I was not sure which thread to post this to, because although it is mainly a garage recommendation, it might be of interest to others thinking of changing engine mounts or rod bearings, so hopefully, I have chosen wisely!
After recently going over a pothole (not too bad) I noticed a knock coming from the front left of the car every time I drove over a bump. Unfortunately, when I took the car to my local garage, they told me that the bolts on one engine mounting had sheared and that the engine was in danger of collapsing onto the steering column!! Worse than that the bolts had snapped off in the engine and due to the position and difficulty of access they wanted to remove the engine to get the bolts drilled out! The price for this was £1,380 (they told me all this on Friday the 13th!).
Now, this isn't a back street garage that I took the car to, they market themselves as BMW & Mercedes specialists, and I have always been happy with their work, (although pricey). But if the engine was going to be removed, it made sense to do the rod bearings at the same time, (something I had been planning to do next year anyway), and I didn't feel happy asking them to do the job, I wanted this to be done by a recommended specialist.
After reading good things, I had been planning to take the car to Darren Woods in Stockport next year for the rod bearings to be changed. This garage isn't local to me, about 45 miles away, but after having experience with local indie's and BMW main dealers, I always felt getting him to do the work would be worth the effort. I have never had any dealings with Darren Woods, but I gave them a call on Saturday morning to discuss the problem I was having and ask them what they thought. I spoke to Mike and he was very helpful and knowledgable about the car. Straight away he said that the engine wouldn't need to be removed and that they would be able to get to the bolts by dropping the subframe, he also agreed that doing the bearings at the same time made complete sense.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had the car trailered to them (it wasn't safe to drive), and it was booked in to be repaired on April the 7th (their first available space). Lucky for me, though, they had a cancellation and managed to get it done within a couple of days. I had them swap the engine mounts back to OEM, do the bearings and the whole job, (including a wash and a vac), came to £965.
So the point to this post...
Firstly, I highly recommend Darren Woods, every good thing I have read turned out to be true. I dealt with Darren and Mike, and both really know their stuff, they are friendly, professional and very reasonably priced. The engine bolt just needed a small pilot hole and then turned straight out, no re-threading or engine removal required, but they could have charged me for more time, and I would never have known. They understood my pride in the car and reassured me that it would be locked away every night and looked after whilst in their care, and I'm confident it was.
Secondly, since changing the engine mounts, the improvement in the car has been dramatic. I know a lot of people swear by aftermarket mounts, and perhaps it was the type fitted to my car, but I have wanted to change these back to OEM for a long time. The harder aftermarket mountings (fitted by the previous owner) made the engine vibrate slightly through the car which annoyed me, but I wasn't quite prepared for the transformation after swapping them back to OEM. The car runs so much smoother; it no longer crashes over potholes, it's quieter and generally feels more drivable on Yorkshire roads, I can't overstate the difference.
However, the most significant improvement is something that I have been trying to get fixed since the day I bought the car and had given up on. Whenever I came to a stop, the engine revs always dropped slightly and then came back up, this was more annoying than anything else. Over the last four years, I have had the car checked by various garages, and nobody was ever able to find any issues with the engine. After reading on this forum that many owners suffer this same problem, I had eventually given up and decided to live with it. Anyway since changing back to OEM engine mounts this has gone completely, and now coming to a stop is a dream! I think this and all the other improvements are due to the aftermarket engine mounts being so hard that the engine was not able to move as it was designed to, this may be desirable on a track, but for day to day driving not so much.
So that's it, I wanted to mention the engine mounts in case it helps anyone else, but mainly the point of this post was to recommend Darren Woods in Stockport.
And for those interested my car has done 47k, the rod bearings were worn, and although not about to give way anytime soon, especially with my low yearly mileage, they probably did need changing, either way, I can sleep easy at night now!
For no reason other than to make the post more interesting, here is a picture...
After recently going over a pothole (not too bad) I noticed a knock coming from the front left of the car every time I drove over a bump. Unfortunately, when I took the car to my local garage, they told me that the bolts on one engine mounting had sheared and that the engine was in danger of collapsing onto the steering column!! Worse than that the bolts had snapped off in the engine and due to the position and difficulty of access they wanted to remove the engine to get the bolts drilled out! The price for this was £1,380 (they told me all this on Friday the 13th!).
Now, this isn't a back street garage that I took the car to, they market themselves as BMW & Mercedes specialists, and I have always been happy with their work, (although pricey). But if the engine was going to be removed, it made sense to do the rod bearings at the same time, (something I had been planning to do next year anyway), and I didn't feel happy asking them to do the job, I wanted this to be done by a recommended specialist.
After reading good things, I had been planning to take the car to Darren Woods in Stockport next year for the rod bearings to be changed. This garage isn't local to me, about 45 miles away, but after having experience with local indie's and BMW main dealers, I always felt getting him to do the work would be worth the effort. I have never had any dealings with Darren Woods, but I gave them a call on Saturday morning to discuss the problem I was having and ask them what they thought. I spoke to Mike and he was very helpful and knowledgable about the car. Straight away he said that the engine wouldn't need to be removed and that they would be able to get to the bolts by dropping the subframe, he also agreed that doing the bearings at the same time made complete sense.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had the car trailered to them (it wasn't safe to drive), and it was booked in to be repaired on April the 7th (their first available space). Lucky for me, though, they had a cancellation and managed to get it done within a couple of days. I had them swap the engine mounts back to OEM, do the bearings and the whole job, (including a wash and a vac), came to £965.
So the point to this post...
Firstly, I highly recommend Darren Woods, every good thing I have read turned out to be true. I dealt with Darren and Mike, and both really know their stuff, they are friendly, professional and very reasonably priced. The engine bolt just needed a small pilot hole and then turned straight out, no re-threading or engine removal required, but they could have charged me for more time, and I would never have known. They understood my pride in the car and reassured me that it would be locked away every night and looked after whilst in their care, and I'm confident it was.
Secondly, since changing the engine mounts, the improvement in the car has been dramatic. I know a lot of people swear by aftermarket mounts, and perhaps it was the type fitted to my car, but I have wanted to change these back to OEM for a long time. The harder aftermarket mountings (fitted by the previous owner) made the engine vibrate slightly through the car which annoyed me, but I wasn't quite prepared for the transformation after swapping them back to OEM. The car runs so much smoother; it no longer crashes over potholes, it's quieter and generally feels more drivable on Yorkshire roads, I can't overstate the difference.
However, the most significant improvement is something that I have been trying to get fixed since the day I bought the car and had given up on. Whenever I came to a stop, the engine revs always dropped slightly and then came back up, this was more annoying than anything else. Over the last four years, I have had the car checked by various garages, and nobody was ever able to find any issues with the engine. After reading on this forum that many owners suffer this same problem, I had eventually given up and decided to live with it. Anyway since changing back to OEM engine mounts this has gone completely, and now coming to a stop is a dream! I think this and all the other improvements are due to the aftermarket engine mounts being so hard that the engine was not able to move as it was designed to, this may be desirable on a track, but for day to day driving not so much.
So that's it, I wanted to mention the engine mounts in case it helps anyone else, but mainly the point of this post was to recommend Darren Woods in Stockport.
And for those interested my car has done 47k, the rod bearings were worn, and although not about to give way anytime soon, especially with my low yearly mileage, they probably did need changing, either way, I can sleep easy at night now!
For no reason other than to make the post more interesting, here is a picture...
