N52 warranty claims

T

tomTVR

Active member
I'm looking to buy a 3.0si coupe on sunday which has 97,000 miles on the clock.

I was wondering if I take out the official warranty then would BMW pay out if i had to claim for any potential HVA issues? Once the car goes over 100,000 miles is there a bigger excess? I know if you pay monthly you can keep the warranty over 100k, I'm just concerned they might try the 'wear and tear' argument.

Thanks
 
You.ll struggle to get them to even accept its got a problem

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at 97k you could assume the unit in your chosen car is unlikely to suddenly develop this issue .
regular oil services with correct oil & of course correct cooling should entrust very long life on the straight 6 .
have you had a quote from BMW for warranty at that mileage ?
my personal belief is put the warranty £££ you are prepared to pay into a maintenance fund , ,,these cars are not known for inherent faults & what can go wrong is generally reasonable to fix ( with a decent indy of course)
 
Thats a good point actually, it's a bit like the people who worry about the Nikasil issues on the early 90's V8's, if they have made it this far then they should be fine.

I've had a look on the website and warranty doesnt seem too bad. Funnily enought I took the 'maintenance fund' approach to my 3.0i roadster and I'm undoubtably better off for having not bought the warranty. I'm expecting the coupe will be exactly the same in this department, it's just the HVA issues which concern me so I'm considering the basic driveline warranty which should cover the expensive bits.

On a side note has the HVA issue caused many engine failures? Or is it more a case of the annoying rattly idle?
 
i thing its more or an annoying rattle than anything, i could be wrong though

i believe just turning on and off can resolve it
 
+1 Annoying rattle. AFAICT, it only happens at low RPM, so once driven properly, it goes away, so damage unlikely. Can't imagine how engine failure could result, premature wear maybe. Mine starts to rattle when I just move it on the drive to wash or service, goes away once on a proper drive.

May not be the best engine choice if you take lots of short trips, but you'll have other problems from that kind of hard service worse than some HVA rattling.
 
The warranty covers less and less the more milage it has so might cost a fortune and not give you a lot..
 
bcworkz said:
+1 Annoying rattle. AFAICT, it only happens at low RPM, so once driven properly, it goes away, so damage unlikely. Can't imagine how engine failure could result, premature wear maybe. Mine starts to rattle when I just move it on the drive to wash or service, goes away once on a proper drive.

May not be the best engine choice if you take lots of short trips, but you'll have other problems from that kind of hard service worse than some HVA rattling.
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Not true, when I had it on mine it did it for 4-5 miles. Problem is you only hear it when you stop not when your driving normally. Could be mine was particularly bad.

Cams hitting follows though has to cause damage.

To the OP though at that mileage as said if it was a problem it probably would have showed, although daily drivers may mask the issue to a degree.
 
Mine started the ticking noise after moving car stop start on drive etc .Exhaust side h v a 's changed by dealer .Ok for a while started again but would stil be there untill engine warm 10/15 mins or so . This was not every time car was used ,sometimes ok for weeks .Car is not used daily so might never occur if used more.Next time it happened , recorded noise , booked into dealers no noise evident showed tech footage & emailed footage .Bmw checked puma reports then replaced head for modified one . Initially fault was recorded under 3 year warranty & remedial work carried out under dealers a u c warranty.
 
So IF the dealer accepted there to be a problem, would the warranty cover a full head replacement at this sort of mileage (100k) or would they want a contribution?

Also does this affect all early N52s?
 
tomTVR said:
So IF the dealer accepted there to be a problem, would the warranty cover a full head replacement at this sort of mileage (100k) or would they want a contribution?

Also does this affect all early N52s?
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problem was early N52's only the later ones were fitted with modified head from factory, but there won't be many Z4's with the later type.

Mine was the first on here to be sorted and the dealer fitted a new head, but since then more have had issues so BMW try to save costs by changing the HVA's only. This doesn't work though for most. The modified head is the only real answer.
 
Part of the confusion is there is probably a wide range of effect, from a rattle from a couple hundredths extra clearance to more of a hammering due to a sizeable gap. Rattle not a big deal. Hammering bad. One could hope the really bad cases were repaired years back under warranty, but considering the number of clueless owners, there must be a number of faulty heads about.

Unfortunately, it's impractical to induce the issue to occur while evaluating a prospective purchase, so it's difficult to assess just how bad it is. As far as warranty coverage, I think it will vary accordingly. A rattle will be deemed 'normal', while with hammering, there is clearly something wrong. I would certainly approach a claim from the standpoint that this problem just now manifested itself. I wouldn't be comfortable assuming it would be covered, it is definitely a grey area, so if this aspect is important, you may be better off looking elsewhere.
 
i found the problem was it was very intermittent, the dealer could not simulate the fault and therfore could not do anything, eventually they changed the HVA's not the head
 
Taz x said:
i found the problem was it was very intermittent, the dealer could not simulate the fault and therfore could not do anything, eventually they changed the HVA's not the head
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Does your seem to have fixed the issue Taz?
 
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