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Warranties ... ad infinitum

Bob Brewer wrote:

> I don't know exactly what is meant by a warranty being *PULLED*, but neither
> the dealer or NA can arbitrarily PULL a warranty unless it can be shown the
> modification was involved with whatever the problem is for which warranty
> work is being requested.  That isn't legal.  And even if a chip were to
> cause a problem, it wouldn't affect the warranty on other parts of the car
> (i.e. transmission, rear window defroster....)

Bob (et. al.)

I'm not saying it's "right" or "legal" on BMW NA's part ...

I'm just telling it like it is ...

Example:

E36 325i Owner has local independent garage install Dinan chip for him ..

Suddenly car starts registering fault in DME ... Oxygen Sensor problem ..

After replacing the EGO sensor twice, dealer looks at DME and sees the 
Dinan chip ... upon replacing DME, problem goes away .. dealer and NA press
issue and force owner to buy (at retail) a new DME, and pay for the labor,
on the assumption that the installation of the chip caused DME failure ..

(I assume by static discharge)

Now., if the guy had been a club member, I would have gone to bat for him ..

He was screwed, but unless you have an attorney to go against them, they will
do what they can to "control warranty costs" ... 

That, IMHO, is one of BMW's biggest failings in the Cust. Service Dept!

BTW, the owner *could* have gone back and sued the "independent" but IMNSHO
he would have had a hard time proving the indi. damaged the DME without some
sort of certified failure analysis .. again .. lawyers and BIG $$$

Not to mention, failure analysis would be almost impossible without the 
schematics, etc .. and I don't think Bosch would likely hand 'em over ;)

(I tried!)

Jim Conforti