Dealer fitted Brabus chip - some important warranty requirements.

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A word of warning for anyone who has had a Brabus chip fitted by a main dealer.

My car developed a flat spot recently which was diagnosed as a faulty Brabus chip (D6 III).

My dealer wanted to change it under the car's 3 year manufacturers warranty because, as a dealer fit part, it was covered.

I had to confirm that it was dealer fitted because there was nothing recorded on the MB Central database, though it wasn't clear why.

Before I bought the car in January I'd done a bit of digging (as you do) on service history etc. and wrote notes at the time.
Referring to these notes I determined which dealer supplied the car to the first owner and I contacted that dealer to confirm that they had fitted the chip at PDI.

They did confirm this and produced an internal invoice where Service charged Sales for the fitment.

However, MB Warranty wouldn't accept this.

It appeared that they would only sanction a replacement box upon receipt of an installation certificate that original dealer should have filled in at fitment time. It's a four part document with copies to the owner, Warranty, dealer and Brabus.

To cut a very long story short it has taken me two days of continual liaising between three dealerships to eventually get a replacement installation certificate acceptable for Warranty to sanction the new box.

They weren't interested in the supplying dealer's internal invoice and the service manager of the dealership confirming beyond reasonable doubt that they had originally fitted the chip.

It's to do with the certificate confirming the chip was fitted by a Brabus trained technician.

At one point there was total impasse, with me caught in the middle and my car in the dealer going nowhere fast (no pun intended).

So, if you've had a chip fitted by a main dealer or now own a car with a dealer fitted chip, get that certificate, or if it fails Warranty don't want to know (even though in my case I'd got the supplying dealer's internal invoice and my local dealer's service management on my side).

Whilst I'm told it's rare (??), the supplying dealer didn't issue the certificate and didn't record the fitment on the MB central database.
This left me, the customer, trawling round the dealer network trying to prove it was dealer fitted, and the whole saga has wasted two days of my time.

If you want to PM about this for more info, please feel free.
 
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Glad you got eventually sorted. I suppose there's fitting and there's Brabus fitting. Also the 3 year unlimited warranty is reduced to 60,000 miles. Also the chip shouldn't be fitted to cars with more than 18,000 miles. So one can assume Mercedes are expecting the chip to reduce the longevity of the engine.
 
Glad you got eventually sorted. I suppose there's fitting and there's Brabus fitting. Also the 3 year unlimited warranty is reduced to 60,000 miles. Also the chip shouldn't be fitted to cars with more than 18,000 miles. So one can assume Mercedes are expecting the chip to reduce the longevity of the engine.

Thanks G,

What's wrong here is that I had to orchestrate it- the dealers talked a lot but didn't get anywhere.

At one point I'd got dealer 1 on the landline and dealer 2 on the mobile with me mediating in the middle - it's not right.
 
John,

Thanks for this useful post. I also was not supplied such a certificate and so will be phoning my dealer tomorrow.
 
Great post John. I will never be fortunate enought to have a Brabus Box fitted to anything but its a good lesson in making sure all paper work is available for everything in this world we live in.

Glad you are sorted. As you say - not right - but sorted.
 
Here's a view to support my experience, from a member on the other side, who has been at the coal face - my thanks to him if he's on here also :thumb:.



Yeah we had it drummed into us when we fitted the chips that the paperwork is the most important part as it affects the warranty.
To be honest it takes a couple of minutes to fill out the paperwork so shouldnt be a problem.
I have been down this route and warranty are very stubborn when it comes to warranty on this item, for some reason with out the paperwork being filled out they wont accept it.
We had one that was fitted by another dealer and they forgot to fill out the paperwork and it was a two week battle to get the part under warranty even though the fitting dealer sent paper work over to prove this.
in the end my boss just said fit a new one and he will fight it out afterwards with them.

I totally agree with you sometimes it gets over looked but try telling a customer he has no warranty on his chip and a new one is over £1k because someone forgot to fill out the paper work it doesnt go down well.
But on the other hand mercedes/brabus warranty shouldnt be so rigid when all the paperwork can be proven it was fitted within the correct time frame and mileage etc
 
Thanks for this John, I'll also be ringing my dealer tomorrow to get my certificate!
 
I did get a certificate when mine was done, I presumed it was more to do with my acknowledging the reduction in warranty to 60000 miles.
 
This is interesting - the insider I've dealt with today stated that 99% of the time it (the paperwork) got done, and that errors were rare.

So far we have 3 out of 4 **ck up's.
 
got my white installation cert and the box (which the dealer nearly threw away!).
 
To be honest, no worse than Brabus themselves...I've given up trying to get proper instructions for my D6(II) box out of them to confirm my installation was right.
 
I've still got the "Brabus" badge, might stick it on ebay, not sure what they go for at the minute though!
 
Update time - new box & loom fitted, the car is now back on the drive.

I have my installation certificate safely tucked away.
 
I'm thinking of getting a chip put on my mercedes c320 CDI advantagrade its 2006 year as 103 k miles on clock I've changed engine oil regular 5k miles an used Castrol edge oil. Bought the car with 87 k miles.
I'm used to its power now hence thinking of getting a chip as bit more excitement. Will it cause problems an do any damage to the engine or other electrical parts ???
 
Either get a decent tuning box (not generic) or get it remapped. There are a few specialists on here
 
bob6600 said:
Either get a decent tuning box (not generic) or get it remapped. There are a few specialists on here
Is there any links Bob I can press on an have look in to cheers

Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK
 

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