Advice regarding BMW dealership and recalls
Discussion
Hi All,
A friend of mine owns a 2009 320i Coupe. And knows very little about cars.
He has owned this car since September 2018.
He received a recall letter from BMW regarding a faulty positive battery terminal and called the number listed in the letter.
The advisor took his details and reg, and told him not to drive the car and that a recovery vehicle would come along to collect it to carry out the recall work. In about an hour, said truck arrived.
Once at the dealership, he has called to find out how long his car will be to be told they are working on it, shouldn't be much longer. He was provided a courtesy car so no big deal.
Fast forward to today, and he has received a call to say that the sump plug has destroyed itself upon removal, threads are knackered and a new sump is required. Estimate £800.
Now, he has called me as he is understandably rather panicked to receive this news.
My first question was, why was the sump plug removed when the recall work was to do with the battery terminal?
After a chat with the service manager, I have been told the following:
Whilst the car was with us we checked for other recalls and saw one regarding the blower fan for the air con. We have dealt with this.
We also saw a service campaign for the timing belt guides and whilst carrying out this particular task the sump sh*t itself. £800 please.
Now, should they have sought authorisation for this work from the owner? Is the fact that two jobs are a recall and one is a service campaign relevant?
Or is he screwed and needs to get it recovered and taken to an indy?
I'm not looking to blame the dealer, then may well be doing exactly as they should be, but understandably, for my mate, this stings a bit.
Any advice/views/comments?
TIA
A friend of mine owns a 2009 320i Coupe. And knows very little about cars.
He has owned this car since September 2018.
He received a recall letter from BMW regarding a faulty positive battery terminal and called the number listed in the letter.
The advisor took his details and reg, and told him not to drive the car and that a recovery vehicle would come along to collect it to carry out the recall work. In about an hour, said truck arrived.
Once at the dealership, he has called to find out how long his car will be to be told they are working on it, shouldn't be much longer. He was provided a courtesy car so no big deal.
Fast forward to today, and he has received a call to say that the sump plug has destroyed itself upon removal, threads are knackered and a new sump is required. Estimate £800.
Now, he has called me as he is understandably rather panicked to receive this news.
My first question was, why was the sump plug removed when the recall work was to do with the battery terminal?
After a chat with the service manager, I have been told the following:
Whilst the car was with us we checked for other recalls and saw one regarding the blower fan for the air con. We have dealt with this.
We also saw a service campaign for the timing belt guides and whilst carrying out this particular task the sump sh*t itself. £800 please.
Now, should they have sought authorisation for this work from the owner? Is the fact that two jobs are a recall and one is a service campaign relevant?
Or is he screwed and needs to get it recovered and taken to an indy?
I'm not looking to blame the dealer, then may well be doing exactly as they should be, but understandably, for my mate, this stings a bit.
Any advice/views/comments?
TIA
Sir Bagalot said:
I'd be having a face to face chat with the service manager along the lines of no one in their right mind sends a 10 year old BM to a dealer.
If the sump plug had to be removed and was damaged then the customer needs to be called for authorisation. No authorisation = no money
My thoughts precisely. If the sump plug had to be removed and was damaged then the customer needs to be called for authorisation. No authorisation = no money
The service manager is saying that in order for them to carry out the service campaign (timing chain guides), they needed to remove the sump plug. They then discovered it had been over tightened previously and was now unfit for purpose.
£800 please...
1.. What proof is there that THEY didn't over tighten it?
2. Should they not have had authorisation for this bit anyway?
Any BMW techs on here can shed any light?
Oh, another thing. Recall advisor on phone said dont drive the car, we will recover it.
Service manager said it was brought in as a breakdown. I said it hadn't broken down it was brought it by BMW UK. She said dont drive it.
SM: Well because it was brought in as a breakdown we have to do all this work.
ME: But it wasnt a breakdown.
SM: Well he should have driven it in.
ME: He was told not to.
SM: Well its irrelevant we still have to do it anyway.
ME: So why did you say because it was a breakdown?
SM: We are just going round in circles.
ME: I think you're digging a hole....
garyhun said:
If it were me, I would be expecting the dealer to sort out this for their own pocket.
No doubt there may be some small print in whatever your friend signed stating that they may carry out other work as required BUT I cannot see that as a get out of jail for the issue they’ve caused.
Absolutely this. It's hard to say how the sump plug got stripped (could have been massively overtightened by whoever changed the oil last time, or the technician at the BMW dealership might have made a schoolboy error with his ratchet set to 'on' before he realised) but if this all happened while they were doing work they weren't specifically authorised to do, I'd expect them to take care of it, No doubt there may be some small print in whatever your friend signed stating that they may carry out other work as required BUT I cannot see that as a get out of jail for the issue they’ve caused.
Highly unlikely he's going to get anywhere by saying "I'm not paying" even if he has morality on his side.
The car will be pushed outside until a resolution has been agreed and the courtesy car will be recalled within a few days. If he digs his heels in he could be without transport for months.
I'd suggest to shortcut all of that and offer to pay for a new sump but at trade/cost price and insist the dealership sucks up the labour cost for the job so that they can complete the rework.
The car will be pushed outside until a resolution has been agreed and the courtesy car will be recalled within a few days. If he digs his heels in he could be without transport for months.
I'd suggest to shortcut all of that and offer to pay for a new sump but at trade/cost price and insist the dealership sucks up the labour cost for the job so that they can complete the rework.
Vaud said:
SultanOfSwing said:
I think so too.
However, they say that because the car was there, they HAVE to do the work.... because it's a service campaign.
Then they can recover the money from BMW. The work and cost was not authorised.However, they say that because the car was there, they HAVE to do the work.... because it's a service campaign.
n.b. I am not a lawyer.
His reasoning of "because it was here, and the service campaign exists, we have to do the work"
Doesn't wash with me.
Cold said:
Highly unlikely he's going to get anywhere by saying "I'm not paying" even if he has morality on his side.
The car will be pushed outside until a resolution has been agreed and the courtesy car will be recalled within a few days. If he digs his heels in he could be without transport for months.
I'd suggest to shortcut all of that and offer to pay for a new sump but at trade/cost price and insist the dealership sucks up the labour cost for the job so that they can complete the rework.
Why? The work was not authorised.The car will be pushed outside until a resolution has been agreed and the courtesy car will be recalled within a few days. If he digs his heels in he could be without transport for months.
I'd suggest to shortcut all of that and offer to pay for a new sump but at trade/cost price and insist the dealership sucks up the labour cost for the job so that they can complete the rework.
"Pay under duress", pay by credit card and issue a CC dispute, at worst?
Cold said:
Highly unlikely he's going to get anywhere by saying "I'm not paying" even if he has morality on his side.
The car will be pushed outside until a resolution has been agreed and the courtesy car will be recalled within a few days. If he digs his heels in he could be without transport for months.
I'd suggest to shortcut all of that and offer to pay for a new sump but at trade/cost price and insist the dealership sucks up the labour cost for the job so that they can complete the rework.
Interestingly, at the end of my, at times heated, convo with the SM, I summarised my call by saying "listen, I'm not calling you to say you've done wrong, or made mistakes, but this car belongs to a good friend of mine and he now has a broken car, and an £800 bill."The car will be pushed outside until a resolution has been agreed and the courtesy car will be recalled within a few days. If he digs his heels in he could be without transport for months.
I'd suggest to shortcut all of that and offer to pay for a new sump but at trade/cost price and insist the dealership sucks up the labour cost for the job so that they can complete the rework.
He said he would go through the estimate and try and get and get the money down.
Smells like a guilty conscience to me.
We had a similar issue on one of our Minis a few years ago - went in for routine oil service and they told us it needed a new sump because the drain plug thread had stripped; however as the car had only ever been serviced by MINI (in fact the supplying dealer from new) I told them to get lost, after which miraculously they discovered they could helicoil it without even taking the dump off when it was them paying for it.
The sump being aluminium should make no difference to the suitability of a helicoil type thread insert, that is just BS.
Chris
The sump being aluminium should make no difference to the suitability of a helicoil type thread insert, that is just BS.
Chris
Vaud said:
Why? The work was not authorised.
"Pay under duress", pay by credit card and issue a CC dispute, at worst?
And if this free work was "authorised"? What then? The sump plug will still have been over tightened by the last person to touch it, it would still have stripped the threads and would still require replacing. "Pay under duress", pay by credit card and issue a CC dispute, at worst?
The garage's stance would still be the same - and they're right. It's not their fault that the car's sump plug has been over tightened and I totally understand why they want to replace rather than attempt repair.
The only positive the OP's friend has is this slightly tenuous advantage that the (free of charge and a good thing for the car's overall longevity) extra recall/rework jobs were started before he was informed.
This very minor trump card may be enough to prompt a sympathetic look at any invoice by the management team.
Cold said:
And if this free work was "authorised"? What then? The sump plug will still have been over tightened by the last person to touch it, it would still have stripped the threads and would still require replacing.
The garage's stance would still be the same - and they're right. It's not their fault that the car's sump plug has been over tightened and I totally understand why they want to replace rather than attempt repair.
The only positive the OP's friend has is this slightly tenuous advantage that the (free of charge and a good thing for the car's overall longevity) extra recall/rework jobs were started before he was informed.
This very minor trump card may be enough to prompt a sympathetic look at any invoice by the management team.
They brought it in to fix one specified recall.The garage's stance would still be the same - and they're right. It's not their fault that the car's sump plug has been over tightened and I totally understand why they want to replace rather than attempt repair.
The only positive the OP's friend has is this slightly tenuous advantage that the (free of charge and a good thing for the car's overall longevity) extra recall/rework jobs were started before he was informed.
This very minor trump card may be enough to prompt a sympathetic look at any invoice by the management team.
They found other service issues that they (being the experts) were not risk free.
They were not approved to perform other recall work without consent.
The damage and repair was their risk.
My guess is that they make a loss on these jobs as BMW may pay them a heavily discounted rate - and they are seeking to boost their profit. I am cynical.
A call to BMW UK customer services maybe timely.
Sump plugs can and do strip the threads, as mentioned above its usually whoever did them up last that's caused the issue.
Had the sump plug not stripped and BMW checked and replaced the timing chain FOC would the owner have been happy or still complained about work being carried out without authorisation
Had the sump plug not stripped and BMW checked and replaced the timing chain FOC would the owner have been happy or still complained about work being carried out without authorisation
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