The car was towed Tuesday and I got a call from them that they'll look at it and call me next day. The car has been there since then with no follow up calls. I don't know what's going on yet.

 

Thanks for the update. You have an interesting situation. My only thought is if they told me they would call me and didn't, I would have called them to see what was happening.

Keep us updated. Good luck!

 

I don't want to push my luck. Lol

 

Yes, a very slight pause passing through Neutral does it. The thing is, the gearshift knows where it needs to go. Folks will always have problems when they try to force it to somewhere where it doesn't want to go...

A friend tried my MINI recently and he liked the shift action better than on his 5-Series V-8 6sp...

 

What's really interesting about the VW affair is that in Europe both Audi and VW have very good quality ratings. But here in the USA there seems to be problems. All made in Germany, but it seems on the boat ride to the USA some gremilems seem to find there way into them. The quality issue is one reason that I have trouble in considering the GTI as well. I realize that they are much better than the VW's of 2002 era, but still, I question them.

 

Ok. All the knowledgeable people spring in. So my brother got a call finally from Mini today , after about week and a half ,thats how long it takes the MINI technician to get his self in , and start estimating.Funny thing is they deny to cover this under the warranty because "it LOOKS like it was modified" . All mechanical stuff is OEM, even the wheels lol. They only modified part that on the car is M7 spoiler. What does great MINI guru recommend to do next?

 

The quality of VW is legendary. We spent $10K in maintenance in 3 years on our Eurovan . I know 3 friends with Vdubs and they all complain about the quality. Maybe it is the ocean crossing, maybe its the service techs on this side of the pond. Either way I'm never buying a Vdub again.

 

Man I so wish this was true LOL . I would love to have a copy of the Techs report and use it as an advertising campaign. Something along the lines of ,

" Warning this spoiler may cause such a performance improvement that you may have your complete warranty denied ".

Either the guy was joking with you or you need to take it to another dealer . There is NO way that is going to stand up.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

I'd be willing to bet that dealership #1 put all the mods into the computer and those mods are attached to the VIN now. You're not going to get any help from any dealership. Get it towed to an indie shop and get the head rebuilt. It should be WAY cheaper than a new engine.

 

Randy, I think you missed the story.

At redline on 4th gear, he misshifted into 3th and blew the engine.
Dealer 1 said no because of all the aftermarket stuff
He brought the car back and removed all the aftermarket stuff
Brought it back to dealer 2 and they said no

Maybe you can help him make a case.

 

Well, from what i heard from dealer #1 is that they never called for a technician, they based their answer on the aftermarket stuff, so we politely just took the car back without a fight. Now dealer of Freeport, NY, they cant base a negative answer on my car, becasue theres nothing in my car except for the M7 spoiler and JCW suspension. im driving with my brother tomorrow morning to get everytyhing on paper. My bro just told me briefly what they told him " looks like its been modified" ? lol, LOOKS , thats the funny part. looks can be decieving especially when timing chain tensioners are a crap and they even fail to change those under warranty ( my friend 07 model , 3 tensioners already and now, engine and transmission - 2nd gear grind all the time) . Im begining to loose the moto of great engineering of BMW cars , i hope they arent taking the Chrysler way out .

 

bottom line, driver error, not mini parts problem. sorry, time to man up.....

 

ok, enough with the "man up,pay up " jokes! I requested knowledgeable opinion , not a smart *** comments. Just so you know, my friends 07 model is a 100% STOCK car, so you never know, whos next! lol

 

going to my original thoughts. i cant base my 4th redline to 3rd misshift accusations ( had a little family feud at that time) but it appears to be a more delicate misshift than i originally anticipated. Giving a fact that timing tensioners are poorly designed in out cars, i guess its only fair to say that , it will break, its only a matter of time and abuse you are inflicting on the car.

 

Just had the 30k mile service done on my car that I repainted the hood on to paint the stripes, painted the front bumper to add stripes down the front bumper, Invidia Catback exhaust, KandN FIPK intake, radar detector hard wired in, GPS hard wired in, interior pieces custom painted...etc...etc...no issues they did the cold start rattle fix, sunroof fix, front brakes, and all the 30k service crap with not a peep to me about not wanting to do anything under warrantee because of aftermarket parts...

Guess you need to find a better/friendlier dealer.

 

It was a regular run. 1st, 2nd, 3rd...didn't get it into 3rd, didn't misshift. Hit the redline. What else do you want from the story?

 

Ask " what do you mean - what is modified" and let them tell you how they know it was modified.

If they say the computer tells the story - I think it is over.

If they just have suspicions maybe you can press on.

 

ok. heres a brief description of my early morning visit to the stealership. They cant provide me with paper work of any sort stating their ( Hassel Mini) or the engineer discoveries. The mini team service rep. is saying that the engine was over revved an that it "appears" that the car was modified and now the aftermarket parts were removed.When i asked for it to be put on paper so that i can pursue further actions, he denied it multiple times and told me to call Mini of America and talk with the engineer. I kept on bringing the faulty timing chain tensioner story that many other people had problems with , but he wouldnt budge, LOL. Then he expected to butter his roll by saying" you want get far by being nasty to me". Unbelievable , so much for happy motoring.

 

wasn't joking , if same thing happened to me, first i'd try everything you did failing that . ..... i was getting ready to upgrade my suspension,springs,sway bars..talked to sa about upgrades & how it would affect my warranty , he just shurgged he's shoulders...it would depend... i'm waiting

 

From above:

Sue the dealer. It's clear that they are in violation of this act. It's up to them to prove that boost tubes, a downpipe & exhaust caused the timing chain to snap (which they can't because it didn't).

Frankly, what they are doing sounds like a pathetic excuse to avoid an expensive fix. Take them to court and notify your local news agency.

 

Alright, I need to ask a majority of ya'll, how many of you have/are a service manager? how many have been a factory service rep?
WELL I HAVE BEEN BOTH, and was a factory rep for VW!

now for the OP, please do not be offended by this it is merely to gain perspective, how old are you? how do you dress? again dont be offended. the dealership looked at the car, saw that it was sold at another dealership, first, second you had the right to see the damage that they "found", third, how warranty works is that the factory wants the dealers to spend as little as possible on claims, dealers get in "review" when they have high warranty claim costs audits are done and if the factory finds anything that is not by the book the dealer eats that claim. GERMAN CAR FACTORIES ARE NOT LIKE U.S ONES, THEY ARE GERMANS!!! VW had the rash of conflicts in the late 90s and early 2000s because Germany said that the Americans do not know how to operate the cars nor do we know how to fix them. (although we kicked their *** twice in war) ok, BMW is not as bad as VW but they are sticklers, I was at a BMW dealership as a SM. the aftermarket parts that you have did not kill the engine, bad driving does, faulty OEM parts do. BMW does not like to publicize the issues with cars, so you need to make nice with a MINI dealer that You would not take the car to in order to get the service bulletins for your car for the faulty tensioner, there should be a vin run (between xxx vin and xxx vin) of the faulty tensioners.
oops the little one is up.......
pm me so we can talk.....

 

Last time I looked, legal fees for going to court are around $25,000.

 

No, it's not so clear. They just have to make a good enough argument. In practice, the Magnuson-Moss Act is difficult for the consumer. They don't have to prove anything until they are dragged into court. Just to get that far can take a lot of money, and then you might still lose. If you're lucky, you convinced your lawyers that your case is such a sure win that they agree to forego fees until afterwards. The other side will come up with an expert witness who will support their claim that mods or user abuse caused the failure. And of course you have to hire your own expert witnesses to refute them. Meanwhile all of this will take months and months.

 

^^ and they have more money and resources at their disposal.

Sorry, but you take a chance when you mod your car and this is one of them. I'm with the rest of the folks that say it is time for you to pay up.

 

also goodwill is paid for by the DEALER not the factory, so if you did not buy your car there, you do not take it to them for customer pay service work, and you have virtually no history with that dealership you will not get goodwill. do not sue the dealer, that is just more negativity that does not need to be in this situation, plus you do not really have much of a case, and the dealer has a attorney on retainer and deeper pockets. the dealer is the one that approves or denies warranty work according to the guidelines set by the factory. i have denied warranty work many times, some for idiots running BMWs thru high water and sucking it into the intake and hydrolocking the engine, others for people breaking suspension parts at the racetrack and bringing the car in with the melted race tires still on it. as for the key fob the MA probably did input the findings into the key fob history in order to protect other dealers and MINI, not sure if that is possible but it might be. as i see it you can take my advice on trying to obtain a service bulletin and with that in hand call MINI USA and ask for customer care and ask for some sort of assistance from them on this if in fact your car falls within the bulletin, you can purchase a new engine and pay someone to drop it in, you can tear into the current motor yourself and rebuild it, or you can find a used engine and drop that in either yourself or thru a shop.