[Raj420]

Hi all,

Started my car 15 days ago and it sounded like a tractor. I was alerted by iDrive to stop the car immediately and contact recovery. It says there was low oil pressure. Bit of Background on the car, 840i Convertible, 2019 model with only 36k miles covered (oil service done at 34k miles). I'm the second owner, I bought the car last January from a BMW dealership elsewhere in the country.

The bad news is I'm OUT of used warranty by 2 days!! I have since taken out extended warranty but was told this wouldn't be covered under warranty.

Towed to my local BMW stealer the day after. They told me its an engine out strip to find the problem and its £4.5k + vat to just find the problem. Since, I have had a call saying the engine has seized and it needs replacing at a total cost of £28k!!!!! Car is probably worth around £38-40k.

The dealer have asked BMW UK to cover it under goodwill but they haven't had a response just yet.

I have owned 11 BMWs in 20 years. This is my 3rd BMW with a B58 engine so I'm shocked that it needs replacing with only 36k miles done.

Services all up to date and done on time. I have finance on the car but not with BMW FS.

Any suggestions on how to get BMW to cover this or what my rights may be as a consumer? TIA

[speedski]

Did the dealer asking for goodwill do the oil service 2k ago?

[Raj420]

No, it was done by a BMW specialist well known to the dealer. They have provided all the details as to what parts were used. No issue with that.

[speedski]

All good then - wait to see what BMW say - if they decline you can take the issue up with them directly and plead your case.

They may ask you far a contribution so be willing to spend some, but you shouldn't need to spend too much - especially as the approved used warranty was so close.

As long as there is no impact damage to the underside etc of course (it may be a risk given it suddenly went into Massey Ferguson mode.

[Fuse]

You say you took out the extended warranty, but was there a gap between when the BMW Approved Used warranty ran out and when the extended warranty kicked in? If not then it shouldn't be a problem, my understanding around the 'no claims in the first xx days' type clause was related to taking out a new warranty, but the relationship between approved used and extended is such that it's treated as effectively an extension of the original warranty.

I'd also question their quoted cost. I had a B58 engine replacement, albeit not an 8 series. It was covered under warranty but when I asked out of interest what the bill would have been without it they said it was around £12k. They did tell me the same thing they've said to you that stripping it down to diagnose the problem would need to be at my risk in the event that it wasn't a warranty issue. I was happy to authorise it in my case as I was 100% convinced it would be covered, but that was mainly down to the fact that it had always been serviced by BMW themselves so they had no get out clause!

Warranty or no warranty, in a 5 year old car I'd be expecting a generous gesture of goodwill as there's no way you should be getting catastrophic problems at thst mileage, assuming of course that all the proper servicing can be demonstrated and there's been no physical damage from driving conditions.

[Raj420]

Yes, the replacement went up from £16k to £28k depending on who I spoke to in the dealership. So that sounds suss to me. I have some time next week and will ring around a few dealerships to get prices.

My extended warranty doesn't kick in until Feb 10th Apparently. But lets hope they cover the whole lot under warranty. Car was originally delivered to its first owner in December 2019 so 4 years and one month old, 3 services, 34k miles. Car should be running like new for a while.

[Watsey]

Leaving abuse to one side, any modern engine should be able to do at least 200K miles with routine servicing.

Some parts even have an official lifespan, i.e. DPFs are programmed to be replaced at 250K miles.

Unless there are significant factors as yet undisclosed or unidentified, BMW should replace/rebuild the engine FOC.

[TurboWeasel]

I wish you luck as these things usually end up being hit and miss unless it can be proven a component(s) has failed within normal operating conditions. i.e. a manufacturer defect.

The same thing happened to my friend's M135i. It seized up at 40K miles. Full BMW service history and BMW insured warranty. They refused the claim after he forked out the 5 grand diagnosis fee. Said fee is a complete joke. It takes minutes to stick a bore scope down the plug holes to look for a mangled piston, or try and turn the crank by hand to see if it's locked up.

They told him a main bearing had seized. He was a bit cagey when I spoke to him about it, so whether his dealer sent a data dump of his ECU to Munich to check for remaps, who knows. If all was legit, I can't see why BMW would have refused it.

Anyway, fingers crossed they do right by you because that is a crazy low mileage for a failure. You can guarantee they will raise the gap in warranty cover as their first get of jail attempt.