BMW has a written "goodwill" policy- the dealer can actually approve stuff that is just barely out of warranty.
HOWEVER, it is at the dealer's discretion- if your buddy knows his shop (i.e. The front office/SAs) are bascially kind of dicky, then that's that.
Here is the one I was thinking of:
https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...r-springs.html
Rare though.... Does that make you feel better? Or just super unlucky??