fuel injection service at 12k and warranty question

[lipwak]

HI,

I recently brought in my MINI hardtop for a coolant temperature sensor recall. While there, the service department thought I should get the fuel injectors serviced, rotate the tires and fix the alignment. i agreed to all that but wondered why the fuel injectors needed service. Maybe it is because I don't drive my car very often, at least once a week but not every day. It had 12786 miles on it at the time. (I use premium, major name-brand gas, never any second rate brands.)

I had brought it in for its annual checkup this May, a year after I bought it, at 9084 miles. None of this was brought to light then.

I am wondering about the warranty. All the promotional material you get see before you buy the car hypes "boot to bonnet no cost maintenance" (pg 47 of the main brochure.) Above that it mentions the "4 year/50,000 new passenger car limited warranty"... Neither are explained in more detail in that booklet. In a little brochure my dealer hands out about the maintenance plan upgrade it says, "there is no cost for maintenance" for the first 3 years.

The website has similar statements. When you try to find out the details, you encounter a page (under priovacy and legal, Warranty and maintenance (MINIUSA.com ) that does not allow you to save it, print it or copy and paste from it.

Some things have been covered: the oil has been changed and the windshield wipers replaced at no charge.

Where does it say in warranty that fuel injection service is not covered?

I've looked in the "Service and Warranty Information" booklet that comes with the car. (That doesn't seem to be something you can look at until you buy the car although my salesman did Xerox a few pages from it on my request before I bought the car. He Xeroxed pages 1, 32/33, 34/35 and 36/37 from the 2009 booklet. As far as I can tell the ext matches pretty closely. I don't see in there that fuel injection service or its related text is excluded.)

Can someone show me where this service is excluded? I see that wheel alignment, balancing and wiper blades are covered for only 2000 miles. (My dealer kindly replaced the wiper blades at no cost at the annual checkup of 9084 miles.)

The second paragraph of page 33 (of the 2011 booklet) under What is Not Covered mentions that 'maintenance parts such as spark plugs, filters and similar items used in required maintenance services... beyond the first required maintenance/inspection...' are not covered. Is that the loophole?

So, in addition to trying to figure out what is covered and what is not, can anyone tell me why this needed to be done at such low mileage? Was it that I don't drive the car often enough?

Thank you.

Cheers,

John L

[Macguyvic]

Maybe it's something you said. Did you tell them it was hesitating, sluggish or anything similar? You can purchase fuel injector cleaner or fuel system cleaner yourself and pour it in the tank.

My thoughts...if something was broken then a warranty will cover it in most cases. Cleaning is different. Nothing warn out or broken. NO part failure. The manufacturer can recommend the type of fuel but cannot control what you fill up with.

[lipwak]

Thanks. I didn't say anything to them about any problems with the car. There weren't any. And I was using good fuel, all major name-brands.

[The Nun]

You said they only thought about doing the injectors, probably to see your reaction to your thought about giving them some money, if its that low mileage and was performing ok, cant see really why you should bother?
I reckon they look for something to do half the time as they know they arent making much otherwise.

[Macguyvic]

Remember it's your car. You decide what it needs. It's ok to say no or I am going to hold off on those recommendations for now. The service guy is there to make money for the dealer first and customer service 2nd. They are always going to suggest a little additional work. "If it ain't broke don't fix it!"

[lipwak]

Good points. So much for my trusting that they would actually do the right thing. They've lost my trust. I want to do what's right and wasn't expecting that I'd have to pay for it given how they present of the warranty.

Still, is the loophole the "beyond the first required maintenance/inspection" part? That seems to relate to parts, not service too. I don't think any parts were replaced.