Arrghh ! BMW Dealers !

M

martinb1966

Member
Well i had a strange noise/vibration ,so took the car to BMW Specialist Cars Stevenage after 9 hrs they tell me the engine bolt is missing ! Bearing in mind an oil service was done 3 weeks ago at a princely sum of £260 and was informed the car was awesome looks brand new , it has 66k on the clock so was quite pleased as i like to think i take care of my motor , i pointed out to the rep , it has a FBMWSH all done in this dealership , to which he replied well you might have taken it somewhere else for ? my reply yes thats right i took it to a back street garage had them remove the mounting bolt drove it here so i could complain and give you £400 on my next visit ! Needless to say i wont be using a dealer ever again , just wondering is it worth talking to BMW Cusomer services as i cant see a major component ie an engine mounting failing after 66k is hardly worth the repute of the ultimate driving machine ! sorry for going on just a bit peed off and upset
 
I bought my Z4MR from them (approved used car) with FSH.
The following day when I checked the oil it was overfilled by 1l.
I contacted them and was told this could not be possible because the light on the dashboard wasn't on
I had to politely remind them that the m does not have an overfilled light!
 
Using a main dealer is no guarantee of quality or care! I travel a 200 miles round trip to Bateman's BMW as they really seem to be on the ball with 'M' servicing. They are also very competitive for price.

Now these cars are older I may use a good indie in future. Again I'll probably travel to find the right one.
 
sammyz said:
Using a main dealer is no guarantee of quality or care! I travel a 200 miles round trip to Bateman's BMW as they really seem to be on the ball with 'M' servicing. They are also very competitive for price.

Now these cars are older I may use a good indie in future. Again I'll probably travel to find the right one.
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100% right ! Using Autotechnics in Lutterworth leics , specialist bmw/mini , and competitive , I like their attitude !
 
Can anyone that has had this problem please post on this as I would like ammunition when talking to them as they seem to think I have taken my car to a back street garage to have the bolt removed ! Many thanks
 
Not this specific problem I'm afraid. It's quite common though, so I'm told, that the dealers have quite high staff turnover and that can only hurt customer service. I now only use specialists and overall the cost savings (and peace of mind) outweigh the loss of value later on.

I used Sytner Solihull on my old E90 and they didn't put the sump plug back in properly. You can guess what happened next...

I wouldn't say they were unhelpful as a result, but I wasn't offered my money back for the service. I convinced them to accept the car (In need of a new engine) and do me a reasonable deal on a 1 series instead. Suffice to say I still left with a bad taste in my mouth and have never used them since.

I guess I'd echo what others have said. Using dealer services does not guarantee a good service, and ultimately their business contains human error just like any other. BMW CS will always be your friend, should things get a little...messy.
 
Unfortunately it's all about proof. As far as the BMW garage are concerned you could have taken it to another garage in the 3 weeks since the service.

how soon after the service did you notice the vibration?
 
My point DPG is that no engine mount bolt should just fall out , i seem to remember reading about it on here guess I will try different options on the search option , but in answer to your question I noticed it 3 weeks after the service .
 
DPG - thats ridiculous! Could one murder anothers wife and when the body is not found for 3 weeks declare that they are not guilty as they 'didn't notice' for 3 weeks... :fuelfire:

This is shoddy service!
 
martinb1966 said:
My point DPG is that no engine mount bolt should just fall out , i seem to remember reading about it on here guess I will try different options on the search option , but in answer to your question I noticed it 3 weeks after the service .
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was the bolt something they would have needed to remove for the service. if it wasnt then why has it fallen out?
 
WTF has this got to do with murder

As Dom has said, is this something that was removed / loosened as part of the oil service?
 
Stuart Truman said:
It went in to investigate a noise/vibration so they could have looked at anything
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That was taken to the Indy though Stuart, not the Main Dealer who is at fault.
 
DPG said:
Stuart Truman said:
It went in to investigate a noise/vibration so they could have looked at anything
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That was taken to the Indy though Stuart, not the Main Dealer who is at fault.
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I was all done at the main dealer, the car has never been to an Indi according to the OP's post.
 
There is no reason I know of to remove an engine mounting bolt for an oil service , my point is no matter who had done the servicing an engine mounting bolt should never just fall out ! back in the day I had some real high mileage cars and the engine bolts have never fallen out just found a thread on here mentioning a bmw service bulletin mentioning the bolt loosening so they replaced it with a higher tensile bolt
 
Why do people ttitle a thread 'Arrgh BMW Dealers' which implres all dealers when it was in fact one they are complaining about.

I saw some crap driving by a person in a Zed but I dont tar all Zed drivers with the same brush based on this experience...... :poke:

PS And I've moved this to 'Dealer Feedback'
 
martinb1966 said:
There is no reason I know of to remove an engine mounting bolt for an oil service , my point is no matter who had done the servicing an engine mounting bolt should never just fall out ! back in the day I had some real high mileage cars and the engine bolts have never fallen out just found a thread on here mentioning a bmw service bulletin mentioning the bolt loosening so they replaced it with a higher tensile bolt
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I agree it shouldn't happen, but looking on the web it seems to be a common issue with BMW's.

Still not sure how it can be the dealers fault who did the oil service 3 weeks earlier.
 
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