LED headlight - covered under BMW Extended Warranty?

[UrbanAchiever]

Took my 2016 M140i for MOT today at a BMW dealer. Health check noted "slight discolouration" of NSF indicator. On closer inspection there are 3 indicator lights/leds. Two are flashing the correct orange colour, one of them now flashes white, hence the "slight discolouration" comment - shame the service department didn't look into this a bit more.

I have had a BMW extended warranty (comprehensive cover) ever since the original manufacturer warranty ran out (I bought the car from a BMW dealer when it had a few months of manufacturer warranty remaining.)

The warranty document says bulbs aren't covered, however given I don't believe the "bulbs" can be replaced and it's a sealed unit, I hope that a new headlamp unit is covered. I've got it booked back in in a couple of weeks and will have to pay c.£150 for it to be investigated!! In the meantime, anyone have experience of successful claims for LED headlight units under the warranty?

[Mr Squarekins]

I'd make the point to them that you can't have worn them out (so they don't say It's wear & tear), nor have you damaged them. So warranty!

[TheGinger1]

An LED is not a bulb, it's a light emitting diode so it should be covered under warranty according to their wording, but I am not a lawyer!

[d_a_n1979]

UrbanAchiever said:

Took my 2016 M140i for MOT today at a BMW dealer. Health check noted "slight discolouration" of NSF indicator. On closer inspection there are 3 indicator lights/leds. Two are flashing the correct orange colour, one of them now flashes white, hence the "slight discolouration" comment - shame the service department didn't look into this a bit more.

I have had a BMW extended warranty (comprehensive cover) ever since the original manufacturer warranty ran out (I bought the car from a BMW dealer when it had a few months of manufacturer warranty remaining.)

The warranty document says bulbs aren't covered, however given I don't believe the "bulbs" can be replaced and it's a sealed unit, I hope that a new headlamp unit is covered. I've got it booked back in in a couple of weeks and will have to pay c.£150 for it to be investigated!! In the meantime, anyone have experience of successful claims for LED headlight units under the warranty?

Can't be replaced as a singular item; and not a bulb as already said

So yes, absolutely go through warranty

[edthefed]

Has the LED failed ?

Or is it slight discolourisation ?

The warranty covers failure of an insured component

[UrbanAchiever]

Well it hasn't totally failed in that it still emits light, but it has failed in that it is no longer orange. If all 3 of them did this it would be an MOT failure as you cannot have white indicators, so I'd still call it a failure.

Hope others are right that it cannot be replaced and therefore should be covered, plus of course its a diode not a bulb.

[Pica-Pica]

You will have a policy document that will spell out what is included. I don’t believe lamps are.

[darreni]

I’ve had both rear led lights replaced (at different times) on my E46 M3. Both covered under the extended warranty after individual leds failed.

[UrbanAchiever]

Pica-Pica said:

You will have a policy document that will spell out what is included. I don’t believe lamps are.

The policy says bulbs aren't covered. It's obviously a grey area given the LEDs aren't strictly bulbs and cannot be replaced.

[UrbanAchiever]

darreni said:

I’ve had both rear led lights replaced (at different times) on my E46 M3. Both covered under the extended warranty after individual leds failed.

Thanks, that's good to know.

[DJMC]

2016 X1 F48 - under comprehensive extended warranty. A few years ago it went in for service at Sytner Leicester and on collection we were told they'd replaced a unit, rear screen stop light iirc, as it had failed LEDs. We hadn't noticed it ourselves.

[UrbanAchiever]

Thanks!

[rottenegg]

Good to know because I had to replace one of the non-adaptive LED headlights on my 2016 F30 at a rather hefty £1500+VAT. You can buy them from Hella for about £700 iirc, but they are sans the "BMW LED" logo unfortunately.

I've since taken out the comprehensive warranty, so can hopefully avoid that bill again in the future, well, up to 100K miles at least, at which point the cover drops to named part only as I'm sure you're aware.

[darreni]

The comp cover includes wear & tear up to 100k miles. It doesn’t change to named component past 100k on the monthly premium cover ( nor is there a huge premium increase past 60k on the monthly version as there is on the annual version).

[rottenegg]

I meant to say 100K is the limit for the comprehensive warranty, not that it automatically reduces to named component after that.

[UrbanAchiever]

I'm pleased to say that the BMW Insured warranty has agreed to cover the cost of replacing it. Dealer tells me without the warranty it would be over £1k.