MacSid

After many complaints about the behaviour of my gearbox (see link), it was replaced under warranty on Mar 26th. My warranty ran out on Mar 20th, but the complaints had been made between Nov-08 and Mar-09, and the dealer made the replacement decision before the warranty expired.

So, new gearbox installed, I ran it in gently as described in my other post, for the first 1,000km, and it behaved fine... until May 7th (and 2,820km into its life). Driving home, I needed to pass someone, so I gently pushed the accelerator down. The car kicked down one gear, decided it needed to kick down another gear, and started to do this, but instead of catching the lower gear, my rev counter just flew round the dial and hit the limiter, and I got a "Transmission fault. Reduced acceleration. Safe to continue" warning and message. Fortunately I was 3km from the nearest dealer, so I limped in there. They had the car for 2 days and reported back that there was no damage, but that it appeared that it had been over-filled with transmission fluid, which they drained and performed a re-set and a calibration drive. All worked well.

Six days later, on May 13th, the same problem arose in the same situation, again within spitting distance of this dealership (I pass them every evening on my way home). This time, I pulled over, shut the engine off, started up again, and the error message cleared. Drove into the dealer and went out onto the highway with a mechanic to demonstrate the what happened and how the message cleared on restarting the car. They got it all. I was leaving for vacation the next day, so left the car with them.

I get home yesterday, and they say that the car needs a new gearbox again, based on their interaction with BMW Netherlands. They also tell me that there is NO warranty on the existing gearbox, even though it is only 2 months and 3,000km old. Apparently BMW do not do "warranty-on-warranty" replacements. Am I being strung along???

I've been told that the dealership who has my car now (who are owned directly by BMW Netherlands) are liaising with my normal dealership (near my office, some 50km away) to figure out who bears the cost of the new part and will let me know what the outcome is. Surely a part this new failing like this is either a faulty part or faulty installation on their part and they should bear the cost without any discussion? Can anyone advise me on what to do/prepare for? I keep daily, trip-by-trip mileage logs for tax purposes, so I have exact information on dates and mileage run on the car since the first gearbox replacement 2 months ago.

KAF

This is fairly standard. If you do not pay anything towards a replacement part, then there is no warranty beyond the normal warranty period of the car.

I would think though that BMW would look sympathetically on a 'goodwill' replacement.

Phantom Mark

Surely if they replace a warranty part with a faulty part (which cant be denied?) you still have grounds for a proper working replacement based on your initial claim.

xBMWx

I would work on the basis that they have not fixed the initial fault. They tried fixing it with a new gear-box, but that has not resolved the issue. So in my mind the original warranty fault has not been fixed. There should not be a discussion about warranty on the replacement gearbox, the discussion should be about warranty on the original gearbox / fault.
I do not know how that is best handled legally, but I'm sure Mrs MacSid could advise / research what the stance should be taken when talking to BMW.

Sorry to hear you are having these issues. Hopefully you can get it sorted over next couple of weeks, ahead of the meet. Good luck mate.

MacSid

This is what I would have thought, but I'm getting a song-and-dance from the dealer about "we need to figure out the finance of this replacement". They owe me a call to confirm the situation - they have not actually asked me to pay for anything (yet). I fully expect this to cost me nothing but, given the nature of yesterday's discussion, I want to be prepared for anything. And if they do get funny, I'll set Mrs MacSid on BMW Netherlands...

xBMWx

If it gets that far, can you get her to negotiate an M5 for me and an M6 Cabrio for Mrs xBMWx as part of your overall compensation package. Thanks

Seriously though, good luck and I hope they don't drag you into their internal cost issues.

MacSid

Update: got a call from my SA today, and BMW AG have apparently made an exception to their no warranty-on-warranty rule (based on the fact that the original fix did not sort the original issue) and a new gearbox should be installed in my car over this afternoon and tomorrow morning. There's a good chance I'll have her back before the start of the weekend .

Sorry, Pete, no M5 and M6 cabrio

xBMWx

That's great news mate. It also means you should still be able to make it to the meet


p.s. I kind of thought it was a bit of a long shot with the M5 and M6 cab

Patrick E61

Well done! We look forward to seeing you on the road then!!

daven

Am I missing something here? Surely if you purchased Anything from anywhere, let alone car parts from a car dealership it would be covered by some sort of warranty.
This also begs the question IF it was overfilled with oil in the first place, and that caused a problem who's fault was that?
Sorry BUT if you bought (regardless of who fitted it) a gearbox that was faulty in some way then it is down to the dealership to rectify. I think they are trying to have you over!
Do you have consumer protection laws?