So lets just say my 2010 r56's interior got a little wet...

im talkin monsoon rain in the sunroof for 30 mins wet...

i didnt get the memo about the torrential down pour that was going to occur. so i had kept my sunroof open to avoid the car turning into a small oven. it started raining and i didnt think anything of it bc i had forgotten i left my roof wide open... as soon as i noticed, i ran out wit the keys and some beach towels and dried the inside of my car as best i could. there were puddles in my cup holders, puddles in the matts. and the leather was wet...

after all this... i had to drive to work later... on my way the air bag light on my speedo came on... obviously it most likely got wet

finally, my question is.. will MINI replace it under warranty?

 

Uh no...... Warranties cover manufactures defects, not your mistakes.

 

warranty covers defects in material or workmanship . . .

Warranty does not apply to the following: Damage which results from negligence, improper operation . . .

reference the Service and Warranty Manual

nothing stops you from taking it to the dealer and making a claim for warranty service. there are special rules for emissions and safety equipment but these generally extend the length of coverage for material and workmanship defects.

I would call my insurance company. My comprehensive coverage would cover this and I have zero deductable on comp' (if you don't have zero deduct' comp' you should ask what your rate would be. Unlike collision the cost of this is often very little)

 

Yup...no warrenty...
Will even void much of it..user error.
Call your ins company.....

 

First get a shop vac and suck up as much water as possible. That is the first thing to prevent as much as you can with rust and other problems. Second leave it in a garage with the windows, sunroof, and the hatch open to air it out for a couple of days maybe a week or 2. Don't drive it during this time so that it is fully dried out. Then after that I would take it in and tell them the light came on and play dumb like you have no idea. Might get lucky and get it covered.

 

Oh and get an Ozone generator and that should help clear up some of the odor if there is any.

 

You were good right up to this line. Dumping your mistakes on other people is not cool. You screwed up, own it.

 

Put a dehumidifier in the back with seats Down windows up and leave it running for a day keep a close eye on it.that will suck up water and get rid of any odor..

 

Yeah well sometimes you got to play the game. I have some questionable things get covered under warranty so I just said give it a try.



Also OP disconnect the battery and pop off your airbag to see if there is any water back there.

 

I don't play games with my morals and I generally don't recommend others to do it either.

 

+1
I bolded Zippy's remark to emphasize this point. If you do end up having to take the car into the dealer it won't be the first time the service techs have seen a car that's interior got wet from leaving the sunroof open. My guess is they see a lot of it.
It's an easy mistake to make. I haven't done it in my MINI (yet) but I have certainly forgotten that my windows were down and found myself with a wet car in the past. I never had any permanent damage from it. It's not like the car was submerged in sea water.
I hope that you get it dried out OK and don't have any serious damage.
It's fixable.
Good luck.

 

the passenger side of the car really took the blunt of the event. so im thinkin the seat must gotten soo wet that it messed wit a sensor. granted im not the first or last person this has/will happen to. i appreciate all the tips tho... im gonna see what i can do tomorrow.. maybe disassemble some parts of the car (take the seats out, the console between the seats, etc.) and see whats goin on...

im goin in thursday for an oil change... i was supposed to go on MTTS but family issues are keeping me from goin anywhere for too long... im hoping to get the car to a point where it will have no remnants of rain water and claim a pot hole must be the reason for the airbag sensor. Staten island is notorious for our pot holes and i imagine the equipment in the car, although most likely shock-proof, probably is susceptible to damage from hitting a small crater at 60mph.

i understand warrantees aren't for operator-errors and such... but everyone is guilty of playing the system at least once... i dont see any harm or foul in getting it replaced under warranty. its an important safety feature and neglecting it because of financial reasons could be hazardous to mine or someone else's health. im nervous driving my car as is because i fear the airbag may suddenly deploy in my face. so my goal is to get it fixed by any means. if the dealership wont fix it under warranty, il get it fixed under my ins. and if that doesnt work. il disconnect the fvcker and live dangerously.

 

Keep us posted. I think that most likely you might have a short somewhere. Good luck.

 

If this is the case, then you can never complain when you have to pay higher prices for things. Do you think that warranty is free? Nope, that cost is not absorbed by the company, it is passed back to the consumers. Basically everyone else will end up paying for your lie. It isn't called "playing the system" either, so quit trying to justify it for others and call yourself what you are.

I actually hope you end up paying.

 

He'll end up paying...you can never conceal water damage.... they'll spot it a mile off......suck it up and tell them what happened!!!!

 

I know they will as there is no way to pull all that water and get rid of the stains as well without replacing carpet and seats.

 

A little vindictive aren't we this morning?

 

I certainly don't wish any hardship on you.
It's a shame that you can't go to MTTS.

Porthos and Black S have given some good practical tips on drying your car out.
I hope that will take care of the sensor problem.
If it doesn't, it may be a simple fix for the dealer.

The advice to call your auto insurance company and find out what sort of coverage you have for a problem like this is spot on. Make that call. You pay a lot for your insurance and this may well be covered. As you say this is an important safety issue.

Another poster recently caught a seatbelt on one of the seat's levers and could not get it off. His car was under warranty. He ended up going to the dealer who fixed it in minutes at no charge. No one posting here knows what's wrong, what it will take to fix it, or what your dealer is willing to do for you.

Every day I read a story of someone just driving down the street when things light up for no good reason. While it is logical to assume that the water caused the airbag light to come on, no one sitting behind a computer screen knows that to be a fact. The service techs will need to know what happened and not waste time looking for leaks and blockages that don't exist. Suppose the airbag light and the rain are unrelated?
It's not likely, but it's possible.

Since your car is under warranty, be very careful if you start to take the car apart yourself that you don't make matters worse. There seems to be a vast difference in dealerships and I don't know what yours is like. Although this technically isn't covered under warranty, you are a customer and your dealership could be inclined to good care of you if you are up front with them. There's nothing wrong in asking them to help you.

I hope that everything goes well for you and that it turns out to be a simple fix.

 

Good point I did not think about insurance. Also if it is just a light and they can reset the light in about 5 minutes unless it needs more work and that is probably when the questions about what happened will probably start flying around.

 

It's not like the engine needs to be rebuilt.
I'm interested to know what the fix is and how much, if anything, it costs.
People leave windows and sunroofs open all the time.
I'll be surprised if it's a big, expensive deal.

 

I'm not the morality police (Hey, I'm torrenting some videos right now.) but here are a few suggestions.

1) Posting on a public forum about your impending warranty fraud is pretty stupid.
2) I hope you never complain about the "stealerships" and their high labour rates, etc, because it's things like this that slowly but surely drive up prices for everyone.
3) Justifying it by saying "neglecting it due to financial reasons is dangerous!" is not a valid justification. Your financial situation is not the fault of BMW/MINI.

 

Wow fraud. This thread has officially went from a simple question to now we got people telling him that he is wrong. I hope everyone out there that has modified their car and then went and had something warrantied that was questionable realizes that they have done the same thing. Like "oh hey my intake threw a CEL let me get that looked at", "oh you are going to replace my MAF because the intake screwed it up", "oh aren't you the nicest place looking out for me".

 

For your scenario to be a fair comparison, I would have to install an intake, have it throw a CEL, replace the stock box, play dumb, and hope to have it fixed under warranty. I'm sure people do that all the time, and maybe it's not a particularly egregious sin, but it's certainly fraud. I don't think OP should be thrown in prison, I'm just advising him to not post these plans on a public internet forum, because dealerships DO lurk these boards.

 

Nope... I am not fond of people that cause me to pay more for something. So, I hope he gets caught and is forced to pay and it is fraud...