Posts Drives: 2017 540i Xdrive Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Surrey, BC iTrader: (10)	I'm sorry to hear about your issue with your car! It's sad but in the end it's so true. Most companies out there do this. They sell you a product and a warranty but when it comes time to pay up, it's always 'the other guys fault'. I've gone this route with computers, cars, houses etc and it's never been simple (at least for me). In the end, if it was a few bucks here and there, i've just footed the bill. I actually did fight a claim on my property and they did in the end replace it BUT never did accept blame. I got the old, "We'll do this as a favor for you". I guess the BBB had no part in this decision. End of the day, it's BUYER BEWARE.
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01-04-2008, 07:50 PM	#6
vladinecko Brigadier General 277 Rep 3,924 Posts Drives: '11 E92 M3 Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Bay Area, CA iTrader: (1) Garage List 2011 BMW M3 [9.00] 2008 BMW 335i [0.00] 2006 BMW 330i [0.00] 1994 BMW 325i [0.00]	that blows. i was just considering finally doing some modding but now i'm gonna be a bit more cautious. __________________ 2011 E92 M3 - IB/Beige/Sycamore Wood/6MT/EDC/ZPP2/Nav/PDC/Heated Seats/iPod-USB/Enh. Audio 2008 E92 335i - Montego Blue/Black/Gray Poplar/6MT/ZPP/ZSP/Nav/PDC/Heated Seats/HDRadio/iPod-USB - *Sold* 2006 E90 330i - Mystic Blue/Black/Aluminum/6MT/ZPP/iDrive/PDC/Heated Seats/Sat. Prep - *Sold* 1994 E36 325i - Boston Green/Beige/Automatic/ZPP/Heated Seats/Premium Sound - *Sold*
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01-04-2008, 08:16 PM	#7
dwykstra Private First Class 8 Rep 132 Posts Drives: BMW 335i Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Georgia iTrader: (0)	Agree with the posts above. I was leaning towards the Dinan reflash because of the warranty, but now I may wait and see what happens with the possible BMW reflash as it would be hard for them to not take responsibility for their own reflash.
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01-04-2008, 08:29 PM	#8
Doc E Surf Caster Extraordinaire 30 Rep 672 Posts Drives: '13 ISF Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: NJ iTrader: (2)	this is exactly what i thought will happen with major damage. both will play telephone for months, while downtime will cost customers time and $$$ __________________ 335i gone!
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01-05-2008, 01:23 PM	#9
daixloxbmw Lieutenant 141 Rep 571 Posts Drives: Corvette Grand Sport Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: USA iTrader: (0)	telephone tag is exactly what i ended up doing with both dinan and bmw and they just kept redirecting blame to one another. so in the end, i lost time and money exactly as bimmbo said and i just decided to suck it up and pay for repairs myself. i just wanted to post this to inform other members that this dinan warranty is not the holy grail of modding that some people seem to think. caveat emptor!
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01-05-2008, 01:27 PM	#10
roadkillrob Major General 863 Rep 5,450 Posts Drives: 08 335i,22 X3M, 2012 C63 Black Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Boston iTrader: (15)	They should have fixed your car because now I would never consider wasting the money (and it is a waste) - I would rather do a piggy back or something that can be removed so at least i have a hope of BMW fixing it since they won't see the mod!
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01-05-2008, 01:30 PM	#11
Jeff@Eurobahn.us Captain 25 Rep 752 Posts Drives: European Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: USA iTrader: (0)	Man I am sorry that happened to you ! I wish I could say it was an isolated experience but I have 10 years doing this and this is a very often told story Jeff Eurobahn
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01-05-2008, 01:39 PM	#12
sambonator Samtaro! 124 Rep 2,601 Posts Drives: 2014 F32 N55 Alpinweiß Join Date: May 2007 Location: Newport Beach, CA, USA iTrader: (7)	Its the same story with those lease-end protection plans as well. Good luck getting anyone to pay for anything with those things... __________________
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01-05-2008, 02:08 PM	#13
jon@themshop Captain 38 Rep 762 Posts Drives: BMW Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Los Angeles/Eagle Rock, CA iTrader: (8)	Those intake boots rip off all the time on E46 models on stock air boxes.
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01-05-2008, 02:20 PM	#14
jpsimon Team Zissou 3065 Rep 10,197 Posts Drives: 2022 AWD M3 Comp - SMB Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: CT iTrader: (7)	So let me get this straight... You can't mod the car with anything BUT dinan parts... or else you lose the warranty. .....and you can't mod the car WITH dinan parts... or else you lose the warranty. This is exactly why I would never in a million years justify the high price of the dinan flash based upon "keeping a warranty". It's just a big ploy to screw the customer over and to make money. Enjoy those dinan flashes and your "warranty" everyone!
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01-05-2008, 03:10 PM	#16
hkj Major 60 Rep 1,205 Posts Drives: BMW Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: USA iTrader: (0) Garage List 2006 330i [0.00]	Thanks for sharing your story buddy. Real life stories like this are invaluable in keeping the consumers informed. -hkj
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01-05-2008, 03:53 PM	#19
elguevon Private 2 Rep 51 Posts Drives: 2015 640i Grand Coupe Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Minneapolis iTrader: (0)	How about warranty issues with JUST the flash, no hardware/engine part mods. (i.e. damage caused to stock BMW engine parts as a result of installing the flash)? Any experience with this? Sounds like the center of the warranty issue was around the Dinan part (intake). Would this issue or warranty argument arisen if the OP only had done the flash? __________________ '15 640i Grand Coupe - Carbon Metallic - Auto\|Nav\|F06 '07 335i Coupe - Space Gray - Auto\|Nav\|Sport\|Heated Seats\|BT\|PDC\|Sirius\|HD\|6FL (Retired) '05 525i - Space Gray - Auto\| Heated Seats\|BT\|Sirius (Retired)
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01-05-2008, 04:07 PM	#21
T Bone Brigadier General 532 Rep 4,021 Posts Drives: 2008 335xi Coupe Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: The land where we kill baby seals iTrader: (0)	BMW Dealer the key For those of you who read my thoughts on the Dinan flash, I haven't held back that my view of the flash (and oil cooler) is a complete rip off.... Just because I hate one product doesn't mean Dinan is a bad company, on the contrary, I will vouch for Dinan standing behind their parts. My 3.91 differential on my M6 started to whine. I had it replaced by Dinan without any hassles what so ever. My fellow M5 / M6 owners who had the same problem also experienced the same thing from Dinan. I think the key for the people who choose to do the Dinan flash, you need to choose your Dinan dealer carefully. The best option is to choose a BMW dealer who is mod friendly and who is also a Dinan dealer..... __________________ "Aerodynamics are for people who cannot build engines"......Enzo Ferrari
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01-05-2008, 04:39 PM	#22
daixloxbmw Lieutenant 141 Rep 571 Posts Drives: Corvette Grand Sport Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: USA iTrader: (0)	in response to "How about warranty issues with JUST the flash, no hardware/engine part mods. (i.e. damage caused to stock BMW engine parts as a result of installing the flash)? Any experience with this?" by elguevon... my problems with throttle/acceleration hiccups, surges and hesitations is exactly dealing with this issue. bmw service techs blamed this problem on the dinan stage III flash (which is the NA equivelent to the current flash for the 335i). and dinan reps were pointing the finger at my transmission's electronics. i can imagine this same exact scenario happening with this new dinan flash for the 335i. dont get me wrong, i really enjoyed the modest performance gains with my dinan mods. it was noticeably snappier with a more direct throttle response. it didnt make the car much quicker... but it was noticeably more responsive than my sisters similarly equipped 330i without the dinan mods. i just wanted to let everyone know of my own experiences with the dinan warranty. it is not my intention to bash their products.
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