[bungleaio]

Check this out for a weird tale of events!

I've had my car for 12 months now and I bought it from a franchised dealer so I got 12 months approved used warranty. Car has been running fine no problems its not got a turbo and is petrol so it's pretty bullet proof but being an E93 there's the potential of a whole load of wallet pain so I extended the warranty through the Mondial scheme. I chose comprehensive with a £100 excess.

The new warranty started yesterday and then today I get a massive message on the idrive screen saying Engine Fault, reduced engine power, possible to continue journey but drive moderately. Get the car looked at by a BMW garage. It wasn't making any noises and was running perfectly up until the message came up.

Luckily I was less than 10 minutes from my local dealer so I pulled straight in to their service centre. They say no problem we'll have a look at it straight away, I wait for a bit and I'm told that the car needs to be cold for them to look at so they'll put me in a courtesy car and get back to me later in the day.

Fast forward to this afternoon and I get a call. They have read the ECU and it logged a fault a week or so ago, nothing serious enough to cause anything real problems but this morning it got worse hence the message and reduced power.

Fair enough I say, whats the actual problem then and I expect it will be sorted under the warranty? Oh we don't know what they actual problem is but we have spoken to the warranty company and they won't cover it as its an existing fault and the approved warranty has now elapsed so they won't cover it.

It took me a bit to get my head around it but even though I have had continuous warranty I am looking at having to pay for repairs

I'm not too impressed by this as both warranties appear to cover whatever has gone wrong with my car but due to the unfortunate timing of when its happened they don't want to know.

I've spoken to BMW uk customer service and explained the situation and they say they may give good will and contribute towards it but they can't commit at the moment. The garage says I'm in a good position as the car is low mileage, unmodified and has only been serviced in the main dealer network.

I hope they do help me out as I'm mightily cheesed off at the moment as the only way I could have found out there is an issue was by getting it hooked up to a diagnostic machine which BMW would have charged me to do.

Moral of the storey is when your warranty is coming to an end even if you are extending it get your car checked over by the garage!

[jammy78]

Surely if the fault was there before the AUC warranty had ended - proven by the fault code, BMW should cover the repair!?

I would keep on at BMW, get a customer service advisor & constantly bug them!

[bungleaio]

Well you would think so wouldn't you but the AUC warranty is saying well you didn't make a claim whilst we were covering the car and now that cover has finished so you can't claim now.

Today was day one of this. I'm hoping BMW will cover it but I'll have to wait and see. I have had to agree to cover the investigation charge to find out what the actual problem is. Once I know this hopefully it can move forward without me having to sell a kidney.

[hmpmarketing]

Hi Mate, is it a 320i BTW? I have one and after one year of ownership I got similar msg as you, although it happened only from time to time (and when it was cold).

Turned out to be Injectors. Had 2 replaced (total cost around £550) and I have never had the problem again.

[bungleaio]

No it's the N53 325i, a potential for quite a few injectors!

With the garage saying they needed it cold I'm thinking it maybe a cooling issue but I have no idea.

[hmpmarketing]

Originally Posted by bungleaio

No it's the N53 325i, a potential for quite a few injectors!

With the garage saying they needed it cold I'm thinking it maybe a cooling issue but I have no idea.

Alright, well good luck, hopefully it is nothing serious!

[Kerr]

One of the warranties has to be liable.

If they say the problem existed before, then is surely has to be the AUC warranty that takes care of it?

They can't palm you off with that weak excuse.

[jammy78]

Is the mondial scheme..... the bmw extended warranty? This really is a joke & I wouldn't pay for even the investigation work!

[bungleaio]

Yes Mondial is the BMW extended scheme.

If I hadn't authorised the investigation then nothing would move forward, everyone is saying not our problem so we aren't doing anything. I have only authorised to cover the cost if no one else picks it up. Hopefully once they work out what the problem is then one of the thee parts of BMW will say they will cover it.

[Statler]

I had massive airbag light issues during normal warranty, these continued into BMW extended warranty. Like yourself I took out the £100 excess product.

When the issue arose in the extended warranty (first time here, for the fifth time overall), I had the car repaired at the dealer.

Now, here's the thing, having brought a Master Tech from England to Belfast to sort it out and probably replacing every part of the seat and airbag wiring loom they asked me to pay the £100 excess. I refused.

I pointed out that the issue had arisen under the new car warranty and they had failed to fix it properly at that time, why should I pay the excess. They hmm'd and haa'd and eventually handed me the keys without money changing hands.

Slightly different to your plight granted but..

I'd keep pushing the dealer, they have liability if the issue arose under the original warranty but similarly the warranty is supposed to be seamless, so it doen't matter when it arose, if the issue is covered, it should just be fixed without question.

Good luck..

[bungleaio]

Cheers guys. Apparently its the high pressure fuel rail thats gone. Estimate of £680 including the investigation. I'm waiting to see if someone other than me will pay for it, hopefully I will hear tomorrow.

[russdx]

Definitely don't give in!
One of those warranty was in effect at the time so one of them MUST pay they cant just push the blame on to each other!

I had a similar thing happen other week. i accidently pranged my car resulting in most of the rear passenger suspension being rebuilt! Then few weeks ago I had a oil service on a friday which they tell me rear disks and brake need replacing im like errm ok so they swap those. 50miles later my rear suspension collapses while driving and i have to pull over and get the car towed (luckily bmw extended warranty pays for all this if you tick that bmw recover option (covers tow and hire cars and stuff is actually very food value!!)) any way they get the car back and tell me oh a bolt has a snapped YOU must of hit a pot hole and caused this. basically saying its my fault and im payin for all the repairs. I was like NO WAY am i paying you a penny. For a start your telling me you make cars that hitting pot holes can cause the rear suspension to collapse?? really??? and your telling me that after having it rebuilt by your self three months earlier and having it services BY YOUR SELF 50 miles earlier its MY FAULT nooooo waaay. After that little rant i go to pick up the car and no bill was handed to me

Basically if they can get away with charging you they will but if you stand your ground I think they will give in (If your in the right!)


In your situation you did the correct thing and got the proper extended warranty and now they say its worthless NAH car was under one of those warranty's at the time so they need to pay out!!!

[djgandy]

Contact BMW UK and explain the situation. You didn't let cover lapse. Don't let the pre-existing crap wash, because if that is the case and they can prove it the fault occurred inside the old warranty and you just weren't notified of it.

[bungleaio]

Well the saga continues.

Extended warranty are saying original fault occurred before cover started so not their responsibility.

AUC are saying you have to make a claim for events whilst still within the period of cover.

BMW uk customer service are saying no good will as you have a warranty

Dealer is saying we need to know by 2:30 today whether you are going to pay for the works, if not please return our car and arrange to collect yours.

I've had numerous stern conversations at all sorts of people at all places and I'm waiting to hear back.

Disgraceful behaviour from BMW all round. The way I'm feeling now I'll be visiting Audi or Mercedes very soon.

[bungleaio]

Well common sense has won through and works should be starting on my car this afternoon. The dealer doesn't know which of the warranties are going to pay as they are sorting it out between themselves.

I could have to pay the £100 excess but if I do I'm fine by that, I agreed to that when I extended the warranty.

[gaza01]

What a load of shite!! I hate thing like this. You've paid for a warranty either way. You shouldnt have to go through all of that!!!

Glad its getting sorted though

[bungleaio]

Well they waived all excess charges and the cost for the courtesy car and I picked the car up at about 6 last night.

Been out shopping this morning and come back to notice a patch of oil about 2 inches square on the drive right where my car has been parked over night.

I've seriously had enough now, I love the car but is it worth it for all this grief, I'm starting to think not.

One things for sure, this is my first and last BMW.