E30 Zone

hey people,

had my motorsport serviced ( inspection 1) last week.
cost near £700-
had to have it serviced main dealer to keep up history

got charged £40 ish just to have handbrake adjusted?????
aint that part of service??.

anyway was told prop coupling needed doing and rear topmounts.

went home and checked, okay propcoupling was split. but how do bmw check rear topmounts?? ie without removing boot carpet and side panels??

futhermore while i was underneath noticed rear gearbox seal weeping and slight weep from diff......NOW IM GETTING PISSED OFF!!!!
should bm not have told me this??

okay went back to have only prop done, told them to do rear gearbox seal.
when i picked up the car they said "sorry sir we done the prop but didnt have time to do the seal" WTF R THEY ON????.

isnt the rear seal just a case of popping out old and push in new???
so now i bet they think im gonna pay all that labour to have the prop taken out again.....ha ha .......

thats not it.................oh no!!!! theres more.

i thought a mouse had moved in under my bonnet cause of this new sqeak.

Na the MASTER TECH at bmw forgot to refit one of the airbox nuts......hence the mouse..........aaaaaarrrrggghhhhh!!!!!!!
pour me a drink somone!!!!!!!!!!!....and line one up!!!!!
what 2 do????.

Can you not maintain the history by using an indipendent BMW specialist? They will stamp your service book as well...

Agree that the handbrake adjustment is part of the inspection service.

Not very good service for BMW.

What would be better is to have the service done with BMW, and get all other things done by a local mechanic.

Inspection I Checklist quotes "Adjust Handbrake".

take the car back, tell them that you are not satisfied with the service and that you have paid an arm and a leg for the work to be done, failure for them to do so will result in you taking further action i.e registering a complaint to trading standards and bmw g.b.

The service book has all stamps from main dealer.
so i wanted to keep the' full bmw service history '
but will get other stuff done by local mech.......or in fact do it myself in future.....

You should kick up a polite stink at first as said by e30bmlover, and then threaten trading standards! Everyone cowers when there names are mentioned! At the end of the day you've just paid them £700 to bend you over and due to there incompetence not even use lube..

jotz wrote:hey people,

had my motorsport serviced ( inspection 1) last week.
cost near £700-
had to have it serviced main dealer to keep up history

That was very silly. You've added about 50p to the cars value and had a glorified fitter do an oil change and leave some nuts loose. That'll teach you.

main dealer service stuff tends to be done by the young apprentice . aint no better than a kwik fit fitter . and that includes other marques as well as bmw. marvel in the thought that youve probably just spent about £70 an hour for a £4.50 monkey to do the job.

and can i add if you ever want any joinery work done around your home id be delighted to give you a quote

mattyb240 wrote: At the end of the day you've just paid them £700 to bend you over and due to there incompetence not even use lube..

Quote of the week!!!!!!!!!!!!


Typical shoddy service from a main dealer though,bloody crooks,the lot of them

to be honest...a chippy probably would ave done a better job!
gona see what they have to say about it.
will let you know..

ps.anyone know what changing rear gearbox seal involves?
and how do you check rear top mounts without taking out boot side panels?
cheers......
robbed.....THATS MR TO YOU !!

No 'mechanic' ever gets near any of my cars - I've seen the results to often on stuff I buy! Don't even like letting them out of my sight at MOT time.
Gearbox rear seal involves releasing the prop shaft centre bearing, unscrewing the guibo bolts at the back of the gearbox and dropping the front of the prop out of the way, then unscrewing the centre nut, pulling off the drive flange, and prising out the seal. Sure it's not the selector shaft seal?
Badly worn top mounts can be diagnosed by sideways movement of the top of the damper rods under the wheel arch.

My local stealer charges £150 per hour PLUS VAT !!! So your £700 would buy an inspection one , prop doughnut and little else. Sh4gged top mounts can be easily diagnosed by lifting the rear wheels off the ground, if the innards of the top mounts are on display , they need replacing. Handbrake adjustment if done correctly involves checking and adjusting the rear shoes manually , £40 sounds reasonable to me.
As a mechanic i see both sides of the story, yes there are lots of robbing bodgers out there , but also joe public is often unrealistic in thinking because they have spent £700 on their corpse on a stretcher it should now be as new and have no issues for the next 3 years. Welcome to the real world, in 2007 £700 does not buy a lot, especially at a BMW dealer !

Both sides of the coin chaps - If you have a mehanical job, use the zone for help and do it yourself. It'll save you a fortune!
IF you want to keep up BMW Service History, Use an independant, as they are most often cheaper and provide a better service and better results. Oh, and if you are worried about a sevice costing a small fortune, look at the price of your car and evaluate wether its worth it. Ive spent 10k on my tech 1 sport with probably 5more to go. I do all the work myself(or enlist my dad to help) but for servicing, It'll be myself who does the oil changes, and my 'local' independant (Trainers & Sons BMW in Swansea) that will get the call to do inspections 1 and 2. They are reasonably priced and its a good excuse to go shopping in swansea for some clothes and look for some rat!

I use a local mechanic, so local infact, hes sitting at the pc opposite me!

He works part time with me and he has his own garage that he goes to when he leaves here. I use him as I know hes reliable, does a good job and doesnt charge much. I have no doubt that he does a better job than main dealers.
He must be pretty good as he never advertises and never goes looking for work, all his work is just through word of mouth and he is never short of work.

Hes based in Loughton/Harlow, Essex and does anything from changing your wiper blades to a full engine rebuild and bodywork.
He used to be part of a top fuel dragster team and had to rebuild several engines per weekend (each engine gets rebuilt after just one run) and is currently making fibre glass panels for his hot rod.

Ive had too many bad experiences with garages in the past and would no way trust a main dealer, so its good to find a decent mechanic.

jotz wrote:had my motorsport serviced ( inspection 1) last week.
cost near £700-
had to have it serviced main dealer to keep up history

*ecking hell! 700 smackers...you could almost buy another descent E30 for that! I understand you had to do it for your history, but man, that's a lot of money!

i still use a dealer to service my car, i have moved around a bit, due to bad service. but my current one does a nice job and doesn't stick their noses up at my car. BUT i don't let them do major work, i just let them do the normal changes oil, filters, check brakes etc. If there is anything they call me and give me a price, i then check with my other mechanic how much he can do it for and then make a decision.

My car see's a garage once a year.... MOT and thats it. Last time I took my 306 (old daily) for a headskim and gasket, they somehow ripped the gearnob, put all the trim in wonkey and unaligned the steering wheel!

We have a BMW and a VW dealer along the road where I work (its a dead end industrial estate type road) and the way customers cars are ragged is appaling. You often hear them doing burnouts and bouncing it off the rev limiter.
My brother worked for VW for just over a week and in that time he saw 15 customer cars crashed, mainly due to mechanics taking them out in the rain and when they return to the work shop with a slippery tiled floor, they couldnt stop and just hit other cars, this was common practice and they would just make an excuse to the customer as to why they cant have their car returned to give them time to repair it.

BMW dealer service; all four wheels are not removed to check pads (one per side) and sometimes not at all - just a 'visual inspection'. Oil is sucked out of the dipstick tube and not properly drained to get rid of the crap in the bottom of the sump.

An oil service takes about 15-20 minutes......

To make you all laugh

I work at a BMW Dealer as you all know and get my car serviced by a local Specialist.

Due to being arse raped for £1600 to swap engine, replace front to rear brake lines and fuel pipes and a few other small bits car was off the road for 12 weeks.

The engine only lasted 1 week and hydrauliced itself.

Got another engine under warranty fitted by local specialist for £300 car was off road for 3 days.

Which dealer in London is it?

I wouldn't take an e30 to a dealer anyway as none of the mechanics would have worked on one recently.

Take photo's and cause a storm in the SHOWROOM on saturday afternoon - they will soon sort it!

Jotz,

Ring 01344 426565 speak to customer services

That'll sort them out

Jotz,

Bro those guys are total ****ers... i just met shak for the first time and he told me what happend to your motor...

I went there earlier this week to order a few bits, and when i got home i realised it didnt add up!

The MUPPET in the parts section charged me VAT ****ing twice!!! Unbelivable!!

And never told me bout a Surcharge Bull****

The retard shouldnt be round a computer!!!

One of the sales guys goes to my gym, i mite just nudge him while hes bench pressing

Anyway hope you reach ace cafe and itll b good to link up!!

Shak said he dont mind taking me up there as my motors off road!!!

you lot do come out with some sh!t there are plenty of good bmw mechanics working in the main dealer network still, and alot who are still into their oldskool bm's and work with pride. All this tarnishing is just one side of the coin.

I can think of plenty of good storys from the main dealer but no one talks about them because it's easier to moan.
Plenty of the techy's will do privates. My local dealer has a master tech there who only works on M-power stuff and i know of several E30,E28,E34,E24 M power wagons that get their loving there. But he must be a kwik fitter £4.50 an hour fool eh

Anyway the technicians are tied up by their balls as they only get a set time to do jobs, so don't have the time to take the wheels off and inspect brake pads. It's not because they don't want to. Like anything in life there are good and bad guys

Agreed Si, My local dealers are great. The mechanics know their way around old turds.

Helps that a mate of mine works there, Any jobs he can't do on his drive then go through the workshops.



One bad dealer does not mean they are all shite.

Indeed.. And we were talking about the BAD guys!!

Fair play simon, didnt mean to offend!!! I apologise!!

The guys still a muppet Though!!!!

I know many a main dealer techie and mechanics, including my father who is a bmw specialist mechanic for an independent, they all do very good work, it is just the usual a few spoiling it for the majority, as you say Simon it is just one side of the coin. My dad was brought up believing "do a job once, do it properly" he has several customers who ask him specifically to do there cars and no one else's.

I have two unwritten rules on what comes in my gate, no french turds, no zone turds . The first doesn't need justifying, for the second read this thread !

pacerpete wrote:I have two unwritten rules on what comes in my gate, no french turds, no zone turds . The first doesn't need justifying, for the second read this thread !

Correction Peter - "For the second, read ALMOST any thread!"
How the Devil art thou anyway? Pm me whats new in the world of Frag and Chrome B6's!

Simon13 wrote:you lot do come out with some sh!t there are plenty of good bmw mechanics working in the main dealer network still, and alot who are still into their oldskool bm's and work with pride. All this tarnishing is just one side of the coin.

I can think of plenty of good storys from the main dealer but no one talks about them because it's easier to moan.
Plenty of the techy's will do privates. My local dealer has a master tech there who only works on M-power stuff and i know of several E30,E28,E34,E24 M power wagons that get their loving there. But he must be a kwik fitter £4.50 an hour fool eh

Anyway the technicians are tied up by their balls as they only get a set time to do jobs, so don't have the time to take the wheels off and inspect brake pads. It's not because they don't want to. Like anything in life there are good and bad guys

well thats 1 positive to about a dozen negatives so far.your local dealer has a master tech? well that 1 guy out of how many?my local dealer is full of boys who would have been in nappies when the e30 was the current model. what your saying is that its not the mechanics fault the service is sh1t because they are they are just following ze orders to do the job in a certain time.
so whether its a 4.50 kwik fit fitter or a master tech time restrictions means your getting a sh1t/expensive job either way.

So to the point, where are all the good mechanics, im from croydon, so far havent really given my car to anyone to do any work that needs doing cos dont really trust the garages local to me, so if anyone around croydon knows of someone that are reliable, not to expensive, and knows what they are talking about, let me know.......

All the garages around here you have to book the car in, leave it there, and plus they dont know how long the job will take to do, untill they start the job, plus they charge $bucks$ to do litttle jobs and if they charge that much for little jobs how much they going to charge for bigger jobs...

If you want a man who knows what he's talking about, get it down to A-Tech (Find "Ant"s member info and there will be a phone number in his signature.) Havnt had any work done by him myself, but ive seen his work and he's ex BMW/Merc/German specialist/Dealers, so he really does know his stuff! PLUS, he's a perfectionist!