Voiding BMW warranty because of changing the radio.

parxuk

parxuk

parxuk

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18 Apr 2008
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Bristol
I recently posted here because of some issues i was having with a BMW dealer in relation to the BMW Insured Warranty i have on my car.

Basically i had problems with the glovebox not working correctly, and they have said it wont be covered under the warranty because i have changed the car radio/head unit.

I asked for clarification and he stated:

"The warranty serves to provide cover to the manufacturers standard equipment, any changes to this can render the warranty void. Changing the radio has far reaching consequences as the standard radio has connections to Bus Systems"

To me it seems they could now turn around and refuse most warranty work on the car by stating that changing the head unit could have caused the problem.

This sounds a bit OTT to me, but has me seriously wondering if its going to be worth me paying £700+ for next years warranty.

What do you think?
 
If what they say is true then I guess they have grounds that electrical faults could develop. Obviously an easy get out for them but ultimately within their rights. If you don't plan on returning the car to stock then I would just pay for the driveline component warranty to cover the most important drivetrain parts and then put the rest aside for any electrical faults that may develop.
 
Annoyingly they are sort of right - changing radios can cause problems with BMW's because of the nature of the BUS systems.

When I installed an aftermarket navigation system into my E39 the control box for the steering wheel controls managed to cause sufficient interference over the BUS to affect the operation of the electronically controlled thermostat. I'm not joking. It sounds crazy - and took me months and several thermostats to finally track it down - but it did.

Essentially the interference it caused was resulting in random signals being sent along the BUS the thermostat was connected to, which was triggering the over-ride and opening it early. I went through several thermostats and it didn't fix it - as soon as I unplugged the steering wheel control box the problem went away. As soon as I plugged it back in again, it came back. Totally bizarre.

And that's on a car with a now 15 year old electronics system. The more modern ones are even more complex.
 
parxuk said:
. Changing the radio has far reaching consequences as the standard radio has connections to Bus Systems"
Click to expand...

Well, an aftermarket radio is unlikely to have connections to 'Bus Systems' and is also unlikely to cause electrical interference if it's a known brand.

I can't quite imagine how this would affect the glovebox, although perhaps the 'glovebox open' sensor and interior light are on the CANBUS...
 
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I asked BMW about my extended warranty situation before I changed to non-OEM brakes. The answer that I got is as long as the fault could be directly caused by the change that I made then warranty is unaffected.

Slightly off topic, they even said that my BMW recovery wouldn't be affected if I decided not to use runflat tyres.

Unfortunately in your case I think they could have a point.
 
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I had an aftermarket exhaust on my old car which was under warranty and they never refused a claim because of it (and I had a few!). It really really depends on the dealer.
 
Gents

Thanks for the replies and insight. I can see that they would have a point, but it will make it a difficult decision for me next March when warranty renewal comes around as to whether to bother.

I purchased the car with the aftermarket Kenwood already installed and dont have the original. The steering wheel buttons do control the radio.

I think if my car needs and warranty work in the future, my best bet is to take the car back to the dealer the previous owner had used for the past 13 years. Its not that much further for me to travel, and he hadnt had any problems with any work being refused.
 
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