Headlight washer problem 2010 X5d

While at Tahoe last week in very cold weather, my passenger side headlight washer cover got stuck in the out position.

So I take it to the dealer to repair (car is still under 4 years old so under maintenance agreement).

The dealer manages to lose this headlight washer cover (they say it must've fallen off – even though I drove 250 miles back from Tahoe and the thing didn't budge), remove the other one (which worked), and then tell me it's not covered by warranty because 2 1/2 years ago a new bumper was put on after a minor fender bender. This despite the fact that the headlight washers worked perfectly in the interim, and from what I can read here there is a history of these things malfunctioning in very cold weather.

What's more, the dealer says I have to buy a new headlight washer cover, two new nozzles, pay to have it painted, installed, etc.

Needless to say, I'm considering permanently dropping this dealer and going to another one, but I'm curious if anyone else has experience with these headlight covers malfunctioning in cold-weather and BMW coverage under warranty.

Who did the bumper repair?

Jay

Not on this forum, but a recent Canadian post in the X3 had a similar situation. His washer hose connected to the headlight washer froze and popped out. The reason was there was normal, non-anti-freeze fluid, which froze and expanded.

My best response to you, is try to find a different dealer. Did you take pictures of the bumper, by any chance. Plus the cover usually is attached to the washer, so unless this changed, Im pretty sure he s liable.

Plus as long as the bumper was repaired by a certified BMW collision expert then warranty should apply.


Sorry for the lack of a finite response.

A body shop - BMW certified from what I understand.

They understandably don't want to pay for what the dealer just lost/removed, especially when it all worked before. Seems reasonable to me.

I didn't take pictures unfortunately. Lots of witnesses though.

"warranty should apply" - does that mean BMW warranty - i.e. the BMW dealer should fix this, or collision expert warranty? I hope the former, since it gets a bit messy with the latter since the collision expert didn't lose or break anything.

This is crap. Even if it pops out and gets lost, they should warranty it. That's what happened to my old Audi.

I had one of my washers replaced over the summer because it was leaking. It was about a week after I got it back from getting a complete front bumper, headlight replacement, everything. Pretty in-depth repair job. They didn't say a thing about the accident when the washer got replaced.