Discussion
After some guidance really, I've got an E61 V10 M5.
I've got the fully comp Bmw warranty on my car which I took out in December. I dropped the car off to Bmw last week as it threw up a dsc failure fault but ran fine.
Today Bmw called and said the Bmw warranty would not pay for the work ( two throttle actuators)as apparently it threw a fault up at the start of October (news to me) which was before the warranty kicked in. I feel a bit hacked off that they are trying to wriggle out of the claim by going back 7 months!!! Surely that can't be TCF ( treating customers fairly which is an fca principal which governs them).
I've had Bmw warranties for about 15 years and they have always been no quibble but this is leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.
Has anyone had a similar experiences?
I feel one 'hissy fit' that the car threw almost 7 months ago and has been running fine since is a little harsh. Feel like I'm being shafted by them at the moment and they are looking for anything to avoid a payout.
Thanks
I've got the fully comp Bmw warranty on my car which I took out in December. I dropped the car off to Bmw last week as it threw up a dsc failure fault but ran fine.
Today Bmw called and said the Bmw warranty would not pay for the work ( two throttle actuators)as apparently it threw a fault up at the start of October (news to me) which was before the warranty kicked in. I feel a bit hacked off that they are trying to wriggle out of the claim by going back 7 months!!! Surely that can't be TCF ( treating customers fairly which is an fca principal which governs them).
I've had Bmw warranties for about 15 years and they have always been no quibble but this is leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.
Has anyone had a similar experiences?
I feel one 'hissy fit' that the car threw almost 7 months ago and has been running fine since is a little harsh. Feel like I'm being shafted by them at the moment and they are looking for anything to avoid a payout.
Thanks
Surely they can't agree to take your money to warrant something, to then, seven months later, dispute the basis on which the warranty was given? Unless you declared in paying for the warranty, that the car was free from mechanical faults/errors?
I would write a very restrained letter to them in the hope that they will cover it under goodwill - at the moment they are possibly taking the view that you were aware of the fault before taking out the warranty.
I would write a very restrained letter to them in the hope that they will cover it under goodwill - at the moment they are possibly taking the view that you were aware of the fault before taking out the warranty.
Did you take the BMW warranty out to continue cover from a previous BMW warranty? I seem to recall someone else on here had a warranty claim refused by BMW because the dealer claimed that the fault had occurred before the cover started, but as the car was covered by a previous BMW warranty until the current cover started the customer managed to get them to pay up on the basis that the car was under a BMW warranty of some sort whenever the fault actually occurred, so either the previous warranty or the current one was liable.
It was not an approved used car, it was a car i had under warranty previously, then sold it and bought it back around 8 months later and put it under warranty again. I took the warranty out in December and they tell me there was a fault code for the throttle actuators logged back in October. Considering that was 7 months ago and the car has run fine since i can't help thinking that they are going back such a long way on the dates in order to look for a way out of the claim.
batmanreturns said:
It was not an approved used car, it was a car i had under warranty previously, then sold it and bought it back around 8 months later and put it under warranty again. I took the warranty out in December and they tell me there was a fault code for the throttle actuators logged back in October. Considering that was 7 months ago and the car has run fine since i can't help thinking that they are going back such a long way on the dates in order to look for a way out of the claim.
What's the date of the most recent fault recorded (or does it not work like that)? Reason I ask is who's to say the fault wasn't repaired before and just had not been cleared after repair.Or am I talking s
te?If you do end up paying and don't fancy the £1800 bill this place in Kent can do repairs for about £300 if it's
the usual worn gear issue? http://www.rebuild.org.uk
the usual worn gear issue? http://www.rebuild.org.uk
Another thing is when I had the DSC failure warning on mine and performance wasn't affected so no limp mode
It turned out to be my alternator voltage regulator was spiking 18 volts which is above the max 16v they are meant
to handle so the DSC shuts down to protect itself? They can do a print out of any charge voltage peaks as my Indy
showed me. Not saying it's the case with yours but maybe worth just asking?
It turned out to be my alternator voltage regulator was spiking 18 volts which is above the max 16v they are meant
to handle so the DSC shuts down to protect itself? They can do a print out of any charge voltage peaks as my Indy
showed me. Not saying it's the case with yours but maybe worth just asking?
batmanreturns said:
It was not an approved used car, it was a car i had under warranty previously, then sold it and bought it back around 8 months later and put it under warranty again. I took the warranty out in December and they tell me there was a fault code for the throttle actuators logged back in October. Considering that was 7 months ago and the car has run fine since i can't help thinking that they are going back such a long way on the dates in order to look for a way out of the claim.
I don't think it's a case of 'going back a long way', all faults not cleared will show with the dates and there would hopefully not be too many so they're bound to see it. Aren't they?My question would be that if they're going to look back at the history at all then they should do it at the time of agreeing the warranty and if they don't that's their problem.
The warranty does state that pre-existing faults are not covered. But I struggle with the idea that throttle actuators would throw a fault code in October and then miraculously heal themselves for 6 months before throwing up another code. I would ask to see the detailed fault log with codes and dates - as someone else posted you can get DSC errors (which may or may not show on the dash) from voltage spikes or even from a low battery condition.
It's tricky one is this. I've read on here numerous times about cars throwing up faults, then the fault clearing itself fairly quickly. Even if you reported the fault to a dealer they wouldn't be able to do anything about it if it had cleared itself, so how can they later use this to wriggle out of a warranty claim? Would you literally have to go to a dealership and report the fault and have them give you something in writing confirming that you'd reported it in order to cover yourself should it later be brought up as an excuse for not paying a warranty claim when another fault comes up?
Normally it just shows the km reading that the fault occurs at. All the info in the car is transmitted to BMW Germany as soon as the technician carries out out the initial diagnosis, they log it before the technician sees it.
They do this so they can catch out any wrong diagnosis and existing faults.
Is it possibile that the car had been to a dealer for a service previously when a fault code was stored?
I believe they can enter the chassis number into the database and pull up all the fault codes that have ever been stored.
When I worked at a dealers, sales would have warranty rejected on a sales car because a fault was stored when the car was in for service/ repair before it was traded in. So the dealer would have to pay.
It normally stores the amount of time the fault has occurred and the km, but maybe BMW can actually see the actual dates.
I'd ask the service manager exactly what the facts are.
They do this so they can catch out any wrong diagnosis and existing faults.
Is it possibile that the car had been to a dealer for a service previously when a fault code was stored?
I believe they can enter the chassis number into the database and pull up all the fault codes that have ever been stored.
When I worked at a dealers, sales would have warranty rejected on a sales car because a fault was stored when the car was in for service/ repair before it was traded in. So the dealer would have to pay.
It normally stores the amount of time the fault has occurred and the km, but maybe BMW can actually see the actual dates.
I'd ask the service manager exactly what the facts are.
This is what i sent to the BMW dealer on Friday evening.....should give you the full run down but yes, the car was serviced by them on the 15th October.
Hello chaps
Firstly, thanks for the efforts on my car so far, shame the warranty co is not as helpful as you guys.
Couple of things to flag as I get the impression they are looking for a way to wriggle out of this one. Apparently when I called up and took the policy out in early December I gave the mileage as EXACTLY 74,000 miles. I remember the call, I was not in the car and in the office so I gave an approximate mileage of 74,000 not realising that being exact was required. In fact, when I gave exactly 74,000 I can’t help but feel their staff should have pushed me a bit more by saying ‘are you sure sir, it’s unlikely that the mileage would be a nice round number like that’. If they pushed me and required the exact miles I’d have gone to the car park to check.
What they are telling me is that the mileage the fault code for this was logged pre dated the mileage I provided of 74,000 but they can’t tell me what miles it was logged at ie 73,995 for example. Neither can they give me a date! The car was in to you on the following dates:-
15th October 2015 for a service @ 72638
5th Jan @ 74870 for an air conditioning condenser
10th Feb @75243
The car was also in on a Saturday morning in mid January for a replacement battery as the previous one was losing charge and therefore throwing up fault codes (as is common with the V10 M5 and it getting low on battery voltage) but the Saturday that it was in to have the battery replaced and coded was a Saturday when your systems were down so I ended up with a paper receipt (which I’ve got if you need it to help my claim!)
I can’t help thinking that because the battery was low on charge and threw up lots of fault codes as a result, they are using this as an angle not to pay out but if I’m honest, the whole thing seems a little fishy as they can’t give me mileages or dates and they won’t show any goodwill on the basis I rounded the miles up to the nearest thousand as I was not in the car! Again, their staff should have pushed if they needed exact miles.
I’ve been a good BMW customer for 15 odd years and had various warranties on them and they have always been great on the odd small claim I’ve had. My confidence in them is failing at the moment.
They will call you or you can call them as you’ve known that car from new as you supplied it and you know the original owner and myself are both fanatical about keeping that car in tip top condition. What ever it needs it gets and it’s only been serviced by you guys from new.
One final point is that we are in April and they are drilling back to a single code they say they found 5 months ago (!!!!). If it had have pinged a code back then I would have booked it in but it only pinged codes when I booked it in with you mid march.
Hopefully this gives you some ammo to go back to them with.
Thanks in advance
Hello chaps
Firstly, thanks for the efforts on my car so far, shame the warranty co is not as helpful as you guys.
Couple of things to flag as I get the impression they are looking for a way to wriggle out of this one. Apparently when I called up and took the policy out in early December I gave the mileage as EXACTLY 74,000 miles. I remember the call, I was not in the car and in the office so I gave an approximate mileage of 74,000 not realising that being exact was required. In fact, when I gave exactly 74,000 I can’t help but feel their staff should have pushed me a bit more by saying ‘are you sure sir, it’s unlikely that the mileage would be a nice round number like that’. If they pushed me and required the exact miles I’d have gone to the car park to check.
What they are telling me is that the mileage the fault code for this was logged pre dated the mileage I provided of 74,000 but they can’t tell me what miles it was logged at ie 73,995 for example. Neither can they give me a date! The car was in to you on the following dates:-
15th October 2015 for a service @ 72638
5th Jan @ 74870 for an air conditioning condenser
10th Feb @75243
The car was also in on a Saturday morning in mid January for a replacement battery as the previous one was losing charge and therefore throwing up fault codes (as is common with the V10 M5 and it getting low on battery voltage) but the Saturday that it was in to have the battery replaced and coded was a Saturday when your systems were down so I ended up with a paper receipt (which I’ve got if you need it to help my claim!)
I can’t help thinking that because the battery was low on charge and threw up lots of fault codes as a result, they are using this as an angle not to pay out but if I’m honest, the whole thing seems a little fishy as they can’t give me mileages or dates and they won’t show any goodwill on the basis I rounded the miles up to the nearest thousand as I was not in the car! Again, their staff should have pushed if they needed exact miles.
I’ve been a good BMW customer for 15 odd years and had various warranties on them and they have always been great on the odd small claim I’ve had. My confidence in them is failing at the moment.
They will call you or you can call them as you’ve known that car from new as you supplied it and you know the original owner and myself are both fanatical about keeping that car in tip top condition. What ever it needs it gets and it’s only been serviced by you guys from new.
One final point is that we are in April and they are drilling back to a single code they say they found 5 months ago (!!!!). If it had have pinged a code back then I would have booked it in but it only pinged codes when I booked it in with you mid march.
Hopefully this gives you some ammo to go back to them with.
Thanks in advance
Problem with the extended warranty is that's technically it's an insurance policy provided by Mondial, not a true manufacturer's warranty. And you know what insurance companies are like when wriggling out of claims...
It also depends on the dealer, some have historically been known to almost completely ignore all the small print (e.g. still providing warranty despite modifications), others are complete jobs-worths. So it pays to pick the right one sometimes.
It also depends on the dealer, some have historically been known to almost completely ignore all the small print (e.g. still providing warranty despite modifications), others are complete jobs-worths. So it pays to pick the right one sometimes.
Quick update. BMW's own warranty are refusing to pay out due to a fault code logged back in October (once!) which was 7 months ago. I argued that even if it did pack up at that point there are two actuators and it was unlikely that they both went at the same time so i asked if they will go halves with me. That was also met with a 'no' but they would not tell me the logic behind that reply.
So, when i get the car back tomorrow i'll be cancelling the warranty and they will have lost a long standing customer. They have handled the whole situation like a 'back street traders' warranty company in my view. I've a good mind to write to BMW head office but i've not got the time or energy as they'll no doubt all back each other. Hey ho.
On the plus side, i'm getting my V10 monster back tomorrow! whoop.
So, when i get the car back tomorrow i'll be cancelling the warranty and they will have lost a long standing customer. They have handled the whole situation like a 'back street traders' warranty company in my view. I've a good mind to write to BMW head office but i've not got the time or energy as they'll no doubt all back each other. Hey ho.
On the plus side, i'm getting my V10 monster back tomorrow! whoop.
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