Have I been ripped off? BMW transfer box

Maarten1

Hi, Ihave had a judder when accelerating in my BMW 320d x drive. It still has warranty so I gave it to BMW who tried many things including the egr valve. They then found my rear wheels and tyres to be out by 2mm. They asked for £1500 for this to be replaced but the problem hadn't completely gone. They then found that the transfer box was damaged and replaced this. I questioned if I still needed the new wheels and tyres but was told that the wheels being out caused the transfer box problem. My question is, can this happen? If not I will ask for a refund. Thanks

Ant555

Maarten1 wrote: »

...found my rear wheels and tyres to be out by 2mm. They asked for £1500 for this to be replaced but the problem hadn't completely gone.

Just checking is that £1500 for two wheels and two tyres and it didn't fix the problem?

Maarten1

Yes, it's a bit of a long story but it ended up as two replacement wheels and tyres which I am not sure I needed as the last fault was found to be the transfer box.

NeverEnough

If you check out BMW specialist forums you will see that there is fairly frequent transfer box failure in various models of newer X5s and other models - with X5s its E70s and newer, and presumably some xdrive other models share some similar transfer box types -

the reason for the failure is the very narrow tolerance of tyre depth and choice of wheels - using anything other than star rated tyres and non-OEM wheels puts the transfer box at risk as well as unequal tyre wear across the axles. With Xdrive and 4x4 models they recommend changing all 4 tyres at once, not one or two at a time.

I have an E70 40d MSport -full BMW history, bought as an AUC with full warranty. Transfer box failed within 3 months of purchase, even though the tyres were new, star rated, and on OEM wheels. Luckily replaced under warranty, but BMW dealer insisted on swopping all wheels out for those on another E70 they had in stock to see if the fault persisted -that is part of their "algorithm". Luckily mine were not anywhere near replacement yet.

What was wrong with your wheels and tyres other than the 2mm difference in tread depth? Were they BMW OEM wheels or aftermarket ones you had fitted after purchase? What tyres were fitted? Were they star rated? If the wheels were nonOEM or the tyres non star rated, I don't think you sand a chance of getting any kind of refund. In fact, the dealer is likely to say you knackered the transfer box with the wrong tyres /unequal tread wear etc, so in order to maintain your replacement transfer box, you needed the new tyres. Not sure why new wheels though, unless they had been damaged or were not OEM.

Maarten1

Thanks for your reply. The car is exactly as bought from BMW. The wheels were buckled by 2mm which made the tyres wear unevenly. It appears from your post that BMW may have done the right thing. What I didn't want to do was pay for the wheels and tyres if they weren't connected to the main problem.

AndyMc.....

Maarten1 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. The car is exactly as bought from BMW. The wheels were buckled by 2mm which made the tyres wear unevenly. It appears from your post that BMW may have done the right thing. What I didn't want to do was pay for the wheels and tyres if they weren't connected to the main problem.

They may not be connected but you were told they needed replacing and you agreed to it.

NeverEnough

When my X5 stared with the judder on turning sharply at low speed (typical transfer box failure) the dealer actually put a different set of wheels on the car to rule out a problem with wheels/tyres, but in my case the judder persisted so they went on to replace the box and all is well now. The tech eventually actually demonstrated it was the box quite conclusively by disconnecting it from the drive -judder disappeared completely. But they have to do the BMW tick ox exercise for all these warranty claims.

I expect when they identified the tread difference as well as buckled wheels, this had to be rectified anyway, as it is known to damage the transfer box. And probably not a warranty covered item.
Then the box was replaced, I take it, under warranty - its a big ticket item, around £3k, I think they said, for my X5. So at least you didn't have to spend that.......

Just be very careful with an xdrive car to keep the wheels OEM, the tyres star rated and tread depths all round pretty equal.........these transfer boxes should really be more robust, but are not.