Black or carbon fiber exhaust tips for 128i?????

[Steve W.]

Is there anyway to exchange the chrome exhaust tips on a 2013 128i for black chrome or carbon fiber without effecting the warranty?

Thanks.

[Yeineken]

I mean it's only an exhaust tip. No one in their right mind would void your warranty for such a simple cosmetic mod.

Not sure on carbon tips but you can probably fit the 135i black tips on.

[Steve W.]

Thank you. I emailed the BMW Warranty Department about vinyl gauge overlays, which is just a vinyl decal that goes on top of the stock dash and I was told it could compromise my warranty.

I am very leary about doing anything that might effect the factory coverage of my car.

[Fakemike]

The gauge overlays are a little more involved. You have to take things apart and remove the needles.

If the 135i black tips fit on your current exhaust, they just side right over the existing tips (as do a lot of other aftermarket tips). You could easily remove them before going back to the shop if you were worried about it.

[zx10guy]

What the rep at BMW told you was feeding on your fears about warranty coverage. There's a law called the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. There is language in that legislation which makes it illegal for any manufacturer to void the warranty coverage over the entire car due to modifications or use of an aftermarket part. It is up to the manufacturer/dealer to prove said modification or aftermarket part was the cause of the failure. Even if this is proven, the manufacturer cannot void other areas of the car not related in any way to the said failure. In a simplistic example, if you happen to use a non BMW air filter and there are issues resulting from that air filter, this does not mean BMW is going to void the entire warranty on the car when you file a claim for the HVAC controls going bad. The air filter issue had no impact on the HVAC controls.

Also, in talking to a friend of mine who IS a BMW dealer tech, he said the guys at the shop are not always out to stick it to a customer. He said if the customer is honest with an issue with the car that could have been from a modification they did, then he's more apt to help that customer out versus someone lying to them and the techs wasting time trying to figure out what was wrong. These guys work on book time and if they're wasting time trying to track down something that they don't suspect was due to a modification, that tech loses money.

To cut through the BS, any major modification work I've had done, I had the dealership do the work. I did negotiate the labor charges and probably ended up paying more than having an independent shop do the work, but I don't have to deal with any finger pointing later too. And example was when I recently had to get my nav screen housing replaced. I told my SA I did do work with the nav screen to install the back up camera system up front. But there was no way the rubberized trim peeling off was due to it. He just had his manager verify the peeling and that there was no sign of actual physical damage and they warrantied it. I realized why the extra step in verification as the housing wasn't sold separately and required the screen to be replaced with it at a cost of $2000.

[Steve W.]

Mike and 10guy, thank you both for your replies. Very informative. I do appreciate it.