Don't worry about the Warranty

[ceb]

Originally Posted by michifan

...Further, somebody above posted something about BMWs having 'limited' warranties. That is incorrect. All manufacturers provide 'full' warranties for their vehicles.

Sorry Michifan, but on this one you are dead wrong.

Page 6 of the Owner's Manual (I don't have the warranty booklet handy) clearly states:

Your BMW is covered by the following warranties:
 New Vehicle Limited Warranty
 Rust Perforation Limited Warranty

Every manufacturer provides a limited warranty - or else they would be paying for everything that breaks.

Oh, and here is an exerpt from a Ford warranty

This warranty does not mean that each Ford vehicle is defect free.
Defects may be unintentionally introduced into vehicles during the
design and manufacturing processes and such defects could result in the
need for repairs. For this reason, Ford provides the New Vehicle Limited
Warranty in order to remedy any such defects that result in vehicle part
malfunction or failure during the warranty period.

The complete Ford limited warranty for 2010 Fusion can be found here:

http://www.fordvehicles.com/resource...om=100,200,200

[ceb]

Originally Posted by My535i

Thanks for the reply. Would these "notations" be something that would only be available at that particular dealer or is that something that would carry with the car regardless of the dealer?

Lets take it one step further. Say you have a leased vehicle and you do the same/similar mods to it. Nothing goes wrong at all and the car only goes into the dealer for routine stuff. Lease is ending so you pull your items off (wheels, etc..) and revert the car back to stock. A year later something goes wrong in one of those areas. What can/would happen then?

Thanks again.

BTW michifan...do you have a tune on your car? Would you say it is something to worry about if taking your car for routine service with a tune installed...again even if there is nothing wrong with the car.

The question again boils down to "did your mod cause (or contribute to) the failure?" If the dealer believes that your prior documented mod caused the failure then they are obligated to refuse warranty service.

Clearly, it will be much harder to "prove" but not impossible for some failures. Let's take a very hypothetical example.

Your 135 has an aftermarket suspension by the company "ScrapePavement." A service tech documented this mod at 17k miles when he had trouble getting your car on the lift for an oil change.

BMW (again hypothetically) has documented no wheel bearing failures on un modified cars for at least 150k miles, but has noted an increased failure rate as early as 30k miles when cars are extremely lowered.

You return your car to the stock suspension at 25k miles and the next time you take your car to the dealer you complain about a rumbling noise. You are at 32k miles and the dealer diagnoses the noise as failing wheel bearings.

Can they draw a conclusion between your documented mod and an early failure of the wheel bearings?

What would you think if you were Judge Judy?

[ceb]

Originally Posted by Haywood

So, what's everyone's opinion on a CAI? I have a case opened with BMW about getting my lease bought out due to multiple fuel systems issues. My dealership is pushing hard, but immediately got some push back when the service notes showed a CAI installed. I removed it a while ago, but it was already noted. Now, I would think that most people would agree that this did not cause HPFP failures and control modules, etc. How strong is my case?

A CAI theoretically changes the air/fuel ratio. It "could" be argued that this placed additional strain on the fuel system.

The problem with removing a mod is that it might look like you are hiding something.

[My535i]

Makes sense. How would this hypothetical situation be affected if the car is a lease that has been returned to stock and turned back into BMW. Again, the vehicle has had no problems while you owned it in a modded state. Say something goes wrong AFTER you turn it back over to BMW at the end of the lease with a new owner while still under the original warranty.

Would there be any issues when you turn the car back in at the end of the lease and it has been tagged at some point? Would they want to/be able to charge you anything because at one time they noted the car had some mods installed? Again, nothing went wrong during the time you owned it but it was noted at one time that it had mods.

Originally Posted by ceb

The question again boils down to "did your mod cause (or contribute to) the failure?" If the dealer believes that your prior documented mod caused the failure then they are obligated to refuse warranty service.

Clearly, it will be much harder to "prove" but not impossible for some failures. Let's take a very hypothetical example.

Your 135 has an aftermarket suspension by the company "ScrapePavement." A service tech documented this mod at 17k miles when he had trouble getting your car on the lift for an oil change.

BMW (again hypothetically) has documented no wheel bearing failures on un modified cars for at least 150k miles, but has noted an increased failure rate as early as 30k miles when cars are extremely lowered.

You return your car to the stock suspension at 25k miles and the next time you take your car to the dealer you complain about a rumbling noise. You are at 32k miles and the dealer diagnoses the noise as failing wheel bearings.

Can they draw a conclusion between your documented mod and an early failure of the wheel bearings?

What would you think if you were Judge Judy?

[ceb]

Originally Posted by My535i

Makes sense. How would this hypothetical situation be affected if the car is a lease that has been returned to stock and turned back into BMW. Again, the vehicle has had no problems while you owned it in a modded state. Say something goes wrong AFTER you turn it back over to BMW at the end of the lease with a new owner while still under the original warranty.

Would there be any issues when you turn the car back in at the end of the lease and it has been tagged at some point? Would they want to/be able to charge you anything because at one time they noted the car had some mods installed? Again, nothing went wrong during the time you owned it but it was noted at one time that it had mods.

That's a harder question. I don't know of any evidence/rumors/old-wives-tales of people getting dinged on lease turn in for prior removed mods.

Unless they sell the car without warranties, they would have to honor the full warranty as the prior owner cannot be held responsible for prior bad acts.

At worst, they might not be able to CPO the car. At best it'll probably get wholesaled and end up on a "buy here, pay here" lot.