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I'm new to these forums in general. (Very new)
I only created an account for the SULEV forums.
Now finally after going through most of the forums and calling multiple dealerships in the NJ area to find that most of them thought I was insane for saying an 8+ year old car still had a manufacturer warranty, I wanted to share.
a) issue diagnosed
White smoke from tailpipe and engine bay under hard acceleration and sometimes startup
b) total cost of repair
Essentially nothing but I added a service for $139
c) if SULEV covered initially or you had to be reimbursed
Covered fully for the SULEV parts + service + diagnostic fee
d) if your dealer gave you a hard time
Called 5 but the one that knew about it gave me no problems at all. Didn't even spend more than a few minutes sitting with him and setting up the appointment
e) if BMW NA had to be involved
Nope
Story if you want more details:
I just bought the car around around the start of this year in January 2017. Its a 2009 BMW 328i X-drive SULEV with around 72xxx miles now(had 67,000). I'm the third owner(NJ) and the previous two were NJ. Bought it from an older couple with no idea it had the SULEV warranty(or what it was).They even had the fuel pump replaced at an indie BMW shop a while back on their own dime.It's been a completely reliable car with no major problems. A month or two ago every so often I would notice white smoke coming out of the tailpipe but nothing dramatic.
I took the car for a drive one day and decided for this small strip of road to give it pedal to the metal and seconds later white smoke started to come out from under the hood. I pulled over and turned it off for a bit. Everything looked fine as i could tell. I took it slowly back home and within the week drove it to the dealership. (The calling from above took around 2 hours to call about 5 of them and wait on hold while they talked to a manager who still really didn't know about the idea)
The service advisor knew it was the VCG (Valve Cover Gasket) before I even said two words and said should be covered otherwise I would get a call. He said all I had to do was get a diagnostic for $149 which would be waved if it was SULEV and go from there. Gave me a loaner(Ran out of BMW's so... got a 2016 Toyota Avalon from Enterprise) and it took about 5 days, Friday to Tuesday since the place was busy (1-3) Waiting for someone to look at it and (4-5) to get the work done + testing afterwards.
The only thing I paid for was a Spring Tune ($139 according to the coupon somehow paid less) which included cabin air filter,some air deodorizer, car check over, topping off all fluids. (Left the windshield washer fluid a little low beforehand just to see if the work was done) I asked to have that done since I wanted to replace the cabin filter a while back and the package seemed decent.
The other thing on the bill is i was asking how much it would cost to replace the front dome assembly since I broke it trying to pry it off to put in LED's. Found the part on ebay and swapped it. Worked without a hitch no error codes.
The last image is just a page from the owners manual on another forum on the SULEV parts which I kept in my back pocket just in case.
P.S. Blacked out personal info and dealer info. Don't know if you're allowed to advertise a specific dealer + don't want to annoy the service guy with SULEV claims 24/7. If anything just send me a message for the exact dealer.
Sorry in advance about the long post!
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