[M235eye]

I would like to share with my nightmare I have been experiencing for the past several months so that none of you have to go through the same issue. It might be somewhat unique and hopefully we can all learn something from this. Its a long one.



About 7-8 months ago I purchased Dinan springs + bump stops from an authorized retailer and took them to a non-Dinan authorized BMW service center. I happened to work in the sales dept of the same dealership so I was able to get a nice discount on the labor. At the same time I asked to install another part for me and they recommend an alignment so I definitely felt happy to be getting said discount as all the labor added up.

One or two months after the installation date I hear a weird squeak coming from one of the shock towers and some clunking noise as well. I make an appointment during which the technician looks at the vehicle (and drives it too) and he cannot find anything wrong with the vehicle. I receive a phone call several hours later from my SA claiming they cannot replicate the noise which would be my best bet of them being able to continue searching for a problem.

I go in the service department and request a "ride along" with my technician so I can help him "listen" to the noises I hear. During the drive I can only replicate the squeaking but thats I cared about as it was the MOST ANNOYING noise I ever heard in any of my vehicles. 30 seconds in the ride along I am able to prove to my tech that such a noise exists and he tells me he heard it so he will take it back in and check some more parts.

One hour later I receive another phone call from my SA this time stating I am SOL. They just realized I have after-market parts and as a result they cannot continue fixing or finding the issue. The SA was totally new so when I tried explaining to her that my springs were installed at the same location all she could do was refute anything I said. Whether or not she understood anything I told her is a different story.

I decide that for the time being, I would ignore the issue as I was under the impression that my job was currently on thin ice. I needed to focus on more important matters and my stress level was so high at the moment I could not make things more complicated or jeopardize my job further by angering management over this issue. Well I ended up getting axed and starting looking for another career.
Over the next month or so I was still under stress as I was unemployed but I decided I would try to alleviate the squeaking as it was still very annoying. I call the service department and speak to one of the managers who I thought would help me since she was normally cool while I was an employee. She looks up the "notes" in they computer records left by the technician. She relays to me what the shop foreman inputted and she tells me verbatim that the squeaking was coming from the shock absorber as a direct result of the aftermarket spring I had on my vehicle. I was a bit confused as the technician originally told me he could not locate the source of the noise and then when we discovered said noise together, I was told, by my SA, that they would not continue searching. I ask the manager if she could do anything for me since the springs were installed by her staff and she says she cannot "go over the shop foreman" and that unless they take off the Dinan springs and re-install factory springs I am out of luck.

I thought I was smart so I called BMW NA customer service and explain my issue. They say they will look into it and call me back within a week. Well guess what?
I receive a phone call the following week from the same rep at BMW stating that BMW NA cannot help as it is explicitly stated in my warranty booklet that such aftermarket parts void my warranty. I bring up the Magnusson Moss warranty act by the FTC and how I am protected but not only was he unaware of such an act but he didn't seem to care.

So here I am sitting at home trying to figure out what the hell to do. I called an attorney and he told me to that dealerships normally make you sign a receipt stating they do not need to cover such problems and he was right. The back of my receipt (and any receipt you receive from the service dept) states that they are not responsible for issues that arise in these scenarios.

For those of you considering taking a Dinan part to be installed at a non-Dinan location, DO NOT DO IT.

To those of you who are knowledgeable about such issues, what options do I have left ?