Rejected warranty claim

[DJMcCatty]

In April, 11 months and two weeks after my warranty expired, I was exiting a toll booth into a very strong headwind, and noticed over the top of my iPod and considerable wind noise that the engine was reving and I wasn't going anywhere fast. I backed off then tried the trottle again, only to get the same result. I immediatly pulled over with my five friends to determine what was wrong. It did not occur to me that the clutch might be slipping. There was no oil anywhere, or other indications of a problem, and when we took off again, everything worked as expected for the balance of the 1,500 mile trip.

 

Fast forward to early September, and I'm passing a car when the slipage occurs again. It didn't happen again the rest of that trip, although I didn't duplicate the circumstances that made it slip in the first place.

 

After a local ride around the first of October I knew the problem was going to require service. As a matter of fact, when I called the dealer, he pursuaded me not to take the bike on a trip. I explained that the problem had surfaced back in April, and made arrangements to take it in for repair.

 

The main transmission shaft seal was leaking, which caused the clutch to slip. I asked for warranty help, thinking the problem had surfaced just before the end of the 3rd year, only to learn that the warranty had expired a year earlier (I'm so used to calling the RT a 2002, that I simply added 3 ...)

 

Regardless, the dealer said he would try for warranty help from BMW. That got me geeked, but when I picked up the bike he offered the good/bad news that the new service rep felt that if the repair had been within the first year after the warranty expired, he would have honored it, or at least some of it, but since it had been almost a year and a half, he wouldn't. I thought, OK, it did happen within the first year ... actually, it was less than one year when the problem surfaces, so based on what he said, BMW should honor some portion of the repair. I mean its a freeking BMW, they just start breaking in at 150,000 miles, and there supposed to run for 300,000 plus miles, etc., etc.

 

Well, no such luck. The Customer Service agent told me today that it was simply too long after the warranty had expired. So in other words, what I should have done is run to the dealer as soon as the problem arose.

 

In hindsight, that wouldn't have cost me any more, since I ended up paying the $868.00 anyway, but my procrastination cost me the warranty coverage I might otherwise have been entitled to.

 

I'm still whizzed about this, but I blame myself for not whinning to the dealer at the time. Possible this story will alert some of you to the psychology of BMW Service Policy so you can avoid making the same mistake.

 

What an idiot

 

And, I was ready to go for the new R1200GS ...

 

 

DJ

[peterbulgar]

DJ - Sorry to hear about the problem with your bike. What year and model, how many miles. $868 seems very light for a clutch, so I figure that you just had the seal replaced. Did they do anything else while they were in there? Did they comment on the condition of the splines?

peter '73 R75/5, '04 R1150RA

[RockLives]

Not unique to most warranties. My builder told me the same thing.

[Paul Mihalka]

It is very important that any time you have a possible problem to report it to a dealer and have it on a repair order, even if the dealer does not do anything.. That way if your warranty expires or gets older, you documented when the problem really started. Clutch splines: If you had a leaking oil seal, you probably have very nice splines...

[skinny_tom (aka boney)]

It is very important that any time you have a possible problem to report it to a dealer and have it on a repair order, even if the dealer does not do anything.. That way if your warranty expires or gets older, you documented when the problem really started. Clutch splines: If you had a leaking oil seal, you probably have very nice splines...

 

I tried this at a BMW shop in the mid-west last summer when my clutch started slipping west of Fargo (and continued to do so until HAMMERSLEY took me in on short notice and fixed it before I was to leave for home) and that shop in the mid-west that we stopped at on the way to HAMMERSLEY pretty much fudged around the whole issue of writing up a tag that the clutch was slipping. I didn't want them to specualte why, and I voiced my thoughts that the tag should just read that it was slipping, but they wouldn't have anything to do with it.

 

It's a good thing that I still had 1000 miles left on my warranty when I got to HAMMERSLEY. They gave me the red carpet.

 

No relation in any way, just a very very satisfied customer from a VERY LONG ways away.

 

Lesson: take your bike to the dealer right away if you think it's a warranty item, even if it's inconvenient.

[Urban Surfer]

I'm actually impressed that BMW covers me for an additional year after the warrantee expires. It even says so in the book! Anything I ever needed repairing after the warrantee was up was always at my expense. If these bike really do go 300,000 miles, I'll never need a new one.