Warranty

[jacobe92]

Denied for warranty and why? Pls share your experiences. Thanks. I'll start w/ mine. One time my Alignment and Toe was so screwed up from running off the track many times in one day that all sorts of lights started coming out of my dash. I took it in dealership to get it fix and was denied warranty. I was told Alignment and to fix Toe are not covered.

[BIGW0RM]

^^^ My dealer did my alignment for free. That said, my car only had 6K on the clock at the time.

In fact it was Irvine BMW that did it.

[W Cole]

Battery warranty coverage denied.

Clock was losing time which is the first sign of a dying battery. Took to dealer, they denied any problems, charged battery and sent me home.

A month later the battery light comes on so I take it in again. First they say I damaged battery due to "unfavorable customer usage" which they explained as opening/closing doors too much and waking up the car (really? they didn't mention any issues when I brought it in last month, must be a huge coincidence that this all happened in the past month after I complained about a dying battery). Then after me saying this is a BS excuse they change their story and tell me that they are denying coverage because when the warning light came on the engine wasnt running (I was messing around with my iPod for about 15 seconds before I started engine when the light came one). Which is better but again total BS considering I had complained about battery issues only a month before.

Dealer replaces battery WITHOUT my permission and I begrudgingly pick up vehicle and pay out of pocket for repairs.

I arbitrated with the BBB and BMW immediately settled and paid for battery. I was VERY impressed with the BBB arbitration process. I can't believe it is free. I spoke with a very articulate and well-educated arbitrator over the phone and he handled my case within a couple of days from start to finish.. all for free.

[BIGW0RM]

Originally Posted by W Cole

Battery warranty coverage denied.

Clock was losing time which is the first sign of a dying battery. Took to dealer, they denied any problems, charged battery and sent me home.

A month later the battery light comes on so I take it in again. First they say I damaged battery due to "unfavorable customer usage" which they explained as opening/closing doors too much and waking up the car (really? they didn't mention any issues when I brought it in last month, must be a huge coincidence that this all happened in the past month after I complained about a dying battery). Then after me saying this is a BS excuse they change their story and tell me that they are denying coverage because when the warning light came on the engine wasnt running (I was messing around with my iPod for about 15 seconds before I started engine when the light came one). Which is better but again total BS considering I had complained about battery issues only a month before.

Dealer replaces battery WITHOUT my permission and I begrudgingly pick up vehicle and pay out of pocket for repairs.

I arbitrated with the BBB and BMW immediately settled and paid for battery. I was VERY impressed with the BBB arbitration process. I can't believe it is free. I spoke with a very articulate and well-educated arbitrator over the phone and he handled my case within a couple of days from start to finish.. all for free.

What asshat dealer did that to you?

[W Cole]

Sterling BMW in Newport. They are pretty bad but not as bad as Crevier. They are closest to my house so I usually go there first when I have a problem but they usually aren't able to fix it.

[pkimM3r]

Originally Posted by W Cole

Sterling BMW in Newport. They are pretty bad but not as bad as Crevier. They are closest to my house so I usually go there first when I have a problem but they usually aren't able to fix it.

Crevier BMW warrantied every part on Berk Technology's track build 135i with no hassles though.

[W Cole]

Originally Posted by pkim1079

Crevier BMW warrantied every part on Berk Technology's track build 135i with no hassles though.

Sorry, I didnt mean in terms of voiding warranty. Just overall competence.

This is OT but the following is my experience with Crevier:

- My SA Paul was a pathological liar. In fact there is a thread on this forum dedicated to how bad he is.

- The techs are sloppy. I took my car there for routine service - plugs, air filter, diff fluid and oil change. My intake pipe had been pried on and had tons of marks all over it, several of the screws on my airbox were stripped and they put a nice big scratch on the intake plenum. I am able to do all of these services with my bare hands and without damaging anything and I am not a mechanic by trade. They put the incorrect diff fluid in my car (I was running the fluid with special additives but they replaced with standard fluid).

- The techs and/or porters are sloppy. My interior had tons of kick marks which were a pain to clean off. My steering wheel had marks on it from someone wearing a ring.

Sterling BMW is not much better.

- When I got back car back from them after the ICV replacement my air intake pipe was missing (the piece between the grilles and air box) and there was a 2 foot long wire/connector that they failed to reconnect and was hanging into the engine bay.

- Sterling has managed to overtorque (with an air gun) and do minor damage to 3 of my HRE wheels despite me putting blue tape notes on the side of the car which say, "Hand Tools only Please." The service manager there lied to me and told me he personally watched the tech remove/replace my wheels and he did so with a "velvet covered socket." I find that interesting because in all the times I've been to the dealer I've never seen him leave his desk. When I asked him how my wheels got torqued to approx. twice BMW torque specs if he was overseeing the process he stammered for awhile and then told me that he actually didn't watch the tech do that part and refused to cover the damage to my wheels.

I also took my car into Sterling 3-4 times to fix an idle issue which McKenna BMW was able to fix first try. I cannot recommend McKenna enough, I was very very impressed by the care they took with my car and also their ability to correctly diagnose and repair a problem that other dealers were unable/unwilling to.

[pkimM3r]

Wow that sucks. South bay maybe?

[W Cole]

Originally Posted by pkim1079

Wow that sucks. South bay maybe?

My recommendation is McKenna BMW they are super mod friendly and I was very impressed with them.

[jacobe92]

I really want to know more about Mod related denial of warranty stuff. If you can relate please chime in. Thanks!

[Ezio]

Originally Posted by jacobe92

I really want to know more about Mod related denial of warranty stuff. If you can relate please chime in. Thanks!

[pkimM3r]

Originally Posted by jacobe92

I really want to know more about Mod related denial of warranty stuff. If you can relate please chime in. Thanks!

Why? Nothing happened to you! Lol

Edit: i will gladly take your stuff off of you!!

[BIGW0RM]

Great thread idea OP. I've been looking for a thread like this. Lets keep this going. We should have one of these threads in every regional chapter. Wait... I'm on my iPhone. Is this in the SoCal regionals? Lol.

[K.M. Tim]

Try buying your car through the military sales program abroad. 2 yr warranty and you pay for all services, parts and labor. We bring the car back to the US we fall under BMWNA things change but until then...PAY, PAY, PAY. Why have a warranty? Oh, manufactures defects. BS!!!!

[Mr.MichaelM3]

Supercharged at 34k miles. Still have warranty and get everything covered muahahahahah

[BIGW0RM]

Originally Posted by Mr.MichaelM3

Supercharged at 34k miles. Still have warranty and get everything covered muahahahahah

LOL! Until them rob bearings of yours go KA boom!

[BIGW0RM]

Originally Posted by bcscout

Try buying your car through the military sales program abroad. 2 yr warranty and you pay for all services, parts and labor. We bring the car back to the US we fall under BMWNA things change but until then...PAY, PAY, PAY. Why have a warranty? Oh, manufactures defects. BS!!!!

That sucks, but thank you for your service! God bless man.

[Charlie@McKennaBMWService]

Originally Posted by W Cole

My recommendation is McKenna BMW they are super mod friendly and I was very impressed with them.

Thanks Will!

[pkimM3r]

when I went in for an alignment, and they saw that my brake light was on (yellow), they had to note that the light was on, BUT, they didn't do anything about it since I didn't go in for that. The next time, I'm going to do what OP has told me to do about it!

[WillC310]

Originally Posted by jacobe92

I really want to know more about Mod related denial of warranty stuff. If you can relate please chime in. Thanks!

On my old E46 M3, I had a wierd SMG problem where I got laggy up shifts. My car was pretty well modded at that point - wheels, exhaust, BBK, suspension. Techs recognized that there was a problem, called up BMW because they didn't know what to do.. BMW said to put the stock wheels back on. Did that, still had the problem. They opened up a PUMA case, BMW tried to reprogram the ECU and SMG unit, no good. BMW then said to replace the transmission. BMW NA dispatched a field service engineer to approve the warranty claim. He saw that my car was modded and flat out refused to cover it. Said that I'd tracked it, and that all my after market shit was the problem - note: I had never done any ECU or SMG coding, or even tracked it. The FSE even went so far as to suggest that my problem was due to WHEEL STUDS, and that maybe I should call up Dinan since I had their muffler. This is BMW's "expert" BTW.

For all the guys that chime in with "magnuson moss warranty act" they need to STFU unless they have actually gone through the shit I did. Most think if you bring up MM, BMW NA and/or the service department is going to suddenly bow down, suck your dick, fix your car for free, and apologzie profusely for not recognizing you as an enlighted individual. Thats not going to happen. BMW will basically say its YOUR problem, and if you want it fixed, you'll have to get a lawyer involved and sue them. Meanwhile your car is going to sit there jacked up. Most laywers in the car warranty field are basically lemon laywers that work pro bono because they get paid as part of the settlement. Also, those cars are stock 99.9% of the time. When I'd mention "aftermarket" they pretty much said go pound sand, we won't take it. So yeah, finding a lawyer that understands cars and after market parts is a PITA.

Long story short: they ended up fixing the car because they were legally bound to since I did arbitration with the BBB. The problem ended up being the gear position sensor and once they replaced that, the car was fine.

(more background) I had tried contacting BMW NA via customer relations but those guys are just script monkeys that recite whatever propaganda BMW tells them to. I finally did manage to get ahold of someone in the corporate office in NJ after about 10 calls to customer relations, but by then I had already started the process with the BBB. When he heard that, he basically said nevermind, I'm not going to talk with you anymore (I get the feeling he wasn't going to offer the repair for free anyway). Moral of the story: if the repair is going to cost a lot, BMW can flat out reject it and blame your aftermarket parts that are not related to it.

[jacobe92]

I'm glad you were able to sort everything out in the end. I've already learned a few things in this short thread like getting the BBB involve and arbitration. Thanks for sharing.

[mikeric]

Not actual BMW warranty but their tire and wheel road hazard package. My E46 M3 they fixed curb rash bubbled sidewalls due to hitting Philly potholes without questions (3 new tires over a year).

The fiance was driving the M hit a spot in the road that was cut open for repairs. She had no choice but to go through it as slowly as possible but she still took a chunk out of the tile and scratched the rim. Car had 2.5k miles. BMW (Ottos, not my usual Thompson or Mainline), said it was cosmetic and would not repair under wheel and tire warranty.