///M Warranty

pvr said:
Not to mention that in the case of perished seals, the warranty would not cover it anyway.
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Nice to see people who know what they are talking about on the forum. Perhaps I should scan the £1200 warranty work bill from BMW that includes 2 x brand new front calipers, 2 x brand new front discs, 1 x set of brake pads and 1 x fluid? Or it must be a figment of my imagination. Btw, front calipers do fail for that very reason - BMW just replaced the seals on my old man's E46 M3 under warranty. Luckily for him, the pistons were salvegable.

To those who subscribe to the kitty idea - try and find out how much is a used engine or gearbox. The engine is a bargain at £1500. After all, more than 100,000 S54B32s were produced. Now, ask your Indy, how much would it cost to make the engine talk to the Z4M Siemens ECU, which is a bit different from any other BMW ECU and whether they can actually do it... A gearbox is even cheaper, after all what's £500 these days? Ah, but you are buying a used item. My driving style is different from yours, and yours is different from John Doe's who lives three houses down. Where is my guarantee that the gearbox did not spent hours on the Ring in some M3?

I hate main dealers because usually they are useless, but the warranty is a different story...
 
Do you mind me asking how old your Z4m is and whether you track it?

£1200 bill for a car just outside warranty seem harsh. Is this an anomaly or par for the course?

Is most of that £1200 bill made up of £100+ an hour labour charges?
 
Hark said:
Do you mind me asking how old your Z4m is and whether you track it?

£1200 bill for a car just outside warranty seem harsh. Is this an anomaly or par for the course?

Is most of that £1200 bill made up of £100+ an hour labour charges?
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YF06HLP - cover car for AutoCar magazine when the Z4MC made its UK debut in June 2006...sideways :D . Have done 45k miles since buying it from BMW on the 1st April 2007. Do I track it - yes, of course, that's what it was made for.

Look, I thought that £1200 seemed steep too, but then here is a breakdown of the costs, which you would incur if you were to DIY the parts procurement and then farm out the labour costs to an indy...

New caliper seals - £32 +VAT
New caliper pistons - £100 +VAT
New Discs - £260 + VAT
New pads - £80 + VAT
New fluid - £15 +VAT
New sensors - £30 +VAT

Total: £517 +VAT = 618.2

Independent garages' charges vary from area to area, but around my neck of the woods you wil not be getting much change from £60hr+VAT. I will leave you to do the maths on how many hours are needed to take the calipers off, pop the old pistons out, put new ones in, re-seal them, put calipers back on the car, change discs + pads and bleed the brake fluid. At a guess 4hrs minimum. 4x 60 + VAT = £282 for labour. Add the costs of the parts and you are looking at £900 inc VAT as the bare minimum on a good day when the stars are aligned and we have New moon. Realistically you will get charged £1000 inc. VAT I think. BMW has a warranty rate, which is lower than the rate they charge us when we go to get work done on the cars normally. Also, BMW works to the AW system - every job is given a certain number of AW units, which are chargeable. In other words to take off a caliper you may get 3 AWs according to the TIS, which equates to say 45 mis astronomical time. A bit of bad luck on the day and the bolts are stuck, thus It takes BNW 1hr 30mins. You still only pay for 3 AWs. Thus £1200 does not look excessive at all, considering it is not a difficult job, but a fiddly one.

Looking at the above, the £200 I can potentially save is not worth the hassle in this country, where everyone is obsessed with full service history and stamps by the main dealer. moreover, if my engine goes pop - contrary to what people say, they do go every now and then, I want to be able to go to the dealer, chuck the keys at him and say "Deal with it" rather than spend hours trawling eBay for a used lump. The above is on the proviso that I have not spent an entire lap of the Ring in 3d, banging the limiter of course :P . I know then that the warranty is absolutely useless...
 
Perhaps before you throw your toys out of the pram and become rather offensive, you could come down from your position of "knowing it all".

Having had BMWs for the last 18 years, I think I know what is covered under warranty and what is not, but I guess you were too busy to even consider other people's experiences.
 
pvr said:
Perhaps before you throw your toys out of the pram and become rather offensive, you could come down from your position of "knowing it all".

Having had BMWs for the last 18 years, I think I know what is covered under warranty and what is not, but I guess you were too busy to even consider other people's experiences.
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I did not throw my toys out of the pram. Length of ownership of a particular brand of car is completely irrelevant here. What counts is that both ///M cars in the family have had their front brake calipers fixed under warranty by BMW and they did not bat an eyelid when asked to do so. One of us has the hard physical evidence i.e. the bill from BMW, the other one is just guessing based on experience. No hard feelings or intent to offend you at all.
 
And you know that I am guessing by what exactly? Due to your tone, I have no interest in continuing this discussion.
 
eeek... sounds to me more like seals are excluded, but the callipers must have happened more than once, so they repaired them without a quibble.

I have an £87 pm direct debit running on mine now for 18 months and it's barely seen a dealer in that time, let alone had any faults.

Sods law.. if I stop it, it will break. If I don't, it won't.

One of those factors has a broken car in it, so I guess thats the way I won't be swinging.
 
I've just called BMW about a car I am interested in buying and they quoted £1236 inc breakdown cover with zero excess. It's so high because the warranty has lapsed and he assured me that the renewal would be much less after the first year. He also stated that the policy does not cover any pre existing problems with the car but without and paperwork I have no idea what they may be. He said I should basically be ok as long as the engine light is on at the time or purchase.

Not sure what I plan on doing yet but I'll probably go for a warranty for that piece of mind driving.
 
i was under the impression they cudnt bring the warranty back under any circumstances if it had failed ?
 
Isn't a lot of the decision relevant to the mileage you do?

I only do 5k miles a year. For me, the risk is worth it compared to the cost of a warranty.

I know it's quite easy to run up the cost of the warranty in a claim or two. But I also know it's easy to go a year, two or more without a fault, especially with my low mileage.

Yes, if the engine blows I'm in the sh1t. But chances are it won't.

If I did 15k miles a year, for sure, I might think differently...
 
I agree on mileage to some extent but at the end of the day you have to be fairly unlucky for something massive to go wrong. The engine is pretty well bombproof in zm form...anyway for peace of mind (as us forum types tend to be!) I think it's definitely worth doing on an annual basis if you can. You pay quite a premium for the convenience of monthly DD, something like £100 difference for the comprehensive cover...pretty outrageous if you ask me :thumbsdown:
 
Andy said:
eeek... sounds to me more like seals are excluded, but the callipers must have happened more than once, so they repaired them without a quibble.

I have an £87 pm direct debit running on mine now for 18 months and it's barely seen a dealer in that time, let alone had any faults.

Sods law.. if I stop it, it will break. If I don't, it won't.

One of those factors has a broken car in it, so I guess thats the way I won't be swinging.
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I'm in exactly the same situation, been paying £87pm for 11 months, not even sniffed a problem. Might keep the warranty but with a higher excess next year..
 
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