[jchristena]

So, let me preface this by saying I am only relaying information. Please no one start a damn "Dinan/Piggyback/Other sucks" thread.

I went to BMW of Austin yesterday for a tire on my wife's car. My SA is a friend of mine. When I got my Dinan stage II done in December, I let him take my car to lunch. He is a true performance enthusiast and we have a good relationship. I have had them warranty the most unbelievable problems. For example, my mom had a coke explode in her car and it shorted out several thousand dollars in electronics (I know...some explosion). BMW of Austin took care of it no questions asked. This dealer is simply awesome and is the reason I buy BMWs.

That said, I asked him a few questions about Dinan warranty claims and other piggyback information. Here were his responses.

Q: Have there been any problems with Dinan reliability and/or warranty claims?
A: I have seen/heard of a few problems. There were a couple of guys who liked to race/run their cars hard. The motor ended up letting go and Dinan wouldn't pay a dime.

Now, I don't know what the circumstances are or if these guys did something stupid. They may also have been running other non Dinan parts which caused warranty headaches. It simply means there are cases of failures with Dinan that were not covered and left the customer holding the bill.

Q: Should I remove Dinan from my car?
A: No way. Just don't do anything stupid. Drive your car normally, get on it when you want and you'll be fine. Just remember, it is not a race car.

Now, this is a subjective answer. My personal opinion is that you should be able to drive the car as hard as you like and while it may wear faster, it shouldn't let go. It could be he meant don't redline it in every gear every time you accelerate. In my opinion, it still shouldn't let go. But he is right...it is not a race car...and even race cars break.

Q: Were you guys told to look for piggybacks?
A: Yes, there were a couple of bulletins that came out. We don't go trying to screw the customer or anything, but there are circumstances when we do look.

Q: Do you always report piggybacks and void the warranty?
A: Absolutely not. We are not in the business of screwing our customers. As I said, there are times when we do look, but there is nothing at all that requires us to report this to BMW NA and/or attempt to void a warranty. Bottom line, we report it if we want to.

Off the record, he basically said if a customer is a c0ck to us, then of course we are not going to go that extra mile to protect him/her. A little respect for them goes a long way (at least at this dealer). At this dealer, there is no magic transmitter that pages the CEO of BMW at midnight when a piggyback is detected on a car sitting 500 miles away in a customer's garage (a joke, but others have gone down a similar road).

So, the bottom line.
-Dinan cars do have occasional problems but if you aren't being stupid and trying to break it, you'll be fine. Even then, most likely, warranty will pay without a problem.
-Dealers are looking for piggybacks and they do have ways/tools of finding them as we all know. At least from my experience, treat your SA and his staff with respect and you'll be just fine.
-Your warranty is never "automatically" void. There is a process here. It is the dealers call here and in most cases, they want you to buy another car from them in a year or two.

I hope this helps some people here. I'm sure somebody here will find a way to take offense to something I have written .

[JohnL135I]

Thanks for the info.

[HPIA4v2]

Originally Posted by jchristena

Q: Have there been any problems with Dinan reliability and/or warranty claims?
A: I have seen/heard of a few problems. There were a couple of guys who liked to race/run their cars hard. The motor ended up letting go and Dinan wouldn't pay a dime.

Now, I don't know what the circumstances are or if these guys did something stupid. They may also have been running other non Dinan parts which caused warranty headaches. It simply means there are cases of failures with Dinan that were not covered and left the customer holding the bill.

Let me put it in waranty Boolean logic:

(Dinan < Nordstrom) and (Dinan < Costco)

[grkm3]

how can a dinan tuned car blow up an engine and none of us on here or any board hear about it?Just hink about that for a few min.

The only thing I can come up with is the customers were using down pipes and no cats with race gas,even then he said a few of them blew up there engines,how could we not hear about that in this day with the internet,something as bad as an engine blowing up would spread before the car even got towed to the dealer.

[remydlc]

Thanks for the info and for taking your time.

I'm pretty sure this will help some people to sleep the night before going for service, specially after all this talks going on.

[remydlc]

Originally Posted by grkm3

how can a dinan tuned car blow up an engine and none of us on here or any board hear about it?Just hink about that for a few min.

The only thing I can come up with is the customers were using down pipes and no cats with race gas,even then he said a few of them blew up there engines,how could we not hear about that in this day with the internet,something as bad as an engine blowing up would spread before the car even got towed to the dealer.

Really? are you saying all car enthusiasts are computer literate, and like to come to an online forum to brag about their engine being blown, and now they gotta suck up a huge bill because they were stupid installing and leaving some after market part that was not warranted by Dinan/BMW? Just think about it for a few min...

[HPIA4v2]

Originally Posted by grkm3

how can a dinan tuned car blow up an engine and none of us on here or any board hear about it?Just hink about that for a few min.

The only thing I can come up with is the customers were using down pipes and no cats with race gas,even then he said a few of them blew up there engines,how could we not hear about that in this day with the internet,something as bad as an engine blowing up would spread before the car even got towed to the dealer.

Dinan doesn't make tune only for N54, so it's possible the guy that blew the engine was driving other cars, 540i, 330i (who knows).

[jchristena]

Originally Posted by HPIA4v2

Dinan doesn't make tune only for N54, so it's possible the guy that blew the engine was driving other cars, 540i, 330i (who knows).

That is true...but I got the impression it was for the N54 as that was the context in which we were speaking. Could have been the 535 I suppose. Not sure if Dinan does those yet.

[grkm3]

Originally Posted by remydlc

Really? are you saying all car enthusiasts are computer literate, and like to come to an online forum to brag about their engine being blown, and now they gotta suck up a huge bill because they were stupid installing and leaving some after market part that was not warranted by Dinan/BMW? Just think about it for a few min...

ya lets think about this for another second.Dinan screwed 2 people with blown engines and a bill of 20k+ and they dont want to warn other dinan customers that there warenty was voided online .

This would of been posted on roadfly the second it happened.The board is the most mature and there all older enthusiasts.Its one of the very first BMW borads ever made.

[MisterSkiMask]

Originally Posted by grkm3

how can a dinan tuned car blow up an engine and none of us on here or any board hear about it?Just hink about that for a few min.

The only thing I can come up with is the customers were using down pipes and no cats with race gas,even then he said a few of them blew up there engines,how could we not hear about that in this day with the internet,something as bad as an engine blowing up would spread before the car even got towed to the dealer.

As others have said it didn't have to be a 335i, it could have been a money shift on a track for all we know and it could have been perfectly reasonable to deny warranty work.

[grkm3]

Originally Posted by MisterSkiMask

As others have said it didn't have to be a 335i, it could have been a money shift on a track for all we know and it could have been perfectly reasonable to deny warranty work.

that could be true,but the op started a thread mentioning dinan and piggy backs,I would assume he asked his SA about dinan tuned 335s and he asks if its ok to keep his tune after he tells him dinan blows up a few engines.The whole context of his post is about a tuned 335.

[e.n335]

OP: Quite fair and professional. Thanks .

[munters]

Originally Posted by grkm3

ya lets think about this for another second.Dinan screwed 2 people with blown engines and a bill of 20k+ and they dont want to warn other dinan customers that there warenty was voided online .

This would of been posted on roadfly the second it happened.The board is the most mature and there all older enthusiasts.Its one of the very first BMW borads ever made.

Or not every Dinan tuned car is on this forum...

[ezatnova]

If it was an N54, maybe they were the one asking how a JBX + Dinan would work!

By him saying that Dinan didn't provide warranty $ only supports the assumption that the customer was doing something they shouldn't have, like other mods to the car, or no oil cooler, etc. Just speculation though, of course.

[jchristena]

Originally Posted by grkm3

that could be true,but the op started a thread mentioning dinan and piggy backs,I would assume he asked his SA about dinan tuned 335s and he asks if its ok to keep his tune after he tells him dinan blows up a few engines.The whole context of his post is about a tuned 335.

To be fair, he said a couple/few cars he is aware of with Dinan tunes have blown engines. I don't know what these guys were doing and/or what other mods they had. It is not necessarily true that the Dinan tune was responsible.

[StarrDlux]

no kidding i was thinking someone got SSTT+DINAN for extra mojo going

or wait STEPTRONIC stage 2 rev 2 + SSTT = 13psi!!

[E82tt6]

Perhaps .5% of Dinan users are on the Internet. Since BMW dealers push Dinan, you get a lot of other buyers. Iirc, Dinan users made up less than 10% of the forum in the "what's your tune?" poll, and I believe they sell well over 1,000 flashes a month.

[WAYNEBO]

Thanks for the write-up, this reflects the sentiment I've received from my personal SA too. The bottom line is if you treat your dealer right, they'll look out for you --- at least up to the point that they can without getting in trouble with BMWNA.

[hotrod2448]

I would say this is pretty much the general attitude you'll find at dealerships. Of course you always hear about the exceptions and usually at great length.

[dinkoh]

Originally Posted by HPIA4v2

Let me put it in waranty Boolean logic:

(Dinan < Nordstrom) and (Dinan < Costco)

LOL. two of my favorite places. places need to emulate their cs dept.

[Sniz]

Originally Posted by E82tt6

I believe they sell well over 1,000 flashes a month.

you got a source for that one?? thats a TON of flashes...and a TON of benjamins that Dinan would make off of them....maybe 2.

[Sniz]

Originally Posted by dinkoh

LOL. two of my favorite places. places need to emulate their cs dept.

+1