Another Disappointing BMW Dealer

would love to know. would it be Scotthalls perchance?????

You might as well do. It won't make any difference. They're all wankers.

Do you think they really changed the fluid?

and

Never get BMW to "have a quick look" at anything.

I have a similar problem but because the dealer lost the locking wheel nut key... ...not that I have a spare anyway.

A things about your diatribe above:

You say you could not remove the bolts because they were too tight by

30%? I'm not sure that I would have even have noticed the difference. I always use a (long) breaker bar to remove lug bolts.

How closely do you think your torque wrench is calibrated? 30% error (or that much difference between yours and theirs, which is also quite possibly uncalibrated) would not be unreasonable.

It is also quite likely that they used a torque stick on an air wrench of some kind. Many do.

Over torquing by 30% is not as serious a problem as under torquing by that amount or uneven torquing. I would not have been so upset by this as long as all the bolts seemed tightened evenly.

I'm pretty sure, (but don't know the exact reason why) that the torque required to remove a fastener will be higher than the torque to tighten it by some amount. Perhaps it's overcoming the initial friction?

Yes, you did authorize the work to investigate the cause of the shimmy. You said take a "quick look", which is what they did and charged you for the labor to do that. Did you suppose that they should diagnose your car for free?

I'm not sure that you got "screwed" by this dealer. It sounds like you are looking for something to whine about. Maybe you should have just looked at the brakes yourself to begin with?

-Fred W

Starting friction is higher then moving friction. This is why you should always torque on a stroke, and not by pushing at a stationary nut. (poorly worded but you get what I mean? I'll expand if not)

So yes, the torque required to release a nut is higher than the torque rating that was used to apply it. The difference is literally the difference between starting and sliding friction for that apparatus.

Try it yourself, torque a bolt to 100Nm and then see what it takes you to untorque it. I don't know the difference in your case -- it may indeed be that they overtightened them. On my car, the manual specified 80lb/ft, but if i do that, they will come loose, so I torque them to 105lb/ft. Slightly over torque is not that big a deal. Slightly under could cause the wheel to part company with the car.

I'm in agreement. What they did was perfectly logical given the request. Many small shops will in fact diagnose for free, but they aren't obligated to, and the free diagnosis is usually predicated on the idea of getting the follow up work revenue. When you ask for strictly a diagnosis, you should expect to pay for the diagnostic time. They may be overcharging you for the brakes, but... it's a dealer, what did you expect?

-Russ.

To re-iterate, the nuts wouldn't come off with a short bar. My breaker bar is shorter than my torque wrench, about half length. It needed one hell of a tug to get them to come off. I only carry the cars own tool kit with me when I'm on the move so it would have been difficult or impossible for me if I had to put the spare on (and even more so for a bird!). When I've previously fitted the wheels myself using my wrench to 100Nm they always come off nicely afterwards and they've never worked loose either.

MC

I always expect a free quotation.

MC

A free quotation on the cost of diagnosis would be appropriate.

-Russ.

The fact that it took a lot of effort isn't really that relevant, the question is how much ove torqued were they. You've shown a most they were

30% over, which I don't think is negligent or dangerous in any way. Inconvenient, yes. Harder than you've had before, yes. Hard to do with inadequate tools, yes. That's a shame, but not exactly actionable.

I keep a rather large Johnson bar in the trunk of my car; I've found the factory tool to be just this side of useless. But I bought an auto club membership for my wife -- no "bird" will need to be changing wheels on our cars.

-Russ.

You can expect all you want. The reality is no automotive technician worth his salt is going to give away free labor. If you go somewhere that claims to give free quotations, they are just padding the labor charges of the jobs that they do get to compensate.

You know... no free lunch, and all that.

-Fred W

I've never come across a wheel nut that can't be loosened by jumping on the supplied wheel brace - assuming it doesn't break. ;-)

Of course I don't wear high heel shoes. Well, not in public.

Anything I'd call a breaker bar with a 1/2" drive will be longer than any common torque wrench. Like about a metre.

Maybe the learning point here is that when you ask a dealer to have a quick look, you should also stipulate that you only authorise them to undertake work to the value of £x, and that you will not pay for anything in excess of this.

If the cost to inspect is larger than £x, then the dealer either has to make you aware of this prior to commencing work, or has no right to charge you in excess of £x for the work.

Ha! maybe that's the case where you are Fred, but it's an outdated approach that the $tealers will catch up to eventually. I ALWAYS give free quotations for my work, I DO NOT "pad out" other labour charges to compensate and I find that this approach has earned me a reputation for absolute honesty and trustworthiness that you just couldn't buy. As a result, I get more custom, a lot of this being both repeat custom from happy customers and also their friends and relatives through their recommendations. Badger.

Lets be clear here: Are you giving free quotations or free diagnostics?

Specifically to the OP's issue.. if you had to disassemble something to figure out what the problem was, and then the customer did not want to get it fixed, is that labor free?

-Russ.

Free quotations was what I was responding to, hence my statement of "always giving free quotations for my work". FWIW, as far as diagnostics goes (talking purely in terms of computer diagnostics here), if someone asks me to diagnose a fault, I charge for my time only if I can give them a solution, for example - your abs light is on because the lh rear sensor has failed. If I cannot offer a solution, for example the computer cannot identify a fault, then I do not charge for that. Lets face it, it's only taking me 10min to hook up and run the test anyway, and at the end of the day every 3rd or 4th test on average will lead to me getting the job to do - I consider the time spent diagnosing to be an investment, not a loss of earning time. Just the way I work, I suppose.

In the case of the OP, he instructed the dealer to investigate so if investigating entails dismantling of components, (not quite the same thing as diagnosis in the computer sense), then he is liable for the labour charges. if someone says to me "can you take a look at my brakes and tell me what the grating noise is", then it only takes a couple of minutes to look at the pads and tell them they need brake pads. If they say "can you find the clunking noise as I go round corners", then that is obviously going to take a lot longer and would be billed accordingly. The chances are that if they are asking in the first place, then they aren't likely to tackle the fix themselves and I will be doing the job anyway. Badger.

All costs should be discussed up front before any work is done on the car. And any ambiguity should be discussed eg, they should say: 'it may take an hours labour maximum' but it should always be clear to the customer, who is normally only a phone call away.

The dealers are wrong when they add on significant charges for work where some kind of agreement on price hasn't been made. When they quote for routine services they stick by the price.

I hate the fact that when I go to a main dealer for work I have to discuss my problems with a girl who has obviously never had her hands under the bonnet and hasn't got a clue. With my brake problem a simple chat with a technical person may have highlighted the problem without everything being stripped out. It must happen a lot: My dad once took his BMW for a service and they installed new brakes without asking him. With a lot of complaining he made them put the car back to how it was before, without charge!

Now my frustration has passed and I've had all your feedback I've decided not to bother with the complaint about the wheel nuts being too tight. More hassle than it's worth.

I just won't be using that particular dealer again so they'll be losing my business. They won't care though because there are plenty of other BMW owners to rip off!!

MC

is there actually any chance of you following through and naming the dealer????

Well said Badger. What you said is right.

The main dealers have all the BMW special tools and electronic diagnosis gear but I feel that the training and experience of the mechanics is well below par. For example: I had to take my car in on three occasions some time ago before they diagnosed the faulty air mass sensor which was giving me obvious drivability problems.

Sometimes the common sense that experienced mechanics have is lacking at the main dealers.

They charge such a high price for labour but I expect more for my money and I will always expect a free initial diagnosis/inspection/quotation as I may be shopping around for the best deal as I do with most things.

MC