My wife's BMW 320i SE Touring was bought new in 2006 from Cooper Wimbledon. She does about 5,000 miles a year and to date it has done 49,000miles. It has been regularly serviced by BMW. Earlier this year it started using some oil - about 1 litre/1,000 miles, apparently due to either piston rings or valve stems being gunged up. I regularly check to ensure oil level is between Min and Max. In August the engine made a terrible clatter and seized. A local garage suggested it should be taken to a BMW-trained specialist in Fulham who found that the plastic timing chain guides had broken, requiring new front crank seal, timing chain and guides,vanos units and actuators, vacuum pump and VVT motor. His bill, including £1,360 for labour and VAT is £3,655.61, which I have paid. The car still smokes and uses oil, which is due to the problem mentioned above. My letter to BMW Customer Service asking for recompense has met with "we are unable to help since the repair was not completed by a BMW Centre".
That is not my point - after 49,000 careful miles this failure should not have happened - it is a BMW design fault, using plastic guides which broke into small pieces and ended up in the sump!The repairing specialist says this is a common fault with the E91 engine.
Can you tell me whether I have any hope of recompense, please?