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2010 2011 BMW 5 Series Forum F10 BMW 5-Series (F10) Forums General 5-Series Sedan and Wagon (F10 / F11) Forum BMW offers a 'goodwill repair' on pulling to the right issue?
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      10-19-2012, 06:44 PM   #1
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BMW offers a 'goodwill repair' on pulling to the right issue?

Need an advice:

My 2011 535 ix have been experiencing a well known issue pulling to the right, 2 dealerships performed multiple alignments with no success. Finally BMW sends a tech who finds a bent control arm.

Now BMW wants me to sign a release to proceed with a "goodwill repair". I dont know yet what kind of release and why, this was a message left on my phone. I speculate that they do not cover bent control arm under warranty but willing to repair it since I have had this issue for a long time.

What surprises me is why previous attempts to repair did not detect a bent control arm, and why I now to have to sign a release thus relieving BMW from any issues that may happen after it....First time when I complained about pulling to the right the car had less than 1,000 miles.
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      10-19-2012, 07:30 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oleg
Need an advice:

My 2011 535 ix have been experiencing a well known issue pulling to the right, 2 dealerships performed multiple alignments with no success. Finally BMW sends a tech who finds a bent control arm.

Now BMW wants me to sign a release to proceed with a "goodwill repair". I dont know yet what kind of release and why, this was a message left on my phone. I speculate that they do not cover bent control arm under warranty but willing to repair it since I have had this issue for a long time.

What surprises me is why previous attempts to repair did not detect a bent control arm, and why I now to have to sign a release thus relieving BMW from any issues that may happen after it....First time when I complained about pulling to the right the car had less than 1,000 miles.
Don't, under any circumstances, sign anything. Tell BMW to fix it under warranty or otherwise tell BMW to describe the damage in detail and put it in writing then submit a claim to your insurance carrier.

If your insurance carrier balks because they feel the control arm is not damaged, but is somehow defective then tell your insurance company to put that in writing.

Next, if both are pointing fingers then someone is acting in bad faith. Go to a good independent shop and pay their best tech for one hour to review the issue. Ask him to put his findings in writing---he will be the tie breaker.
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      10-20-2012, 02:38 PM   #3
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So generally speaking, if a suspension component is bent this is not covered by the warranty, it is a part of an accidental damage?
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      10-21-2012, 11:58 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oleg
So generally speaking, if a suspension component is bent this is not covered by the warranty, it is a part of an accidental damage?
Yes, if BMW believes it has exceeded the scope of the warranty by having to repair a damaged (rather than defective) component, then BMW will want assurances that you understand that BMW is really not responsible for fixing this.

The problem is that you are waiving very important rights. The minute you have a third party (BMW included) in repairing a damaged part of your car then your insurance carrier is completely off the hook from that point on.

So, lets say further examination reveals the bent control arm and the axle were damaged, then your insurance company does not have to repair the axle if the damage resulted from the same accident.

My concern is that you may be losing some very important rights by signing the BMW document.

Just tell BMW that you are an honest person and if the bloody control arm was damaged then explain it in writing and you will engage your insurance company.

On the other hand, if the control arm is not damaged, but really an engineering defect, then tell BMW to fix it under the new car warranty.

If you are out of warranty, then maybe you could consider signing the BMW docs. But, even then you could be losing some rights.

Bottom line, you should not have to sign any special docs since you have a warranty and you have insurance.
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      10-21-2012, 01:31 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BMWrules7 View Post
Yes, if BMW believes it has exceeded the scope of the warranty by having to repair a damaged (rather than defective) component, then BMW will want assurances that you understand that BMW is really not responsible for fixing this.

The problem is that you are waiving very important rights. The minute you have a third party (BMW included) in repairing a damaged part of your car then your insurance carrier is completely off the hook from that point on.

So, lets say further examination reveals the bent control arm and the axle were damaged, then your insurance company does not have to repair the axle if the damage resulted from the same accident.

My concern is that you may be losing some very important rights by signing the BMW document.

Just tell BMW that you are an honest person and if the bloody control arm was damaged then explain it in writing and you will engage your insurance company.

On the other hand, if the control arm is not damaged, but really an engineering defect, then tell BMW to fix it under the new car warranty.

If you are out of warranty, then maybe you could consider signing the BMW docs. But, even then you could be losing some rights.

Bottom line, you should not have to sign any special docs since you have a warranty and you have insurance.
The problem is pulling to the right issue was there from day 1. And 2 dealerships looked at the car and did not find any suspension damage or at least never checked. All they did was alignement and software update. Now when BMW regional tech came to check the car he found a bent control arm.

I think the defect is due to BMW engineering or defective part not to the fact that I damaged suspension, and BMW playing a game here. If there is damage in suspension why BMW did not find it before? Also alignment specs were within normal few times, if there was a bent part it would have came up already. To bent a control arm you would need to damage a wheel I suppose and other components would exhibit some traces of an impact so that first time when dealership looked at it it would have been obvious.

Other forum members went through the same story already, and bent control arm did not help the problem though. I think BMW is insinuating my fault and washing their hands here.

Oh and the car has on 4000 miles on it and was bought less than 4 months ago, so it is under warranty.
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      11-03-2012, 04:36 PM   #6
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oh and they also 'overlooked' that there was an oil change due last October, the car tells me now.....unless this was triggered by the storm.....
I am getting pissed at bmw especially with their show off with 1 mln donation to red cross, they cannot even treat current customers right
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      11-27-2012, 10:40 AM   #7
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update

Took my car to another dealership, they were able to align the car without a control arm change. Now the possible trick is obvious: BMW wanted me to forfeit my warranty rights and introduced a control arm issue.

I have a printout with my VIN name and mechanic name, also there is a BMW KDS serial number, while the previous alignment print out did not have all this info printed.
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      12-11-2012, 05:52 PM   #8
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Another update

i think that nobody is interested in this, but it will add more info for those owners who can run into trouble with BMW of NA

After aligning properly my car without having a control arm change, the car is still veering to the right. I expressed my concern via bmw customer survey and few days later got a call from the same customer rep. he left a message "as previously discussed I have to sign a release and then BMW will fix my car under a goodwill" but not under warranty. He completely disregarded the fact that there is no bent control arm and I did pay for the last alignment.

This shows how BMW deals with their customers, bluntly and not honorably to say the least. The lawyer I spoke to called it a breach of warranty and definitely a lemon case under at least 2 conditions.

I still wonder why BMW having done 5 alignments could not rotate the damn springs to at least try to fix the car.
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