Thanks all for the input and suggestions.

I called the BMW Customer Hotline and explained the situation. They were empathetic to my cause and since the vehicle was barely over 50K they were going to contact the dealer to research the issue and potentially get the repair covered under warranty. The friendly Customer Care representative led me to believe that as long as it was a warranty eligible repair (in other words, we didn't break it) that it should be covered.

I'm confident that "good" will prevail over evil in this situation. I will not be a happy BMW owner if they deny repairs based on my conversation with BMW "corporate". They were careful not to make any out right commitments, but it surely sounded favorable.

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2007 X5 4.8