4.8i Head Gasket Blown

[allanhelen]

Just had a nice surprise when the car decided to give me an early christmas present and has blow one of its head gaskets. BMW warranty are being awkward and not authorising the repairs even though the service book is fully stamped one of the services was done by a specialist Indy well before i owned the car, they want to see the invoice for the work. its just my look that the invoice isn't in the plies of paperwork and the Indy itself has now closed so there is no way of even getting a copy.

They also want to see photo's of the blown head gasket which means that i would have to pay to get the head removed at the dealers with no guarantee that they will pay for the rest of the work doing risking that i could be stuck with a £4K bill. The other option is to pull it from the dealer altogether and get my usual guy to do the work on it for half that but then i would definitely have to pay for the whole lot and he doesn't fancy doing the job either.

Has anyone been in this sort of situation with BMW warranty in the past? I'm just assuming that like all insurance products they do what they can to get out of paying,

[Reusch]

Is the head gasket 100% covered in your warranty if so get them to e mail you that it is absolutely no phone conversations unless followed up with an e mail.How can you possibly have known about the missing receipt until now also.

[allanhelen]

The BMW comprehensive warranty covers just about everything imaginable including where and tear up to 100k miles so it should be covered. The water pump was replaced about 6weeks ago and was covered and I think this is where the head gasket issue started.

I feel an argument coming on here. The service they are questioning is just a basic oil change one, if it should have included a coolant change or flush I could maybe understand them wanting to see some evidence it was done. Apparently ticks and stamps in a service book are worth nothing

[Greydog]

As advised all communication in writing to avoid any misinterpretation or arguments.
The dealer was obviously happy to sell you the car, how did they describe it, was it as having a full history and coming with an AUC warranty or part history?
They were also happy to sell the AUC Warranty which clearly requires a full BMW history, both parties (Dealer and Warranty Company) should have been fully aware of the cars history.
AUC Warranties are not cheap and you pay a premium for buying from a Dealer I would try to find original sale information hopefully it says " full history" and point out politely to the Dealer that the car was miss sold as was the warranty.
If that is the case I would want all my premium for the Warranty back as it has been miss sold, I would also start discussions with the Dealer about repairs offer to pay for parts they supply labour. If that falls flat I would take advice on a small claims action to recover the full cost of repair (due to miss sold Warranty) or full cost of the car if it was described wrongly.
I have been there with one of the AMG's (gearbox failure) I owned, the dealer fought and argued for 6 months it went to small claims and my claim was upheld I was awarded the repair costs plus compensation.
The Dealers face was a picture when a year later I traded the car against another AMG and the service from them was outstanding.
Good Luck

[allanhelen]

Well some good news. BMW warranty have paid up! I agreed to get the work started and to pay for the work if the warranty didn’t pay but once they saw the pics of the engine and saw how good a condition it was in it was obvious it had been well cared for and they agreed to cover everything.

Pretty good job really as it ended up being an engine out job

[Horizon]

Well done, must be a massive relief. I've got my X3 booked in on 3 rd Jan at my indie, suspect ABS Pump.
I got a 3rd party 12 month warranty last February. I hope I'm lucky too and get the warranty company to play ball.