Persistant Fault - In and out of warranty (BMW X3)

[tomellingham]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice. I have owned an 06 BMW x3 for a little over a year. About two months ago the engine warning light came on on a motorway journey. Got the car home and called BMW who said to bring it in ASAP. Brought the car in on the Monday but the engine light had turned off. BMW said that the fault had probably rectified itself and only paying £160 for diagnostics would show what the issue was. Declined to pay that and took the car home. Over the next month the warning light has flicked on and off a few times. Finally tired of it and assuming a sensor issue, took the car in for diagnostics. Needs a new MAF sensor and a snazzily named 'Smooth Running Sensor', all for about £600 all in.

Here is the issue. When if first took the car in it was under warranty. The car is now not. As far as I am aware the fault is persistant and was flagged to them during the warranty period and really should have been replaced the first time I took the car in. Now it would seem I might be liable to cough up £600 (if I go through BMW).

Any thoughts on this? Am I dead in the water or can BMW take some of the blame for sending me home the first time around. Secondly, would a third party warranty cover work that I knew about before taking out a warranty?

Interested to know your thoughts.

[Frances The Mute]

They have you by the testes on this one as far as I can see.

If you'd opted to do the diag, they would have covered the parts under warranty.

[rallycross]

Its worth a try you might need to get the sales manager/service manager/dealer principal involved before they will agree to help.

But, if they say no as its out of warranty dont ever take it back to a BMW main dealer they will rip you off, guaranteed. Find a decent small garage they will have the equipment to fix it.

[jamei303]

If it was under warranty, why did they propose to charge you £160 for diagnostics? Are there many problems activating an engine warning light that aren't covered under warranty? Surely they should have said "we'll look into it, and if it turns out to be a warranty repair you won't pay anything, but if it's a non-warranty repair, we'll bill you for the reapair and the diagnostics".

[Accelebrate]

Could you take out an extended warranty?

[tomellingham]

jamei303 said:

If it was under warranty, why did they propose to charge you £160 for diagnostics? Are there many problems activating an engine warning light that aren't covered under warranty? Surely they should have said "we'll look into it, and if it turns out to be a warranty repair you won't pay anything, but if it's a non-warranty repair, we'll bill you for the reapair and the diagnostics".

To be honest if they had said that to me I would have got it done. Had BMWs in the family for years and never had issues, so when I took the car in and told the fault probs has rectified itself I believed them.

[tomellingham]

Accelebrate said:

Could you take out an extended warranty?

Missed out on it by a few days as I was on holiday, they give you a month to extend it.

[jamei303]

tomellingham said:

jamei303 said:

If it was under warranty, why did they propose to charge you £160 for diagnostics? Are there many problems activating an engine warning light that aren't covered under warranty? Surely they should have said "we'll look into it, and if it turns out to be a warranty repair you won't pay anything, but if it's a non-warranty repair, we'll bill you for the reapair and the diagnostics".

To be honest if they had said that to me I would have got it done. Had BMWs in the family for years and never had issues, so when I took the car in and told the fault probs has rectified itself I believed them.

So, you reported the fault within the warranty period. They then told you that the fault was resolved and refused to check this without charging you. I think it's quite clear they need to foot the bill here.

[tomellingham]

jamei303 said:

tomellingham said:

jamei303 said:

If it was under warranty, why did they propose to charge you £160 for diagnostics? Are there many problems activating an engine warning light that aren't covered under warranty? Surely they should have said "we'll look into it, and if it turns out to be a warranty repair you won't pay anything, but if it's a non-warranty repair, we'll bill you for the reapair and the diagnostics".

To be honest if they had said that to me I would have got it done. Had BMWs in the family for years and never had issues, so when I took the car in and told the fault probs has rectified itself I believed them.

So, you reported the fault within the warranty period. They then told you that the fault was resolved and refused to check this without charging you. I think it's quite clear they need to foot the bill here.

Pretty much, think the main issue was the engine warning light had gone off when I first took it in, if there is no warning light they aren't going to check anything without charging. I feel a stern letter coming on! Outraged of Orpington etc.

[playalistic]

tomellingham said:

Missed out on it by a few days as I was on holiday, they give you a month to extend it.

You can get an official BMW warranty even when your original one has lapsed so long as the car is spot-on with official BMW dealership service history and is of a reasonable mileage (below 60k all most parts are covered for the top level warranty, above it starts to get a little expensive and lacking in cover)

http://www.bmw-warranty.co.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

[tomellingham]

playalistic said:

tomellingham said:

Missed out on it by a few days as I was on holiday, they give you a month to extend it.

You can get an official BMW warranty even when your original one has lapsed so long as the car is spot-on with official BMW dealership service history and is of a reasonable mileage (below 60k all most parts are covered for the top level warranty, above it starts to get a little expensive and lacking in cover)

http://www.bmw-warranty.co.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

Thats good to know, letter they send at the end of the warranty period seems to suggest that if you don't take it up you can't get a warranty.

[V6Alfisti]

tomellingham said:

Pretty much, think the main issue was the engine warning light had gone off when I first took it in, if there is no warning light they aren't going to check anything without charging. I feel a stern letter coming on! Outraged of Orpington etc.

Not the experience I had with an Alfa warranty, they just plugged it in and checked what code popped up (a coil pack in this case). I think they were just brushing you off and £160 for diagnostics?

How on earth did they come up with that figure, even a labour rate of £110 p/h would suggest 1.5 hours to connect a cable to a diagnostic port.

[5STM5]

tomellingham said:

Hi all,

Looking for some advice. I have owned an 06 BMW x3 for a little over a year. About two months ago the engine warning light came on on a motorway journey. Got the car home and called BMW who said to bring it in ASAP. Brought the car in on the Monday but the engine light had turned off. BMW said that the fault had probably rectified itself and only paying £160 for diagnostics would show what the issue was. Declined to pay that and took the car home. Over the next month the warning light has flicked on and off a few times. Finally tired of it and assuming a sensor issue, took the car in for diagnostics. Needs a new MAF sensor and a snazzily named 'Smooth Running Sensor', all for about £600 all in.

Here is the issue. When if first took the car in it was under warranty. The car is now not. As far as I am aware the fault is persistant and was flagged to them during the warranty period and really should have been replaced the first time I took the car in. Now it would seem I might be liable to cough up £600 (if I go through BMW).

Any thoughts on this? Am I dead in the water or can BMW take some of the blame for sending me home the first time around. Secondly, would a third party warranty cover work that I knew about before taking out a warranty?

Interested to know your thoughts.

It's unlikely you will get anything other than frustrated arguing with them that the fault was first identified when the vehicle was under warranty. The BMW AUC warranty is not that good anyway, however if BMW carry out diagnostics and find a warrantable problem they don't charge the diagnostics fee. If you have used BMW for any servicing since you've had the car you can ask the dealer to apply to BMW UK for a "Gesture of goodwill" payment, where BMW UK may pay part of the total bill.
I used this method when I had a water ingress problem with the Aerial diversity module, unsurprisingly it wasn't covered under warranty, but BMW UK agreed to pay the bill except for the antenna amplifier. This reduced a £300 bill to £43.
If nothing else, it worth asking the dealer to try this if you've had the vehicle serviced by BMW.

[playalistic]

V6Alfisti said:

Not the experience I had with an Alfa warranty, they just plugged it in and checked what code popped up (a coil pack in this case). I think they were just brushing you off and £160 for diagnostics?

How on earth did they come up with that figure, even a labour rate of £110 p/h would suggest 1.5 hours to connect a cable to a diagnostic port.

I think they do this to try and distract people from bringing the car in for any minor or non-issues. Not saying it's right of course...

[Accelebrate]

tomellingham said:

playalistic said:

tomellingham said:

Missed out on it by a few days as I was on holiday, they give you a month to extend it.

You can get an official BMW warranty even when your original one has lapsed so long as the car is spot-on with official BMW dealership service history and is of a reasonable mileage (below 60k all most parts are covered for the top level warranty, above it starts to get a little expensive and lacking in cover)

http://www.bmw-warranty.co.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

Thats good to know, letter they send at the end of the warranty period seems to suggest that if you don't take it up you can't get a warranty.

That was my understanding when I was looking for my MINI, you can also pay monthly and cancel with a months notice. I seem to remember a clause about it not covering existing faults, but I reckon you could plead ignorance on that one.

[E30M3SE]

Accelebrate said:

That was my understanding when I was looking for my MINI, you can also pay monthly and cancel with a months notice. I seem to remember a clause about it not covering existing faults, but I reckon you could plead ignorance on that one.

Except that as the car has now been diagnosed, so this visit will be recorded on the BMW system which Mondial can check..............


So may not be as easy as 'pleading ignorance'.

[CoolHands]

buy a maf sensor from eurocarparts and fit it yourself. Forget the other smooth running bullst doubt if you need it.

Edited by CoolHands on Tuesday 24th April 18:21

[Panda76]

Take it to an Indy if you have one nearby,screw BMW they take the piss with pricing and make it up.
I wouldn't even bother entering into an argument with them,lifes too short to deal with them and the crappy answers they will give to get out of paying up.
My Local Indy will do a plug in and fault finding for £40 inc vat.
They will use all BMW genuine parts if repairs needed and the blokes who work in there are all ex bmw spanner men.
Having a full dealer history on a car thats coming on for 6 years old now doesn't mean a lot imo.
Mines 6 yrs old this December has a full dealer service history for those 3 years,now it gets done by the indy and the book still gets stamped.(I,am intending to run this car for a lot longer mind and will probably be worth nothing when I get rid)

[tomellingham]

Paid £460 in the end, they said they would take the diagnosics off the bill and reduce it by £100 further still.

Bittersweet though, car has been running so smooth, quieter, less creaking from the back (whatever that is)....

But last night, engine warning light on again. Going to give them a bell in the minute and get them to do free diagnostics. Depending on the outcome of the problem I will defo be heading to an indy. Don't want to have to pay another penny for that car this month.

[SLacKer]

£160 just to plug in and see what codes are there, wow. My local Mercedes dealer charges £60 for an hours diagnostic for comparison an indy even less and my own code reader costs nothing to use.