BMW Extended warranty issues

[El_Duderino]

Hi all,

I have a 2009 M3 for which I recently purchased the BMW Extended Warranty (Gold). Needless to say, this is not an inexpensive warranty.

I took my car in to a local dealership in northern California with better than average review scores. However, I wanted to run their handling of the issue by all of you fine folks to get your thoughts.

There were 3 issues with my car:
1) Increased battery discharge -- car currently fitted with the original OEM AGM battery.

2) Passenger door will not unlock

3) SOS call system malfunction

Up front, the dealership wanted me to agree to potential diagnostic charges at $130 for each of the three above problems. This would be "refunded" and I would only have to pay the $50 written into the Extended Warranty contract should any of the above issues fall under warranty coverage.

A few hours later, they give me the results of the diagnostic check. The increased battery discharge is due to a faulty cell in the battery. Apparently, the battery is not covered under either the original or extended warranty. Although they mention that they may have replaced it as a faulty unit if I was still within the original factory warranty period, the battery is now apparently too old and at the end of it's life expectancy. So, they want to charge me $130 diagnostic fee and about $700 for replacing the battery and coding it. Fairly ridiculous.

The door is apparently a faulty locking mechanism so they will not charge me the $130 but will charge me the $50 deductible. Parts and labor will be covered by BMW.

Lastly, and most annoyingly, the SOS system malfunction was blamed on using a "non-approved" cell phone. Apparently, the Motorola I have is not on the list of 4 -- that's right, FOUR -- models approved by BMW. They're claiming that this can throw the telecommunications system out of wack although the error has clearly occurred when the phone isn't even paired with the car. The frustrating thing here is that I brought this issue up with another dealership while the car was in the original warranty period. It was logged in the service record but no issue could be found so the code was reset. Yet, this dealership now want me to fork over $130 as a diagnostic fee for a problem they failed to diagnose initially and, now, on the second go around.

Does any of this sound reasonable? Is it appropriate to charge all these diagnostic fees on a warrantied car? Can they charge me for a problem that I had already flagged during the original warranty period? Should the battery be covered?

Thanks for all the input in advance.

El Duderino

[quicktwinturbo]

Sounds like load of fresh bull crap to me.. $700 for battery?? Yikes.. Take it to some other dealership for a quote

[El_Duderino]

Originally Posted by quicktwinturbo

Sounds like load of fresh bull crap to me.. $700 for battery?? Yikes.. Take it to some other dealership for a quote

Yup, I am taking the car elsewhere for the battery work. What about the rest? What's up with all these diagnostic fees despite the fact that I paid $4K plus for an extended warranty from BMW.

[ChrisF]

That's simply insane. Please name the dealer.

[zamboni]

Battery replacement is not cheap, I paid $500 for my E90 battery and your car is due for a new one.

[El_Duderino]

Originally Posted by ChrisF

That's simply insane. Please name the dealer.

Believe me...I will. Just as soon as I determine how this pans out and I get my car back. Completely unacceptable behavior in my view. I will also be sure to hit them hard on the service survey and then follow up with BMW NA. Total BS.

[e-solo]

Originally Posted by zamboni

Battery replacement is not cheap, I paid $500 for my E90 battery and your car is due for a new one.

I hope this is a sarcastic statement.

[dmk08]

I had the battery swapped and coded by an independent shop in my 2008. $200.

[scutts]

I think you should haggle for 1 diagnostic charge (especially getting the cellphone code one written off) and overall discount. They typically do offer a bit of a discount if you insist.

Also, I wouldn't put anything other than OEM especially if you're on an extended warranty. It might haunt you down the road. I think it was around $300 for the battery at RealOEM, add a couple hours of labor (standard), coding, etc $700 isn't far off, although more on the slightly expensive side.

Ask them to give you an invoice and cross off from there. IMO, if you're gonna take the car to other dealer, might as well get it done there. All dealers charge diagnostic.

Good luck

[geneatals]

go to indy shop and have them swpa and register your battery OP...contact alekshop, they should be able to help you out with that....

[fuddman]

On the issue of the increased battery discharge, I imagine the dealer spent the time and charged you for examining the integrity of your electrical system.
If that's the case, then he should have told you two things up front: (a) they would need to check out your entire electrical system at a cost of $130 and (b) the battery was a potential cause of the problem and, if it was, it would cost you $700 to replace.
If the SA did not clearly state those conditions to you at the outset, then he, in my opinion, did not do his job. In your position, I would argue that had I known these cost requirements from the beginning, I would have declined his offer.

[dparm]

Odyssey PC1220. /thread

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/batteries/pc1220.htm

[PrimeBMW]

I have the "increased battery discharge" also. I mentioned the extremely high prices the dealer charges to my indie shop. I can't remember what they have to do but only takes 3 minutes to recode something (sorry I didn't listen to the details). The process sounded easy and quick. So the actual cost should be the battery, the time to install the battery plus 3 minutes! $200 sounds about right...........and the dealer price for some reason is $400 to $700.

[dj_dub]

Great...this scares me a bit as I purchased the same BMW Extended Warranty as well over a year ago. Hope I don't see a bunch of hidden fees when I take my car in for problems later on down the road. I hope you get your issues resolved dude!

[Someone?]

So if you replace your battery the car has to be coded? coded for what?

[El_Duderino]

Thanks for all the replies above. Much appreciated. They're now willing to shift the cost of the SOS diagnostics towards a new battery bringing the cost of the battery to $480 including coding.

Still seems steep? Thoughts?

[El_Duderino]

Originally Posted by Mr Sparkle

SOS phone pairing issue - weird, I would fight it, I didn't understand where you said they claim you attempted to pair a unauthorized phone? Were you using bluetooth or a cradle? I'm a bit confused. But generally, they are more flexible if you tell them about the preexisting condition and never successfully diagnosed by BMW earlier under coverage. You should bring this up to BMW USA if your dealer refuses to be flexible.

They are stating that the "SOS Malfunction" code thrown by the car, and the associated pulsing green light adjacent to the SOS button near the rearview mirror, is a consequence of a software glitch CAUSED by my use of a BMW "unapproved" phone. The phone is paired to the IDrive via Bluetooth. No physical cradle, no physical attachment whatsoever. It's a load of BS. They know it, and I know it. There is no way my phone is, essentially, crashing the telecommunications module in the car due to some aberrant Bluetooth connection.

[Route 16]

Originally Posted by dj_dub

Great...this scares me a bit as I purchased the same BMW Extended Warranty as well over a year ago. Hope I don't see a bunch of hidden fees when I take my car in for problems later on down the road. I hope you get your issues resolved dude!

Extended factory warranty or cpo gold/silver warranty?

Op, battery is all you, if you are still in NorCal, bunch of shops for the battery to be registered, not coded. I'd say $300 the least.
Alekshop would be best bet for fixing SOS.