[3002 tii]

Originally Posted by CTinline-six

So I have a negative experience with the SULEV warranty to share...

Car in question is a 2009 328i N51 with ~97k miles. I am the second owner of the car, and have owned it since 2016, bought with 32k miles.

At 40k miles it needed a valve cover and gasket. The cover was cracked. SULEV warranty covered it, but it was a fight to get them to cover it, my car sat at the BMW dealer for 2 weeks before they decided to cover it. In the following years I needed spark plugs and a coil failed, along with a OFHG. I did all that myself simply because the parts weren't that expensive, and much less of a pain to do myself instead of waiting for weeks for the local BMW dealer to "decide" if it was covered. They also conveniently never had any loaners available, which is fine, I mean I didn't buy the car from them so I get it.

Fast forward a few years to ~85k miles and the secondary air pump quits. Checked the wiring and tested the pump and sure enough the pump was dead. It's a fairly pricey part, so figured hey I have another vehicle to drive, it can sit at BMW while they figure it out, should be under SULEV warranty. Weeks go by again, more back and forth, and finally they replace the pump. I think that is the end of it until weeks later I go to replace a headlight bulb, and notice the hack job they did replacing the pump. The pump looked to be out of a different car. It was new, but looked like they did some wire splicing to make it fit along with using self tapping screws since the original studs holding the bracket sheared off.


And now the finale... 92k miles. I get a code for secondary air insufficient flow, but it's obvious the pump is working. I have a local indy shop take a look, and they suggest either the air valve is clogged/inoperable or the cylinder head ports are partially clogged. I replace the valve myself since it is an easy job/cheap part and the old one was pretty gunked up with carbon. Code went away for about a week then returned. Same indy shop told me it was likely the ports in the head being clogged with carbon, and I wouldn't be able to pass emissions (conveniently due this month) with that code. They gave me a quote to clean the ports in the head, which was reasonable, but advised me to go to BMW since it was a SULEV car.

I take it to the BMW dealer, and they have the car for a week before even calling me. They finally call and say it needs a new cylinder head. They don't send the head out for cleaning like the indy shop, they simply replace the entire cylinder head. They told me that it's likely BMW won't cover it, since I am the second owner of the car and would need detailed dealer service records for the entire life of the car. Keep in mind this car was dealer serviced by the PO, I change the oil every 5000 miles with BMW LL-01 oil, and have a stack of maintenance receipts, spreadsheets, and other dated documentation from doing my own meticulous work. In the end the dealer told me to pound sand and instead quoted me $16,000 for a replacement cylinder head.

I ended up going back to the indy which did the cleaning for a fraction of that and I trust their work more anyway.

The bottom line is I wouldn't rely on the SULEV warranty for anything, because it seems like any other manufacturer BMW will try its hardest to get out of covering anything significant, and in the long run the N52 is much cheaper to keep going and less complicated than the N51.

That’s really unfortunate but sounds like your dealer is partially at fault for your misfortune / bad experience (from shoddy work to giving you the run around).

[Boston4]

Originally Posted by 3002 tii

That’s really unfortunate but sounds like your dealer is partially at fault for your misfortune / bad experience (from shoddy work to giving you the run around).

Agree that it sounds like the dealer is the problem. Dealer replaced the cats + all four O2 sensors on mine without batting an eye about coverage. No clue how much that would have cost out of warranty but probably a few thousand in parts alone.

[acg2002us]

My DMTL pump went out going to see if SULEV will cover it. 2010 122k

[Grunt1962]

I have a success story ....my 2012 e92 coded bad oxygen sensors.....BMW of New London ( Connecticut) replaced free of charge...no issues ..great service...I'm the 3rd owner too...just mention the SULEV policy and the guy knew about it...took a week to get the parts...made the appointment and done that day...I waited and they even offered a ride to get food if I wanted....just want to say very please.
.

[cuzbmw]

Adding some data points to this thread. I have had 3 different repairs taken care of under the SULEV warranty on my '11 328i:

1. In 2017, I noticed the valve cover gasket had a minor oil seepage. Took the vehicle in and asked if dealer could cover under SULEV warranty. Service advisor immediately said it would be covered and took care of it. I got in and out in about 3 hours. Interestingly, my advisor told me if the cover itself had been leaking, it would not be covered under SULEV. I did not know much about the warranty at the time so I did not ask if it would have been covered if the car started throwing codes; I'm assuming if the car threw a code and failed smog, it would be covered.

2. In 2021, engine developed a pretty gnarly miss-fire. I pulled the codes and got a miss-fire for cylinder number 5. I already did the spark plugs during routine maintenance so I had a sneaking suspicion coil 5 would be bad. Took car in and got all 6 coils and spark plugs replaced. Service advisor mentioned that BMW procedure for replacing coils also called for the spark plugs to be replaced.

3. Earlier this year, the check engine light came on. Pulled the codes and everything pointed to the eccentric shaft sensor so I took the vehicle in. Dealer confirmed that the eccentric shaft sensor had gone bad but for some reason BMW would not let them order a new sensor. Turns out, because of the vanos bolt recall, BMW corporate would not release the part and the dealer had to go through a whole process of sending in pictures of the state of the vanos bolts + the torque specs for the bolts on my vehicle. Eventually though, BMW released the part and the sensor got replaced under SULEV. The entire process took over a week but worth it for the money saved.

After having the car for over 10 years, besides routine maintenance, I have not had to pay for repairs between the CPO warranty and the SULEV warranty. If it were not for the warranties, I would have probably had to have shelled out an additional $10,000 to maintain the car during these last 10 years.

[Takenm3]

Originally Posted by cuzbmw

Adding some data points to this thread. I have had 3 different repairs taken care of under the SULEV warranty on my '11 328i:

1. In 2017, I noticed the valve cover gasket had a minor oil seepage. Took the vehicle in and asked if dealer could cover under SULEV warranty. Service advisor immediately said it would be covered and took care of it. I got in and out in about 3 hours. Interestingly, my advisor told me if the cover itself had been leaking, it would not be covered under SULEV. I did not know much about the warranty at the time so I did not ask if it would have been covered if the car started throwing codes; I'm assuming if the car threw a code and failed smog, it would be covered.

2. In 2021, engine developed a pretty gnarly miss-fire. I pulled the codes and got a miss-fire for cylinder number 5. I already did the spark plugs during routine maintenance so I had a sneaking suspicion coil 5 would be bad. Took car in and got all 6 coils and spark plugs replaced. Service advisor mentioned that BMW procedure for replacing coils also called for the spark plugs to be replaced.

3. Earlier this year, the check engine light came on. Pulled the codes and everything pointed to the eccentric shaft sensor so I took the vehicle in. Dealer confirmed that the eccentric shaft sensor had gone bad but for some reason BMW would not let them order a new sensor. Turns out, because of the vanos bolt recall, BMW corporate would not release the part and the dealer had to go through a whole process of sending in pictures of the state of the vanos bolts + the torque specs for the bolts on my vehicle. Eventually though, BMW released the part and the sensor got replaced under SULEV. The entire process took over a week but worth it for the money saved.

After having the car for over 10 years, besides routine maintenance, I have not had to pay for repairs between the CPO warranty and the SULEV warranty. If it were not for the warranties, I would have probably had to have shelled out an additional $10,000 to maintain the car during these last 10 years.

If only the n54/55 were covered under Sulev lol

[cuzbmw]

Originally Posted by Takenm3

If only the n54/55 were covered under Sulev lol

Agreed. Had my fuel injectors crap out and foul my spark plugs right outside the 8 year/80K emissions warranty on my 14' 535i. Each injector costed me over $500

Interestingly, my SA told me they only do a handful of SULEV warranty work every year and that he has only written up warranty work under the 8 year/80K emissions warranty once in his entire time as a SA so far.