Sheared bleed nipple - front caliper

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

My Zed is in at BMW at the moment for a £60 brake fluid change. They've said its done but have broken the bleed nipple on the front off side caliper.

Now, as far as I can see, I've brought the car in for a £60 service and now have a £1000 bill for a new caliper... Surely their fault and they should foot the bill for the damage?

Is this a regular occurrence?!!

 

[bamberjim]

fault has to lie with them surley, also how can it be done with a sheared nipple?

hey would have had to put some force on it to break the nipple

 

[ekimj10]

Would have thought the sheared nipple could be removed OK, Easy outs or similar or at worst calliper off and drill out.
Seems a massive cost of £1000 to replace calliper?
Totally the garage's fault and they should fix F.O.C. Best of luck.

 

[Nictrix]

Normally a bleed nipple will shear as its being undone so this would mean it sheared before that caliper was bled.
What kind of caliper is it that warrants a £1000 bill? Normally you can pick up calipers for around £100.

 

[Machine monkey]

No way in hell would i be paying out for any damage a garage caused to my car. When i was paying them to do a job!! They did it they can fix it end of no arguments.

I doubt the stainless steel bleed nipple has sheared. What normally happens is the soft aluminum casting would have broken. So it cant be fixed. I would be telling them to get it fixed and your not paying.

 

[cj10jeeper]

Have to agree here, however you need to see whatever documentation you signed at the counter when dropping it off for the work.

 

[markplant]

You could have an big brake kit for that sort of money
I can't believe the dealer price is that much

 

[GuidoK]

Can you imagine that this happens all the time and there are loads of people buying in to it... :roll:

 

[Anonymous]

Update to this after speaking to some car buddies urgently;

- snapped before they bled the caliper, OSF
- told me they were finished and nipple could be replaced in the future, so have argued they can't be with three Calipers done. Possibly air in the system, the technician said there'd be old fluid in one line etc.
- have refused to pay and they've now said they'll drill it out for £160 and redo the fluid change FOC (gee thanks!!)

They've let me drive off as the car is safe.

Called my local mechanics and they're going to remove the old nipple and flush all for £100.

Calling BMW later to tell them I won't be back. Simple as. Thanks for all your help - it's confirmed I'm in a strong position.

 

[GuidoK]

Did they tell you how they came up with the €1000?

I mean a bleednipple can break, and if things are really bad you need to replace the caliper. (drilling out a bleednipple is sometimes easier said than done)
But thats with OEM parts 200 or so for the caliper (refubished caliper is probably a lot cheaper) and maybe 2 hours work (they have the car already on the lift).

 

[TomK]

It's just a standard M3 caliper on the front of a Z4M, there are loads of them around 2nd hand, you could replace for no more than £60.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-3-SERIES-E46-M3-3-2-PASSENGER-N-S-LEFT-FRONT-BRAKE-CALIPER-/171981913250?fits=Plat_Gen%3AE46%7CCars+Type%3AM3+3.2&hash=item280aebbca2:g:i2IAAOSwHnFV4HgD

ETA part numbers from real OEM for M3, CSL & Z4M
csl 01 03/03/2003 N/A 2282618 CALIPER HOUSING RIGHT 1 2282176
m3 01 03/03/2003 N/A 2282618 CALIPER HOUSING RIGHT 1 2282176
z4m 01 03/03/2003 N/A 2282618 CALIPER HOUSING RIGHT 1 2282176

 

[simonlpearce]

That's very poor form, but sounds like you are heading in the right direction now at least.

 

[mj2k]

I missed the original part where it was stated BMW did the damage, I had assumed it was a local garage doing the work!

Does make me wonder whether to take mine to a BMW dealer, Grosvenor in Reading, or Munich Legends when mine needs work doing, as they are all close enough for me to manage.

 

[Darkangelv2]

Still sounds to me like you're £40 worse off because of them. I wouldn't be happy with that!

 

[TomK]

It's not really that poor form to be fair. If you take a part that is seized after a good 8 years or so and the garage breaks the thing trying to remove/adjust IMO that's hardly their fault, it's just a risk that is taken in adjusting any old piece of metal which needs to be moved. I'm not surprised they tried to charge you, but whoever came up with the figure of £1000 for a calliper clearly needs their head seeing to. No way in the world even with a brand spanker ordered via BMW would it come to that.

 

[Rich61]

If you get a left handed drill bit to drill out the offending nipple you will probably find that before the nipple has been fully drilled out it will unwind with drill and not damage any threads.
Best thing you can use with sheared bolts.

 

[Beedub]

sounds like a PITA..... hope you get it sorted with minimal head-ache.

 

[teamemmenracing]

It's not really that poor form to be fair. If you take a part that is seized after a good 8 years or so and the garage breaks the thing trying to remove/adjust IMO that's hardly their fault, it's just a risk that is taken in adjusting any old piece of metal which needs to be moved. I'm not surprised they tried to charge you, but whoever came up with the figure of £1000 for a calliper clearly needs their head seeing to. No way in the world even with a brand spanker ordered via BMW would it come to that.

I agree with that ........ bleed nipples shear all the time, especially on corroded calipers.
Its not a big job to drill them out if you have done it a few times before ......
Normal procedure would be to call the customer and warn him if the mechanic notices that the calipers are corroded.
I would expect to have to pay for a new caliper if they couldn't fix the old one........

 

[Nictrix]

It's not really that poor form to be fair. If you take a part that is seized after a good 8 years or so and the garage breaks the thing trying to remove/adjust IMO that's hardly their fault, it's just a risk that is taken in adjusting any old piece of metal which needs to be moved. I'm not surprised they tried to charge you, but whoever came up with the figure of £1000 for a calliper clearly needs their head seeing to. No way in the world even with a brand spanker ordered via BMW would it come to that.

I agree with that ........ bleed nipples shear all the time, especially on corroded calipers.
Its not a big job to drill them out if you have done it a few times before ......
Normal procedure would be to call the customer and warn him if the mechanic notices that the calipers are corroded.
I would expect to have to pay for a new caliper if they couldn't fix the old one........

All this is fair enough but they wanted to charge for a job that they did not complete and then wanted £1000 for a caliper.
Not quite right.

 

[Mike6]

For about £60 you can buy a repair kit to remove a broken bleed nipple without removing caliper - garage must have this kit if they dont they are useless. Buy it yourself from ebay or take your custom elsewhere in future