Warranty issue

I

Izice

Member
I have a problem just now.....i had a tapping noise took it to one garage who said it was the valve clearances...they sorted a few for about £400. The tapping noise was better but still there. They said it was the vanos..."could last 100,000 miles or last 10,000 miles".

Three months later i decided to get a comprehensive warranty from BMW £1300 for piece of mind.
Another 4months pass and a repeating fault on my O2 sensors came back (x6 replaced in 2 years). I took the car to another garage to get it fixed and mentioned the tapping noise. They investigated!

Head gasket gone between cylinder 1 and 2.
x2 camshafts need replaced.
Cam followers have hardening.
O2 sensor needs replaced.

Nought to do with the Vanos....this all goes to BMW warranty and they say no because i had an exisiting problem when i took out the warranty. They say my car was "plugged into bmw diagnostics" so had an existing problem. I have an invoice for valve clearances which doesn't mention or record the vanos verbal suggestion when i picked it up. 4 months pass before i got a warranty then another 3 months cooling off period and another month before i decided to get the o2 sensors done when it went bad. The problems found are not even related to what was suggested at the first garage.

I'm waiting to see what happens next week, the car has been sitting now over a month and im getting pissed off don't even have a courtesy car.
The warranty company previously to this last week wanted to see proof of purchase and the service history documentation. Are these warranties just a scam or what?

I'm getting ready to punt the car if things go south as i reckon the work will be in excess of £5000.

cars 43k on clock service 2 done last year new pads and discs all round also last year seems a shame to trade her in but im losing confidence in the engine and BMW in general.

Any advice would be welcomed.
 
So have BMW plugged your car in and seen that faults were logged prior you taking out the warranty?

Any get out and they will, especially when faced with a £5k bill
 
When the car went to the first bmw garage no faults were logged. O2 senors were okay, i was getting the tapping noise investigated. They did some valve clearances and that was it. The tappping noise was still present but not as bad. They then verablly suggested it may be the vanos and would last 100,000 miles or 10,000. I left it at that. The invoice for work was the valve clearances.

Fast forward approx 4 months and o2 sensors went so i went to another bmw garage who investigated.....
 
good lord.... considering I'm having my own Valve clearance issue at the moment i really feel for you here, must be stressful to not be in the know.... worrying it seems alot of these cars may simple not be getting the valves checked properly when we are paying for it, as 43k and camshaft and follower wear?? nuts... sounds like its been left tight or loose for a decent amount of miles.

my own shim too tight issue was supposedly given the all clear just 1600 miles before hand.... I'm pretty certain that previous VERY trusted tuner didn't check them due to the cars mileage or for whatever reason, luckily in my case, its ( hopefully ) most likely a case of swapping to a smaller shim and re-checking regularly,engine condition was insanely clean ( as expected on over serviced and low miles).

Ive now ordered all the parts and I'm going to do it myself in my garage as a middle finger to these tuners/ indies/ dealers that are out their just making money out of us in vulnerable positions.

Unfortunately i think bmw warranty actually have reason to deny warranty as it sadly was a Pre-them issue clearly, however this doesn't help you and at 43k miles, its a painful lesson, i mean head gasket failure ?? worrying stuff. However i would going to that previous dealer and basically calling them out for missing the issue's ( long shot ) but you never no what may come of it, unless I'm reading your OP incorrectly.

Im fast learning its time to build up a pot of money and do some serious tear down work pretty early into the engines life to keep it tip top condition, and really proactive with the maintenance of it. i love the s54, but as with most of the S engines in N/A high revving form, they are worrying fragile.

Sorry to hear this OP and i really hope this gets sorted for you ASAP. Maybe they will show mercy and offer some form of goodwill. Is the cars service history complete?
 
Just because it's been plugged into BMW diagnostics before proves nothing.

You could have done that when trying to diagnose the faulty lambda.
 
I'm guessing what the first dealer did was logged for all to see. The fact the issue wasn't resolved also clear to see hence denying the claim. I don't just mean diags, what did they log manually on the computer system.

Not nice to hear, but I think you will struggle. TBF BMW is usually very good, but guess they have you bang to rights on this.
 
Ah ok, so the first BMW garage will have logged it on their system to show that a fault (tapping noise) was present and not fixed.
 
Bugger this is what may have done me. (DPG)

The 2nd bmw garage didn't get into specifics the insurance bod didn't even tell him what garage it was...just a diagonistic test was done and their was an existing fault.

I explained it all to the 2nd garage and he agrees i have a case. He's going to try and resolve next week. (i'm not confident)

The thing is their conclusion was it might have been the vanos. So surely as the discovered problems aren't even related to the vanos i have some leverage behind my claim.? These faults may have occurred after the first visit to the garage after all.
 
Fingers crossed for you mate, hopefully if the Mondial warranty won't pay out BMW UK will sort it.

Like you say, you were told it was probably the Vanos first time
 
Thanks DPG....im gonna try have faith. It's feels like a game of chess. Don't want to trade but i may have no option.
 
So, did you have a AUC warranty in place when it went in for its diagnostic...? If so, then it should surely be paid against this warranty or the dealer who failed to spot the problem...?!
 
If you're anywhere near Elms Cambridge get your car down there and talk to Peter. They know the S54 inside out - all the CSL guys take their cars there (for good reason). They'll do all they can to look after you and try and get this sorted under warranty.
 
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