Under warranty 3rd Battery Failure - Dealer's refusal to replace

[pete_c]

What would my next steps be for the following?

I have an 2006 X-3 with an extended warranty. It has about 35K on the odometer. I try to drive it 1-2X a week. When I do not drive it for over a week I put a trickle charger on it (1 AMP). The vehicle has not given me any problems other than a battery failure last year 3,000 miles back. The dealer was pleasant at the time stating that the battery was covered under warranty and promptly replaced it. Its been starting fine up until last week when I noticed that the battery was dead (eye=black) again. I went to the dealer this morning and they said something was draining the battery - looking at my telephone cigarette ligher charger (which I do not leave in the car) blaming that for my problems and stating that I would have to buy a new battery ($200) and install of said battery ($100 and change) and the replacement battery was not covered.

I mentioned to the SA about reading about similiar battery issues with the X-3. He said he did not know of any issues relating to the battery.

[kenza]

Pete, did you ask them to review if there is anything that is draining your battery when everything is turned off? Let them do that, and if there is current, let them find out what is the problem....

[pete_c]

Kenza, The SR stated initially he was going to review if there was anything that could be draining my battery with the vehicle off (that was my one hour wait - with three customers in the service center - very slow this morning there). When he came back he stated that the cause of my battery problem "could" be my mobile phone charger (which I switch from car to car but had left in the cigarette lighter when I brought the car in) or the RFID tag I have on the windshield (which has its own battery). I stated to him that the car charger never remains in the cigarette lighter when the vehicle is parked and that the RFID tag has its own battery (he was looking at the antenna which goes into my headliner).

None the less because of the above two stated reasons he put the blame on me for the failed battery.

I replaced the battery myself in the afternoon and kept the old one (actually looks pretty new other than the black "eye").

[Weasel]

I'd take the old battery and put it on a strong charger, the higher amps the better. The high rate of charge helps knock any sulfation off the plates in a lead acid battery and revives it. And I agree that the phone charger would not drain the battery.

If/when the battery goes dead again from whatever sporadic drain you may have just simply remove the antenna piece and any phone chargers etc. as to not give them anything to blame it on, telling them you removed everything after the last visit to prove that it didn't cause the issue. Then if/when they find the cause of draw/drain you can request them to reimburse you for the last battery that you now obviously didn't kill. Worth a try, and I hate when they pass blame rather than spend time on real diagnosis as it gives us all a bad name. The only time we I ever justified charging a customer for a battery who's car was under warranty, he literally had 300 miles on a 3 year old car... which is less than 1 mile every 3 days... he bought a trickle charger too.

[trapdoor]

I had a very similar issue with mine 2 days after I bought it (CPO/AUC). I had to call out BMW Assistance as the car was dead and 'stuck' in my garage. The BMW assist tech that came out diagnosed a dead battery, whacked it on charge for an hour and then did a quick check with an analyser and said there was a fairly high current drain when the car should be asleep.

Anyhow, car was recovered to the local dealer who had it for 2 weeks - eventually came back fixed after they found the sunroof module wasn't shutting down after the car was powered off and was drawing >1 amp when the car was off.

They replaced the sunroof control module but refused to change the battery even though it has a black condition indicator, and has never gone green.

[Weasel]

FYI, the "magic eye" condition indicator is only really for when the battery is new. Over the years of use the bottom of the eye gets coated in sulfation from the battery acid and weighs down the ball... you can have a perfect condition battery with full charge and the dot may never show green again. It is NOT a diagnosis tool.

[kenza]

Pete, may be a stupid question, but I do not know how the extended warranty works in US. Is it worth only for one dealer or you can go to another one? Thanks

[pete_c]

I can check the details. I have not paid for anything on the X3 since new. The warranty is good for 100k/5years. That is what bugs me. I guess I was so used the "great" service from this dealer that I never considered going somewhere else.

[kenza]

Pete, I think considering another dealer could be an option. Regarding the warranty itself, you should be quite happy with it. You just need to find a dealer that does the job.

Down here in Chile, the warranty covers only 20k miles (31k kms) and 2 years.

[JCL]

Originally Posted by pete_c

I can check the details. I have not paid for anything on the X3 since new. The warranty is good for 100k/5years. That is what bugs me. I guess I was so used the "great" service from this dealer that I never considered going somewhere else.

I suspect that when you check the details, you will find that the battery is not covered by either CPO or the BMW extended warranty (I don't have a copy of the extended warranty handy, but the CPO warranty excludes the battery and also states that all terms are the same as the extended warranty).



Your US warranty is slightly different than our Canadian warranties, but here are some basics to look for:

• The full warranty (3 or 4 years, depends on location and year) isn't really full. It excludes certain items. Famous examples include tires, batteries, and wear items.
• The extended warranty (for the time/mileage period between full warranty and your five year mark) is usually a subset of the full warranty, and has exclusions. That is because warranties don't cover things wearing out, they cover defects in manufacturing, and the likelihood of a problem at 4-5 years being due to a defect in manufacturing is fairly low.
• Tires and batteries usually have a free replacement period (often very short, sometimes a year) and then you go to the tire or battery manufacturer's warranty, you aren't covered under the full warranty.
• If the battery fails through no fault of the battery, ie as consequential damage from a failed alternator (purely as an example) then the battery would usually be covered, but you need to be paying attention when paying the bill.
• Your maintenance plan (which is not a warranty, but rather pre-paid maintenance for wear items) may cover items like the battery.

And now a classic one: You don't have "forever warranty". This is the first thing I thought of when I saw it was your third battery. What I mean by forever warranty is to say, if you had a three year warranty on the battery, and it failed prior to that three years and was replaced by the dealer, you don't get another three years. You would get the balance of the original three years only. A warranty-replaced part does not necessarily come with the full parts warranty attached to it, since you didn't pay for the part. If this wasn't the case, and each battery lasted 30 months, three batteries would cover 90 months, and no manufacturer is going to extend your warranty like that, when you had a much shorter warranty period.

Having been involved in the administration of lots of warranty programs, I have found that just as many problems relate to misunderstandings on coverage as relate to errors by the warranty provider (your dealer, in this case).

Recommend you read the warranty documents you got with the vehicle, and then armed with that information, discuss reasonably with your dealer.