Well after the calamity as describe in my other recent thread concerning another Essex based dealer I thought I would make some price enquiries at my more local dealer on the way home from getting my tyre valve replaced... correctly 8)
I was promptly seen by the service manager (Mr Lucklin?) who was very helpful and explained the servicing price for an oil service on my 3.0 Z4. He explained the four plus servicing discounts voluntarily and also worked out the price with and without supplying my own oil and even agreed that since I already had a fresh can sitting in the garage it would be worthwhile using my own oil as the price would be £100 which seems more than fair (for reference is about £169 if they supply their own oil so ~£60-70 saving for 6.5 litres of oil).
I went on to enquire about the price to upgrade my DME software and explained the irritating surging issue between 3.0-3.5krpm I had been experiencing of late. I showed him the discussion topic from here and also explained what the other dealership has told me about possibly costing 6 hours labour and needing the car all day. He admitted he didn't know exactly how long it would take but was adament that it wouldnt be more than two hours labour regardless of time as "it wont require the technicians full attention and they can get on with other jobs while it is upgrading". I appreciated this refreshing honesty!
The next bit I didn't expect, he made a phone call to his head mechanic who came though to speak to me about the upgrade and to consult his expert opinion. The tech guy seemed highly clued up and I am told by his manager that he is one of only 30 master techicians/experts in the country. The techy guy explained it wasn't something he had come in contact with often and that the general weakpoint of the m54 was the cam sensors, he explained that similar issues were first seen on the e46 m3 which also had problems with throttle potentiometers. Both issues he said would have been flagged on the diagnostic /i had done at the other dealership. He took my key and put it into a fancy scanner on the desk and pulled up all the cars details, faults and servicing data. He then cross referenced this with the bmw technical bulletins and found that there was a listing for a bug fix on the dme in 2004 which should be applied if users report 'engine surging'. This ties in with what was said in the thread and that late 2004-2005 cars probably had this applied from the factory and do not exhibit the problem.
He asked if I was in the hurry and said that he could program the DME only with the latest version in ~30 minute... this suprised me as the other garage was quoting such a long time. He explained the long update times are only on the newer Idrive cars as they need all systems updated as they are a bit more like a windows computer. Our z4's can thankfully have the systems upgraded discretly. The tech and service guy said that if I could wait he would take it in striaght away and do it now, that way I had the long bank holiday weekend to try it out and report back to them if it worked. The tech guy said he would also check all the other systems and thottle operation to rule out any faulty sensors, this was wrapped up in the fixed price of £99 to do the hole job which I thought was very reasonable.
The outcome:
Well it took longer to code than he thought, the technicial said it probably had quite a big change in the dme coding to explain the long duration. Despite taking 1.5 hours i still only paid the original quoted price of £99
. So far i have driven the car three times since and 'touch wood' the engine seems quieter and very smooth indeed, no more surging!!!!! yay! I love the car again!
My car will be going back to this dealer for all further work, they also will give me a 1 series/3 sersies courtesy car when its in for work for a £14 insurance charge which seems ok.
I think i will thank them in writing... as to the other dealer, well I will be having serious words with the tuesday....
I was promptly seen by the service manager (Mr Lucklin?) who was very helpful and explained the servicing price for an oil service on my 3.0 Z4. He explained the four plus servicing discounts voluntarily and also worked out the price with and without supplying my own oil and even agreed that since I already had a fresh can sitting in the garage it would be worthwhile using my own oil as the price would be £100 which seems more than fair (for reference is about £169 if they supply their own oil so ~£60-70 saving for 6.5 litres of oil).
I went on to enquire about the price to upgrade my DME software and explained the irritating surging issue between 3.0-3.5krpm I had been experiencing of late. I showed him the discussion topic from here and also explained what the other dealership has told me about possibly costing 6 hours labour and needing the car all day. He admitted he didn't know exactly how long it would take but was adament that it wouldnt be more than two hours labour regardless of time as "it wont require the technicians full attention and they can get on with other jobs while it is upgrading". I appreciated this refreshing honesty!
The next bit I didn't expect, he made a phone call to his head mechanic who came though to speak to me about the upgrade and to consult his expert opinion. The tech guy seemed highly clued up and I am told by his manager that he is one of only 30 master techicians/experts in the country. The techy guy explained it wasn't something he had come in contact with often and that the general weakpoint of the m54 was the cam sensors, he explained that similar issues were first seen on the e46 m3 which also had problems with throttle potentiometers. Both issues he said would have been flagged on the diagnostic /i had done at the other dealership. He took my key and put it into a fancy scanner on the desk and pulled up all the cars details, faults and servicing data. He then cross referenced this with the bmw technical bulletins and found that there was a listing for a bug fix on the dme in 2004 which should be applied if users report 'engine surging'. This ties in with what was said in the thread and that late 2004-2005 cars probably had this applied from the factory and do not exhibit the problem.
He asked if I was in the hurry and said that he could program the DME only with the latest version in ~30 minute... this suprised me as the other garage was quoting such a long time. He explained the long update times are only on the newer Idrive cars as they need all systems updated as they are a bit more like a windows computer. Our z4's can thankfully have the systems upgraded discretly. The tech and service guy said that if I could wait he would take it in striaght away and do it now, that way I had the long bank holiday weekend to try it out and report back to them if it worked. The tech guy said he would also check all the other systems and thottle operation to rule out any faulty sensors, this was wrapped up in the fixed price of £99 to do the hole job which I thought was very reasonable.
The outcome:
Well it took longer to code than he thought, the technicial said it probably had quite a big change in the dme coding to explain the long duration. Despite taking 1.5 hours i still only paid the original quoted price of £99
. So far i have driven the car three times since and 'touch wood' the engine seems quieter and very smooth indeed, no more surging!!!!! yay! I love the car again!My car will be going back to this dealer for all further work, they also will give me a 1 series/3 sersies courtesy car when its in for work for a £14 insurance charge which seems ok.
I think i will thank them in writing... as to the other dealer, well I will be having serious words with the tuesday....
