What do you guys think i should do? (SULEV fight)

[lvfb]

Long story short:


-Bought an e88 that had check engine light on for misfiring from the state of California

-Took that e88 2009 128i vert to dealership to get fixed under sulev warranty for free

-Dealership replaces: vanos, camshaft sensor, dme, and other misc parts before saying "warranty void, put back all the oem parts"

-Tells me to come pick up car that they arnt gonna fix it

-Drive car home from dealership and engine blows (about 250 miles away from dealership)

-Fought with bmw NA and the dealer over the course of 2 months with no luck

-Dealer says theyll talk to bmw na again and see whats up

-Dealer tells me that since my car has blown engine if i pay for diagnosis from my local Las Vegas dealer theres a VERY small chance that it could be something that bmw na will end up paying for but that the diagnosis fee is around 600usd


Do you guys think i should roll the dice and see if this story has a happy ending or should i just slap a used engine in it and sell it?

[________]

Give us the real story and we'll comment on it

[iminhell1]

Far as I understand from what I'm reading, BMW has no responsibility to foot any warranty bills for you. Where the car was bought from plays no part in a warranty. BMW says it's based on where the car is registered now. In your case I would assume that is NV, who has no SULEV warranty.

From what I'm seeing you should be able to pick up a salvage N51 for under $2,000. $600 is a fair down payment on that. IMO forgo the diagnosis and just pay to have a different engine put in and be done with it.

If you bought the car on the sole premise that you had a 15/150,000 warranty, you should have done more research.

[lvfb]

i figured i would put the entire story in the comments for those interested:

I found the car on FaceBook Market Place. The owner was selling it cheap because it had the check engine light. I drove down, test drove, and used INPA to check what was going on with the car before buying. I found that it had misfires on 4, 5, and 6. The forums have taught me this is usually a VANOS related issue. I bought the car for 5900usd. The person I bought the car from said he bought it from auction in Jan and had an indy shop replace the valve cover because of a leak. I took the car to Crevier BMW in Long Beach and they told me they were gonna replace the VANOS, Camshaft sensor, DME, spark plugs, and some other misc shit. They then called me and said we were told to take out all the new shit we gave you, put back your used shit and have you get the car because this valve cover was done by a non BMW dealership. I said ok and went to pick it up and while driving back to Vegas (about 250 miles from the dealership) averaging about 80-90mph the car just loses power. try to turn crank by hand and no luck. try to turn by pry bar and no luck.

car is currently reg in california (bmw na higher up says you do have to have car reg in cali which mine is)

as for the research the problem is even with me calling bmw na (14 times now since i learned about SULEV) i have gotten a different answer on what is covered, whats not covered, if your vehicle had to originate in cali, and so many other options. All that aside no one NO ONE not even the dealership which BMW NA told me was their biggest SULEV warranty repair dealership in the country (crevier bmw in ca) knows exactly what is or isnt covered.....

[________]

Originally Posted by lvfb

i figured i would put the entire story in the comments for those interested:

I found the car on FaceBook Market Place. The owner was selling it cheap because it had the check engine light. I drove down, test drove, and used INPA to check what was going on with the car before buying. I found that it had misfires on 4, 5, and 6. The forums have taught me this is usually a VANOS related issue. I bought the car for 5900usd. The person I bought the car from said he bought it from auction in Jan and had an indy shop replace the valve cover because of a leak. I took the car to Crevier BMW in Long Beach and they told me they were gonna replace the VANOS, Camshaft sensor, DME, spark plugs, and some other misc shit. They then called me and said we were told to take out all the new shit we gave you, put back your used shit and have you get the car because this valve cover was done by a non BMW dealership. I said ok and went to pick it up and while driving back to Vegas (about 250 miles from the dealership) averaging about 80-90mph the car just loses power. try to turn crank by hand and no luck. try to turn by pry bar and no luck.

car is currently reg in california (bmw na higher up says you do have to have car reg in cali which mine is)

as for the research the problem is even with me calling bmw na (14 times now since i learned about SULEV) i have gotten a different answer on what is covered, whats not covered, if your vehicle had to originate in cali, and so many other options. All that aside no one NO ONE not even the dealership which BMW NA told me was their biggest SULEV warranty repair dealership in the country (crevier bmw in ca) knows exactly what is or isnt covered.....

You had a claim before you took the car out.
It's an uphill battle now to prove the engine broke because of the defective covered parts.

I'm with the poster that said use the 600 against a new engine and move on

[lvfb]

Originally Posted by Onesie

You had a claim before you took the car out.
It's an uphill battle now to prove the engine broke because of the defective covered parts.

I'm with the poster that said use the 600 against a new engine and move on

thanks. make sure top click the votey thing

[________]

Originally Posted by lvfb

thanks. make sure top click the votey thing

Voted to sell with engine blown as you didn't pay much for the car and engine+labour would be the same or more than you paid for the car. Thanks for the additional info

[lvfb]

i also put the poll on reddit if anyone wants to vote on that

https://www.reddit.com/r/BMW/comment...y_in_comments/

[________]

Originally Posted by LilyWilson

Putting a used engine is not a good trick you should play. Against morals!

Say what now?

[lvfb]

UPDATE!!!

after going the distance and trying to get all the info i could i finally got the definition of "outside influences"

turns out the oil in the engine handt been changed in a VERY VERY long time (looks fine up top but since this engine does not have a dipstick and the oil filter up top didnt look that bad) and the engine lower was breaking off and putting shavings in the oil.

Now i would have assumed that it would have over heated or given some sort of warning light but nothing... welp i guess i saved the money on trying to chase the rabbit and find the cause,...

anyone wanna buy a blown e88? lol

[lvfb]

Now i guess the discussion is:

Should i sell it as is

put a high performance engine in it and make it a tuner and sell it

put a normal engine in it and sell it

donate the car to get the tax write off (im single, male, no kids, no home)

or put a normal engine in it and put it on turo

what do you guys think?

[tracer bullet]

What was the original point to buy the car to begin with? Planning to track it, daily driver, long term ownership, simple fix and flip, something else?

Who's putting in the new engine?

I'd probably sell it as-is, call it a lesson learned, put it behind me and move on.

[lvfb]

Originally Posted by tracer bullet

What was the original point to buy the car to begin with? Planning to track it, daily driver, long term ownership, simple fix and flip, something else?

Who's putting in the new engine?

I'd probably sell it as-is, call it a lesson learned, put it behind me and move on.

so the original reason for buying a car that had known misfire was to have it repaired by the SULEV warranty that most people do not know about that bmw offers. Had the previous owner did a little better on their oil changes I could have had the car with a brand new engine completely paid for by bmw. My purpose for buying it was to put it on turo (the "airbnb" style rental app) to make some passive money.