Are rattles and squeeks generally covered under warranty? I have 2 annoying squeeks around my left front door and dash along with some horrible noise towards the rear seets. Thanks

2004 545

 

yes they are

 

Seems to be an ongoing theme recently ! My car is in the garage today for;

1) Broken heated washer jets (e.g., they don't heat!)
2) Rattling/Creaking coming from rear parcel shelf
3) Rattling coming from drivers seat belt (where it goes in to the door).

I was putting up with the rattles, but as it was going in for point 1 above, I thought I'd mention the rattles and see if they can look at those whilst its in.

I wonder if the problem is that the car is just so damn quiet on the inside that you can hear every time little rattle and squeak, or whether there genuinely is a quality issue with the interior fitting.

 

In response to your previous comments about the car being "buggy" I think that the build quality is less than it should be. I admit that the road noise is quiet which might highlight any internal noise but since my car is the same age as yours, we shouldn't be having all those rattles in a 2/12 old car.

In comparison to my 2 previous cars - Audi A4, and last style 330ci the build quality is poor. My experience of asking the dealer to "fix" rattles leaves a lot to be desired as well, most of the time they either say they can't hear them or don't bother. I hope you took on of their guys out in your car to highlight the problems.

 

Undoubtedly build quality issues with this model (535d)

This is the third brand new BMW i have owned (530i Sport & 325i) and is by far a distant relative in build/quality terms than my last two BMW's

Mine went in to the dealer a few weeks back for its first service and a whole host of problems to be looked at from rattles to idrive to just simple component quality issues. Suffice to say the dealer did the customery 'flanel' treatment on me and on we go!!

I'm afraid unless things have changed in three years time it won't be BMW for me again.....................

 

My local dealer had a couple of attempts at fixing creaks from rear parcel shelf.

First visit, broke the retaining clips & scuffed the airbag covers while taking out shelf, didn't fix it!. They didnt tell me about the trashed airbag covers either, I had to tell them, this disappointed me.
Second visit to replace broken clips & airbag cover + tried to fix the creaks. Still the same!

Then I spent 10 mins wedging some felt type material between leather seat back & parcel shelf, all OK now!

 

Well exactly! I think that something is fundamently wrong here - these are ?40-50k cars, they should not rattle and squeak like a ?10K family car. I would be interested to hear other users views on this.

 

It's ironic this topic came up. My car is in the shop for a leaky transmission and a sqeaking noise(s) coming from the trunk/back seat area. Someone said it should be covered under warranty. Does someone have a bulletin they can post? It seems everytime I take something to the dealer that should be covered under warranty, it isn't. Anyways, I'll post later what happens.

 

Got the car back, they confirmed that the parcel shelf was rubbing against the leather of the seat backs - exactly the same problem reported by others and clearly a design fault. Engineers report said, quote, "put some leather stuff on back of seats". It's stopped the squeak, but i expect they have put something like silicon or polish on it which will rub off sooner or later. If/when the squeak returns, I have some black foam ready to jam in behind there. I used cardboard to see if it would solve the problem and it did, but I was hoping BMW would say it wasn't fitted properly or was loose or something. But no, it's a design fault, and I guess they will all make that noise sooner or later. (Go on, turn your stereo down and listen ... and then hate me for pointing it out!!)

 

Thanks for pointing this our Russ. I will follow up with the dealer on that today. Did you put some leather stuff on the seats, or did the dealer. If so, did the dealer charge you or cover it under warranty? Thanks.