can the dealer do this?
04-08-2009, 12:13 PM
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So my car is still under original factor warranty and I had an accident last year where I got rear ended and my front bumper was replaced as well as some components like the grille, part of the air ducts etc.
This has been 1.5 years ago and over the past couple months I noticed a strange rattling sound while accelerating that turned out to be a piece of the brake duct that is loose. My dealer is trying to charge me for this piece and the time spent diagnosing this due to the fact I previous had an accident even though this piece was never actually replaced and had been completely fine for the past 1.5 years.
On top of that I have a supersprint muffler that replaced my OEM muffler when I was rear ended. I put the supersprint one on instead. Over the past 2 months I have heard this annoying exhaust rattle from the mid-pipe/cats section and took it in. They originally tried to blame it on this supersprint exhaust but it has been working fine with absolutely no vibration for 1.5 years so I knew that was not it.
Today I actually went with the tech to look under the car and I am the one that found the problem which was 2 of the rubber exhaust hangers had stretched and it was rattling against the shield. The dealer informas me he is charging 400 bucks in diagnosing this problem because I have an aftermarket muffler on which has nothing to do with the problem considering it is lighter than the OEM and it is not the hangers on this piece that are stretched, it is the mide pipe area.
I refused to pay this and will not pay 500 bucks of things that should be covered in a warranty. I am just wondering if they are actually legit in doing this, like charging to diagnosi something that is completely not clearly due to an accident or aftermarket muffler.
He basiclaly is assuming since I got in a accident which was minor and only cosmetic parts replaced, that anything wrong is "due to the accident" that is the vibe I am getting.
Anyway what should the next step be? I have a feeling they will just give me the car and not charge me after I make a fuss and I will never use them again but should I take this to BMW NA? I think this is ridiculous.
Not to mention this is the same dealer I took it to and same tech who forgot to close my airbox, did not catch a broken pulley (which again I had to find for him and point out) and then charge me for a new drive belt because I was concerned due to uneven wear it needed replacing but no go.
This is ridiculous IMO
This has been 1.5 years ago and over the past couple months I noticed a strange rattling sound while accelerating that turned out to be a piece of the brake duct that is loose. My dealer is trying to charge me for this piece and the time spent diagnosing this due to the fact I previous had an accident even though this piece was never actually replaced and had been completely fine for the past 1.5 years.
On top of that I have a supersprint muffler that replaced my OEM muffler when I was rear ended. I put the supersprint one on instead. Over the past 2 months I have heard this annoying exhaust rattle from the mid-pipe/cats section and took it in. They originally tried to blame it on this supersprint exhaust but it has been working fine with absolutely no vibration for 1.5 years so I knew that was not it.
Today I actually went with the tech to look under the car and I am the one that found the problem which was 2 of the rubber exhaust hangers had stretched and it was rattling against the shield. The dealer informas me he is charging 400 bucks in diagnosing this problem because I have an aftermarket muffler on which has nothing to do with the problem considering it is lighter than the OEM and it is not the hangers on this piece that are stretched, it is the mide pipe area.
I refused to pay this and will not pay 500 bucks of things that should be covered in a warranty. I am just wondering if they are actually legit in doing this, like charging to diagnosi something that is completely not clearly due to an accident or aftermarket muffler.
He basiclaly is assuming since I got in a accident which was minor and only cosmetic parts replaced, that anything wrong is "due to the accident" that is the vibe I am getting.
Anyway what should the next step be? I have a feeling they will just give me the car and not charge me after I make a fuss and I will never use them again but should I take this to BMW NA? I think this is ridiculous.
Not to mention this is the same dealer I took it to and same tech who forgot to close my airbox, did not catch a broken pulley (which again I had to find for him and point out) and then charge me for a new drive belt because I was concerned due to uneven wear it needed replacing but no go.
This is ridiculous IMO
04-08-2009, 12:58 PM
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Well, you're paying them for their time to diagnose and fix issues that were the result of your accident and non-OEM parts that you added. Seems fair to me that they charge you.
If you had the car repaired at the dealer and had the exhaust installed by the dealer - then they should cover it.
Think of it like this:
You're an ice cream vendor.
You sell ice cream only.
A customer buys your ice cream, goes next door to the cookie shop and buys two cookies to make an ice cream sandwich.
The customer eats their ice cream sandwich.
The customer comes back and says that your ice cream tastes bad and they want more ice cream for free.
However, if you've had other problems with them in the past that are known and well documented, I'd talk to the service manager about it. If you signed the papers for work they were going to do - you don't have much of a leg to stand on.
If you had the car repaired at the dealer and had the exhaust installed by the dealer - then they should cover it.
Think of it like this:
You're an ice cream vendor.
You sell ice cream only.
A customer buys your ice cream, goes next door to the cookie shop and buys two cookies to make an ice cream sandwich.
The customer eats their ice cream sandwich.
The customer comes back and says that your ice cream tastes bad and they want more ice cream for free.
However, if you've had other problems with them in the past that are known and well documented, I'd talk to the service manager about it. If you signed the papers for work they were going to do - you don't have much of a leg to stand on.
04-08-2009, 01:13 PM
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prove to them that the aftermarket exhaust is lighter than your oem and that should solve that problem as for the diagnose part they might charge you for it but not for the labor or parts of replacing it get it?? so they will charge you by the hour for the diagnose time and not charge you for labor time and parts on the job no way in the world it took a tech $400 dollars worth of by the hr diagnosing the rattle issue and that would be like 3 or 4 hrs on something that should of taking him at most 30 minutes to figure out
04-08-2009, 02:53 PM
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The thing was that I DIAGNOSED all this when I went out with the tech after them having my car for 2 days to look under the car for myself and see what was wrong. Within 15 minutes of me looking and feeling around I found the loose brake duct which was not at all part of the accident by the way. I also found two loose stretched rubber hangers that the tech had no found in the whole time he had my car. This tech was useless. They should be paying me for finding this stuf.
So there is no way I am paying for them to diagnose when they did not even find the problem and had to take nothing off the car to find this problem.
I do not understand what you are saying it is fair they charge? The accident did not cause this brake duct failure, they are trying to get out of it by blaming this. The accident was over a year and a half ago and this part was fine until about a month ago. IMO they cannot blame that on an accident over a year ago. It is a parts issue of theirs.
Second yes, it is aftermarket muffler but they also cannot blame that for having 2 stretched hangers and they are simply trying to get out of it by using the fact I have an aftermarket muffler. That is exactly what is protected against taht law (forget the name) but they cannot deny coverage for me having on a non-oem muffler and charge me for other parts of the exhaust not working unless they can prove it is actually the distant muffler causing this.
Anyway I refused to pay for this so dont really care if they can or cant do this-in my eyes its absurd and bmwna will be getting a call.
So there is no way I am paying for them to diagnose when they did not even find the problem and had to take nothing off the car to find this problem.
I do not understand what you are saying it is fair they charge? The accident did not cause this brake duct failure, they are trying to get out of it by blaming this. The accident was over a year and a half ago and this part was fine until about a month ago. IMO they cannot blame that on an accident over a year ago. It is a parts issue of theirs.
Second yes, it is aftermarket muffler but they also cannot blame that for having 2 stretched hangers and they are simply trying to get out of it by using the fact I have an aftermarket muffler. That is exactly what is protected against taht law (forget the name) but they cannot deny coverage for me having on a non-oem muffler and charge me for other parts of the exhaust not working unless they can prove it is actually the distant muffler causing this.
Anyway I refused to pay for this so dont really care if they can or cant do this-in my eyes its absurd and bmwna will be getting a call.
04-08-2009, 03:55 PM
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Originally Posted by 545OH' post='840934' date='Apr 8 2009, 02:53 PM
The thing was that I DIAGNOSED all this when I went out with the tech after them having my car for 2 days to look under the car for myself and see what was wrong. Within 15 minutes of me looking and feeling around I found the loose brake duct which was not at all part of the accident by the way. I also found two loose stretched rubber hangers that the tech had no found in the whole time he had my car. This tech was useless. They should be paying me for finding this stuf.
So there is no way I am paying for them to diagnose when they did not even find the problem and had to take nothing off the car to find this problem.
I do not understand what you are saying it is fair they charge? The accident did not cause this brake duct failure, they are trying to get out of it by blaming this. The accident was over a year and a half ago and this part was fine until about a month ago. IMO they cannot blame that on an accident over a year ago. It is a parts issue of theirs.
Second yes, it is aftermarket muffler but they also cannot blame that for having 2 stretched hangers and they are simply trying to get out of it by using the fact I have an aftermarket muffler. That is exactly what is protected against taht law (forget the name) but they cannot deny coverage for me having on a non-oem muffler and charge me for other parts of the exhaust not working unless they can prove it is actually the distant muffler causing this.
Anyway I refused to pay for this so dont really care if they can or cant do this-in my eyes its absurd and bmwna will be getting a call.
So there is no way I am paying for them to diagnose when they did not even find the problem and had to take nothing off the car to find this problem.
I do not understand what you are saying it is fair they charge? The accident did not cause this brake duct failure, they are trying to get out of it by blaming this. The accident was over a year and a half ago and this part was fine until about a month ago. IMO they cannot blame that on an accident over a year ago. It is a parts issue of theirs.
Second yes, it is aftermarket muffler but they also cannot blame that for having 2 stretched hangers and they are simply trying to get out of it by using the fact I have an aftermarket muffler. That is exactly what is protected against taht law (forget the name) but they cannot deny coverage for me having on a non-oem muffler and charge me for other parts of the exhaust not working unless they can prove it is actually the distant muffler causing this.
Anyway I refused to pay for this so dont really care if they can or cant do this-in my eyes its absurd and bmwna will be getting a call.
Fight it, Guaranteed you will win. Don't listen to anyone else. This is total crap. Something they should of done for free as courtesy to the fact this issue was from something previously fixed. As for the supersprint we all know that if you knew they were going to charge you $400 you would of said forget it.
So that is BS as well. You have a case my friend. Tell them you will pay 15-30 minutes of diagnostic time for the supersprint, other wise you will be forced to pass this over to your attorney.
04-08-2009, 04:13 PM
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Originally Posted by Jrowe' post='841004' date='Apr 8 2009, 07:55 PM
Fight it, Guaranteed you will win. Don't listen to anyone else. This is total crap. Something they should of done for free as courtesy to the fact this issue was from something previously fixed. As for the supersprint we all know that if you knew they were going to charge you $400 you would of said forget it.
So that is BS as well. You have a case my friend. Tell them you will pay 15-30 minutes of diagnostic time for the supersprint, other wise you will be forced to pass this over to your attorney.
So that is BS as well. You have a case my friend. Tell them you will pay 15-30 minutes of diagnostic time for the supersprint, other wise you will be forced to pass this over to your attorney.
Then like I said he already diagnosed this brake duct problem, screwed the old piece back in and now it started again only for ME TO FIND the entire piece was bad and not something that could have been just screwed in so there was no new diagnosis for that. The exhaust like I said I am happy to pay for new rubber hangers since For me to prove it is a lighter exhaust I would have to remove it etc. So I am willing to be fiar but he was saying the total bill was giong to be near 800 for all parts and diagnotics. I told him forget it and will pass this to my lawyer if he wants to play like that. thanks bro
04-08-2009, 04:45 PM
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Originally Posted by 545OH' post='841023' date='Apr 8 2009, 06:13 PM
Thanks man, I agree. Especially considering this idiotic tech ordered the wrong steering columb piece and took 3 extra weeks for my tilt steering thing to work he denied to my face that my idler pulley was broken despite me pointing it out, finding it myself by looking under the hood and the belt riding half off the pulley. Only later after he "compared it to 10 other cars." did he admit that it was off and then repaired it. He did not close my airbox and left all the clips open as well as the filter completely exposed which if I was not one to check things out who knows how long that would have gone on for. My wife never pops the hood after a trip to the dealer.
Then like I said he already diagnosed this brake duct problem, screwed the old piece back in and now it started again only for ME TO FIND the entire piece was bad and not something that could have been just screwed in so there was no new diagnosis for that. The exhaust like I said I am happy to pay for new rubber hangers since For me to prove it is a lighter exhaust I would have to remove it etc. So I am willing to be fiar but he was saying the total bill was giong to be near 800 for all parts and diagnotics. I told him forget it and will pass this to my lawyer if he wants to play like that. thanks bro
Then like I said he already diagnosed this brake duct problem, screwed the old piece back in and now it started again only for ME TO FIND the entire piece was bad and not something that could have been just screwed in so there was no new diagnosis for that. The exhaust like I said I am happy to pay for new rubber hangers since For me to prove it is a lighter exhaust I would have to remove it etc. So I am willing to be fiar but he was saying the total bill was giong to be near 800 for all parts and diagnotics. I told him forget it and will pass this to my lawyer if he wants to play like that. thanks bro
Like said above i would keep fighting it until my face was blue! I would point out all the mistakes that he has missed and the way that you have been mistreated! If i was you, after getting YOUR way, from here on out i would probably never go back to that dealer.
Good Luck man!!!
04-08-2009, 08:24 PM
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If you signed something saying you'd authorize any charges associated with diagnosing the car then your screwed. If on the other hand they just told you your car is covered under warranty and you don't have to worry about any charges when you dropped off the car then they can't charge you. I had they said they would take it apart and see what needed to be replaced. I asked if it would be covered under warranty and they said yes. Turned out there was some change stuck in the gears. The tried to charge me 2 hours of labor. I said i never authorized any charges and would not be held responsible. The service manager knew i was right and handed me my keys. I found another dealer after that who was great and they never tried to charge me for things i knew i broke while installing aftermarket parts and were not covered under warranty.
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