[atmosphericM]

I purchased my CPO BMW one year ago, and last month my alternator started making a horrible noise. The noise was diagnosed as failing alternator so it was replaced and covered (less deductible) under the CPO warranty. Less than one week later after I get the car back, I start to get "Increased Battery Discharge" errors every time I start the car, and after a couple of days, the car barely starts.

I took it back to the dealer and now the story is that the battery needs to replaced to the tune of $500.

According to the CPO documentation, the battery is not covered "(as a stand alone repair)." However, in my eyes, this is part of the repair including the alternator. The fact that they would both fail within a week and unrelated to each other seems too big a coincidence to me. Especially because, since this car is CPO, that battery should have been checked and tested and should have passed with flying colors or replaced. A "CPO Battery" that only lasts a year is some real crap.

They never even gave me the service ticket when they replaced the alternator (supposedly their printers were down and they are emailing a copy to me... still waiting on that email ), but I would imagine there should be some documentation on there regarding charging the battery, etc. Heck, they "charged the battery" after they did my ignition coils and a safety sensor under warranty a couple of months back. So if the battery was basically dead when they replaced the alternator, shouldn't it have been noticed? ( N52UNED where you at lol ) I have a feeling that it was noticed but they didn't want to deal with it at the time.

I already pushed the service adviser and he came back with a whopping $60 discount for me, stating that the repairs are not related.

At this point I am going to reach out to BMW NA about this.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
aM

[atmosphericM]

Well looky there. As I was literally typing my initial post, I received a call from the SA. He said he got with his manager and they "sat down and talked about it" and now they are going to cover the battery under the warranty.

Good guys doing the right thing. Cool. Really sad and annoying though that one has to basically threaten to reach out to BMW NA before anything happens. C'est la vie, I suppose.

In nitpicking, I feel that I shouldn't even have to pay the $50 deductible this time because, in my eyes, this replacement is part of the alternator repair. But oh well, I won't complain too hard about a $50 battery replacement. I just hope they actually use a new battery! Any suggestions as to how I could verify such?

[John 070]

CPO is misleading. If a radiator hose burst, the motor overheated, it's not covered. Nor if a serpentine belt broke, got sucked into the motor, and motor done. If it's in the fine print, what can we really do? My thing is, don't enter into unfair agreements. But it's unavoidable, like health insurance, car insurance, life insurance, etc.

We had an extended warranty on my wife's GM SUV. Cost a fraction of what BMW costs. The odd thing? Everything covered, and when it's not, they don't charge you for diagnostics. Example, car failed state inspection due to leaking front strut. It was covered as was the alignment. I kinda laughed, strut? Captains chair, covered. Maybe BMW needs to learn from GM (although GM is terrible overall).

They ended up covering your battery, just beware of the other exclusions, what else can you do? They were willing to give me a free water pump job for cust sat, but I rejected the offer (this is a dealer that broke my car and denied). So they have a lot of budget for goodwill.

Wow dude, now you're not wanting to pay the deductible? Sorry, but now you're going too far.

[TemjinX2]

SA's are not techs, their just sales men for the service dept. Your SA was probably just trying to make some money off of you. Thats why its best to talk to your local bmw owners that go to your dealership and find out which one of the SA's are honest. The rest are used car salesmen.

This audi SA, tried to charge my girlfriend $600 for a wheel balance. I told her to tell the SA, it should be covered under cpo warranty, then the SA came back and said she didn't need it anymore.

So we spoke to the service manager and had them do it for free under warranty, no deductible charged.

[Efthreeoh]

There is no reason that a failing alternator would damage the battery. If the battery was original, and I suppose it was, it was just coincidental it failed soon after the alt was replaced.

[unrulyteach]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

There is no reason that a failing alternator would damage the battery. If the battery was original, and I suppose it was, it was just coincidental it failed soon after the alt was replaced.

Really? I thought that if the alternator was bad and it overcharged the battery after a while it would make the battery go bad? Tho I'm no mechanic.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by TemjinX2

SA's are not techs, their just sales men for the service dept. Your SA was probably just trying to make some money off of you. Thats why its best to talk to your local bmw owners that go to your dealership and find out which one of the SA's are honest. The rest are used car salesmen.

This audi SA, tried to charge my girlfriend $600 for a wheel balance. I told her to tell the SA, it should be covered under cpo warranty, then the SA came back and said she didn't need it anymore.

So we spoke to the service manager and had them do it for free under warranty, no deductible charged.

Man reading all these posts about BMW not wanting to repair for free... your analogy is so true. Salesman but for service lol.

I'm happy I didn't get the CPO or extra warranty and just DIY at home, I feel like it must be so annoying always arguing with them when you have a damn warranty.

And this is really on the fault on the dealer itself since they are independently own, not BMA itself.

[atmosphericM]

Originally Posted by John 070

Wow dude, now you're not wanting to pay the deductible? Sorry, but now you're going too far.

As I said, $50 is no huge deal, so I won't complain about it. But what I was getting at is that the deductible has already been paid for this repair, by me, when they replaced the alternator (IMO they should have replaced the battery at the same time, because if that had tested it, they would have seen that it was failing). Either way, whatever. There is some chance that the two replacements aren't directly related, so I'll pay the $50 happily. But I still think they're related...

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

There is no reason that a failing alternator would damage the battery. If the battery was original, and I suppose it was, it was just coincidental it failed soon after the alt was replaced.

Coincidence is definitely possible. But isn't it bad for a battery to operate in it's reserve? If the alternator wasn't supplying sufficient power to the battery while the car was being used, couldn't that damage the battery? Further, who knows what was done while they replaced the alternator. Surely there are mistakes that could be made, or precautions not taken, that would result in premature wear/damage to the battery.

In the end, happily, the dealer agrees with me that while it could be a coincidence, it's more likely that it isn't. That, or they just don't want to deal with me. But I'm not about to feel like I'm getting some super-special treatment just because a "certified" battery was backed for a year. Glad they did the "right" thing.

In the end, cheers to the dealership / BMW on this one.

Now if only this hadn't taken 4 days to fix. This garbage X1 is killing my soul!!