I still have 16 months and 14,000 miles left to decide that. Basically, I want clarity first on what is and is not covered by it. My expectation is that all dealer-installed and MINIUSA-approved accessories would be covered as well.

So something like my Rear Nav camera would not, but I'd expect the DPSM, OEM Bluetooth & SIRIUS receiver would be.

If the extended warranty only covers factory-installed stuff (not official dealer-installed), then I am less inclined to buy into it.

 

A week plus and no update to this gripping saga... almost as long as Gone With the Wind... Update, please?

 

Nothing new, unfortunately. I went there on Monday night again, and he had tried a number of other things since the previous Monday, still without a solution. We came up with a few more new ideas to try... I even suggested bypassing -everything- that is DPSM, going back to the standard Boost system, seeing if that works... and even if it does, to still do a resistance test on each of the wires going to the speaker, to see if one stands out.

This is a long, slow and painful process, no doubt... and the fact we're getting closer to winter is a concern too, because my Mustang is not up to the task of snow any more... I'm just glad that DC doesn't get very much of it!

 

time for another loaner?

 

If it comes to that, perhaps. I could have used a loaner today though... my Mustang's engine seized up. Well... actually, the engine was running... but the belt was not budging, and of course this resulted in a horrible shrieking noise (accompanied with smoke) as the drivetrain pulley spun on a rubber belt that wouldn't move. Had AAA tow it to my Mustang shop - they think it's the smog pump, so hopefully they'll get ahold of one and swap it out by tomorrow... especially because:

I have a rental car today (almost brand new Pontiac Grand Prix... the cheapest they had available at the time). It's quite surreal to own two cars and still have to pay for a rental car.

 

This whole thread is surreal!

 

2 questions

1. If the car is pretty much done, and the only problem is the DSPM,
wouldn't you qualify for a loaner based on it being a warranty repair?

2. Since the answer to question 1 may be that the dealer isn't required to give a rental even on qualifying warranty problems, If you were to buy the extended warranty (mine does cover rental), take the car home with a non wormikng DPSM, then bring it back in the next day, would that qualify for warranty repair.

Just seems like at some point it's cheaper to flip the issue on to someone else. I understand the idea that you decided to get this thing, but now it is out of your control. Clearly the reason you went with this was warranty coverage, shouldn't you at least get some coverage?

Paul

 

Haemish,

I think there's a book in all this.... start gathering notes.
If not a book, then definitely an article or series that could surely be sold to a variety of magazines. Might help offset the cost of the project.

 

The "how not" to upgrade car stereos?

 

No... more like one of those "dedicated to my ride - damn the expense" type journals. I am, of course, presuming that there will be a happy ending!

 

takeaways from the journal: with the money spent to preserve 'warranty', one could surely pay for any work not covered under said warranty many times over in the (unlikely) event that an aftermarket setup might cause issues (or, just deal with a competent shop who has a guarantee to cover just this). Call me crazy for using logic

 

Call me crazy lol but i'll stick to my harmon.. i would rather have my mini, be able to drive it, not have it sit at the dealership, and listen to my stereo.. because at this point, if that was my car, i would simply say... lets put it back to what it was in APRIL and call it a day..

 

that would require more work....the car is already well past that, just need to see it through.

 

He always was given the option of a loaner from the Service Department. Edge was very kind to decline the loaners after a point, the Sales Department was starting to get angry with the Service Department over it, so he solved the problem by driving his 2nd car. If he went in and said something like "My Mustang is in the shop, could I get a loaner til' the end of the week?" I'd be willing to bet he would motor out in a nice loaner MINI.

 

Technically, I have always qualified for a loaner throughout this project. I chose to give it up, voluntarily, to take the pressure off the service department, so they could focus on the job itself and not worry about the sales department getting on their case.

I am hoping that this sacrifice will also help qualify for a larger discount than they normally give. It's a valid bargaining point for the final bill, aside from the crazy time it has all taken.Whether the extended warranty will cover all of my "MINIUSA-sold, dealer-installed" OEM stuff remains to be seen... in fact it will become the basis of my decision on whether or not to buy the extended warranty in the first place.

Right now, my MINI is still under the factory warranty, and everything being done on the car now is covered with that. I have about 14,000 miles left on the warranty.I am! All of the DPSM repairs (for this strange issue) are being covered!Haha... a fun idea, but I don't plan on trying to make this a profitable one... if only because in hindsight, this has been such a ridiculous process that I don't think that anybody is going to consider it a useful learning experience, other than...You got it! Dan, you are 100% correct. The money being spent on this is by no means sensible, logical nor recoverable.

The truth is, in hindsight, if I had been told it at the start would take over 7 months until I got my car back, and what the actual cost would be (still undetermined but I have a general idea), I probably would not have done it.

I honestly thought, at the start of this process, that it would take 4-6 weeks, and cost around $5,000. Clearly it has gone way beyond that on both counts. However, once you get neck-deep into a project like this, the only realistic way out is through.

I will be very happy with the end results - very happy that it's done, once I get the car back. That doesn't mean I'd do it all over again, knowing what I know now. Ummm... if you were running a marathon, and you got within 100 yards of the finish line... would you turn around and run all the way back to the start?

Sorry lilruffcat... going back to the way it was is completely out of the question at this stage of the game.Exactly!

 

Yep, precisely.

I did actually get my Mustang back yesterday afternoon, so the turnaround time on it was a little over 24 hours. The rental car place even cut me a break and didn't charge me more than the 1 day on the rental (which is a good thing, since the repair on the Mustang was $300... the smog pump itself cost $160!).

 

Well that makes things a little better, So now it gives me another question.

If your car is being worked on under warranty now, shouldn't it have the same priority as any other warranty car? I understand you were being very cool about them working on it while they had time because you could save a little money, but now it's on MINI's dime.

I'm not trying to instigate problems, I just feel like you are being taken advantage of because of your calm nature. You seem to want to keep a good relationship with this dealer, which I understand,
but come on, they've had your car for 6 months plus, they are charging you god knows how much, and they are taking their time fixing what should be normal DPSM install problems.

This thread is very interesting to me as I installed custom car audio for 9 years. I lived the life as an installer and worked on problems like this daily. There is no reason they shouldn't have your car back in a reasonable amount of time. If the amp is cutting out when you attached it to the chassis, it is an obvious ground issue. Check continuity from speakers to ground and signal to ground.

They should Find the problem, fix the problem, and get your car back.

Good luck!

 

He makes a good point.

 

I check this every day, and hope that you get your car back soon! You have the patience of saint

 

Actually, it does have priority - he is spending time on it every night.

See, the problem is that it is very inconsistent. He has been isolating many different variables but cannot seem to identify exactly where to focus.

It will get to the point where the stereo works perfectly fine for hours... even over multiple days... then he'll turn it off again, and turn it back on, without changing anything, and it comes back.

It's sporadic and very weird. He's already taken the side panels out again, and still working on trying to "make" it happen so that he can hopefully isolate it.

Even the previous reliable test of a ground cable run to the chassis or removed does not produce predictable results any more.

So let's say it works fine, every time, for a week straight. Is that enough time to give the dealership (and me) confidence to reassemble the interior and return the car to me? If not... 2 weeks? If nothing has been explicitly replaced in order to go from a problematic system to a trouble-free one, who's to say it won't come up again soon after I get the car back?

So you see, it's as though there's a ghost in the machine, just haunting the poor tech (and me, indirectly). Let's call it the Ghost of the H/K.

I'm going out there again tonight, so I'll post if there's anything more to report.

If you feel there is some test that he is not performing that he needs to, please be very explicit in exactly what he should do, and I'll be happy to share that opinion. He's an open-minded guy, I don't think he'll mind another brain on the matter. Sure, it may not be your job to do the dealership's work, but you'd be helping me, not specifically the dealership. And for that, I would be eternally grateful.

 

I presume that when it doesn't work correctly, the diagnostic LEDs on the DPSM are all behaving properly?

If it was a speaker load issue, perhaps it would clear if the speaker wasn't being driven - during a fault condition you could try adjusting balance/fade to drive just a single speaker at a time.

 

A worthwhile idea... but when the system is acting up, it does so even when the head unit is switched off!

Turning the car to ACC or on will give power to the amp, before turning on the head unit (this is normal, as proven this afternoon by many of you DPSM owners in our PM responses - thanks!). With the power to the amp and no output from the head unit (since it's still off), it still does it...

...but not always. Just sporadically. Accompanied with a "tick" sound that occurs every 2 or 3 seconds - a similar one to what you normally expect when the amp is turning itself on, only it does it over and over again.

Other times, without changing anything, the system just works perfectly. Very weird.

I'm not 100% certain (I'll ask again tonight) but I believe the amp LEDs all appear normal when this happens - no Temperature light and no Error light.

 

did the tech test for a short by using the continuity function of a DMM on the speaker leads? I know we said this before but didn't see if it was done

 

I'll ask him tonight.

 

I'm going by there tomorrow...I can bring my meter