Challenging Warranty company over Vanos claim....
Discussion
Sorry to dreg this topic up and I know that there are hundreds of mentions of this, But I've searched and not found the advice I'm after.
My Best mate has a E36 M3 Evo and two weeks ago the Vanos went. Took it to BMW and they diagnosed it straight away. He's only had the car for 6 months and bought it with a Warranty, but not a BMW one.
Anyway, after two weeks of messing him around and getting BMW to strip it all down, they have come back to him and said that they wont pay for the work/replacement on two counts. Firstly they dont cover Seals and this is what they say has caused it to fail, and secondly they dont cover the Vanos.
The first point is debatable but the second is plain annoying - why get them to strip the unit down and procrastinate for 2 weeks, knowing its the Vanos when you dont even cover it.
Does anyone have any advice/experience that would be useful as my friend is facing a 2K hit to the wallet that he could do with out!
Sorry for the length of post - but he is seriously gutted....
My Best mate has a E36 M3 Evo and two weeks ago the Vanos went. Took it to BMW and they diagnosed it straight away. He's only had the car for 6 months and bought it with a Warranty, but not a BMW one.
Anyway, after two weeks of messing him around and getting BMW to strip it all down, they have come back to him and said that they wont pay for the work/replacement on two counts. Firstly they dont cover Seals and this is what they say has caused it to fail, and secondly they dont cover the Vanos.
The first point is debatable but the second is plain annoying - why get them to strip the unit down and procrastinate for 2 weeks, knowing its the Vanos when you dont even cover it.
Does anyone have any advice/experience that would be useful as my friend is facing a 2K hit to the wallet that he could do with out!
Sorry for the length of post - but he is seriously gutted....
Hi
I also have a E36 Evo. I don't have the Vanos problem but, I did make sure that when I negotiated the warranty it was included. This had to be underwritten into it though as it was excluded on the normal warranty.
However, your friend could defo see this as an oppurtunity. I have read that for around £1500 inc vat you can have a MOTEC engine managment system fitted to the EVO (I believe John at ZOOM motorsport has had this done on his vehicle). This would gain significant amounts of power and also has other benefits. Not withstanding the Vanos issue would not arise again as it is done away with.
I also have a E36 Evo. I don't have the Vanos problem but, I did make sure that when I negotiated the warranty it was included. This had to be underwritten into it though as it was excluded on the normal warranty.
However, your friend could defo see this as an oppurtunity. I have read that for around £1500 inc vat you can have a MOTEC engine managment system fitted to the EVO (I believe John at ZOOM motorsport has had this done on his vehicle). This would gain significant amounts of power and also has other benefits. Not withstanding the Vanos issue would not arise again as it is done away with.
Jared_m said:
Did your mate buy from a motor dealer? I might be wrong but I'm guessing he should be covered under UK legislation regardless of what the warranty book says?
He did - I'll pass on the advice. He's only had the car 8 months and with this bill, will have had to put about £4-5K into it so far.
He's requested the full report from the warranty company and has been in touch with the Financial Services Ombudsman and they are happy to represent any case he starts..
For future prevention, have a look at http://forum.bmwcarmagazine.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3
all this talk of failing vanos units has got my worried...i now listen for rattles and clunks from mine!!! my 98 Evo seems healthy, but are these units as vulnerable as everyone makes out? was the issue ever looked at and rectified? are there any early warning signs to look out for to prevent a failure?
Nick
Nick
The vanos issue is greatly overplayed on these cars. My Evo is on original vanos (You can tell this by looking on the unit, original units are actually made by Rolls Royce!). You will tend to find a lot of the horror stories come from those who don't own the cars or 'certain Independent dealers'. This isn't to say they don't fail though.
Another thing to consider is that a noisy vanos doesn't effect performance unless it's way gone. Most, if not all units are noisy at say 2-2.5k rpm, especially when revs drop down but this is usual.
Make sure you have had the Vanos bolt recall done (call BMW with chassis number and they can confirm this), and you replace the Vanos filter. This filter can make all the difference and costs C.£5 from the dealer.
You can rebuild the units also but this would need to be done by either a very experienced home mechanic or an indy. If you have to have another unit then just junk the Vanos and buy a MOTEC engine management for less then gain extra power.
I will post all details of this tomrrow when I get back into work.
Another thing to consider is that a noisy vanos doesn't effect performance unless it's way gone. Most, if not all units are noisy at say 2-2.5k rpm, especially when revs drop down but this is usual.
Make sure you have had the Vanos bolt recall done (call BMW with chassis number and they can confirm this), and you replace the Vanos filter. This filter can make all the difference and costs C.£5 from the dealer.
You can rebuild the units also but this would need to be done by either a very experienced home mechanic or an indy. If you have to have another unit then just junk the Vanos and buy a MOTEC engine management for less then gain extra power.
I will post all details of this tomrrow when I get back into work.
dick dastardly said:
Which warranty company was it?
I've got an aftermarket one and they've weasled their way out of the last two jobs. I am not going to bother remewing it when the time comes as it's a waste of money.
I'm not sure the name of it - he bought it through the dealer that he bought the car from. I'm pretty sure I told him to check that they covered it - but he must have not listened. Its pretty bad that he has had to shell out on the Vanos, various Brake problems and a number of suspension parts coming to approx 4K over the last 8 months and not one thing is covered by the Warranty.
I'm myself buying a new car in the next 2 weeks and am going for an S2000 - was not even going to consider getting a warranty... in my opinion they are not worth the paper they are written on. I think AA membership with Parts and Labour cover would be a better option.
From what I can see it is bolt failure that causes the system to fail and thus they should cover the claim. Seals have failed due to the bolts failing and causing the cover to come loose.
Also, these systems should not really allow the cams to cause engine damage etc as they should default to a safe position. However this will not prevent lack of oil damage to teh rest of the engine.
I'd tell the Warranty company to get back on the case as if yours is bolt failure they don't have a leg to stand on saying that they don't cover seals.
Also, these systems should not really allow the cams to cause engine damage etc as they should default to a safe position. However this will not prevent lack of oil damage to teh rest of the engine.
I'd tell the Warranty company to get back on the case as if yours is bolt failure they don't have a leg to stand on saying that they don't cover seals.
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