What's the book value of a 150k mile Z4MC...

Frustrating Tony doesn't begin to cover it I'm sure.

I think you're right to hold out for the ///M just as it was before the accident and keep the pressure on them to deliver.

Resilience needed here - all the best with it :thumbsup:
 
I'm currently thinking 'here we go again' as the garage hasn't even picked the car back up yet, as they're waiting for the insurance engineer's approval before they do anything else to it - the same approval that took 6 weeks last time :headbang:

Will be phoning the insurance company in the morning, pointing out my 3000 mile driving holiday booked for the first week of May (6 months after the accident), and suggest they either get a move on or pay for an equivalent ring-rental for the 4 days (even a Suzuki Swift is about €500/day - with €5000 excess) :(

Am even considering driving the car back to the garage, leaving it at their front door, and accidentally forgetting to drop off the keys :x

I'm really pissed off that I can't speak to the assessor/engineer/approver himself, just have to communicate through the 3 levels of monkeys with no power, who pass everything up & down the chain :thumbsdown:

Anyone know what's involved in fixing a 'blowing manifold' (assuming that's really what's causing the EML - as I'm not sure they know their arses from their elbows at the moment - as they don't seem to be able to run a QA process properly...but that's for my next missive to the insurer/repairer) and how much it's likely to cost them/me?
 
mmm-five said:
I'm currently thinking 'here we go again' as the garage hasn't even picked the car back up yet, as they're waiting for the insurance engineer's approval before they do anything else to it - the same approval that took 6 weeks last time :headbang:

Will be phoning the insurance company in the morning, pointing out my 3000 mile driving holiday booked for the first week of May (6 months after the accident), and suggest they either get a move on or pay for an equivalent ring-rental for the 4 days (even a Suzuki Swift is about €500/day - with €5000 excess) :(

Am even considering driving the car back to the garage, leaving it at their front door, and accidentally forgetting to drop off the keys :x

I'm really pissed off that I can't speak to the assessor/engineer/approver himself, just have to communicate through the 3 levels of monkeys with no power, who pass everything up & down the chain :thumbsdown:

Anyone know what's involved in fixing a 'blowing manifold' (assuming that's really what's causing the EML - as I'm not sure they know their arses from their elbows at the moment - as they don't seem to be able to run a QA process properly...but that's for my next missive to the insurer/repairer) and how much it's likely to cost them/me?
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Haven't read the hole thread but not really sure why the manifold would just start blowing, unless its been disturbed then is it possible its nothing to do with the garage and the gasket just went bad.
 
Beedub said:
Haven't read the hole thread but not really sure why the manifold would just start blowing, unless its been disturbed then is it possible its nothing to do with the garage and the gasket just went bad.
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Isn't possible that, rather than the gasket, the exhaust manifold has cracked - given the mileage on the car, the manifold will have been through a fair number of heat cycles and this will have caused a certain amount of metal fatigue. It may have been borderline before the accident and the shockwave from the impact caused the extra bit of stress needed to form the cracks...
 
Beedub said:
Haven't read the hole thread but not really sure why the manifold would just start blowing, unless its been disturbed then is it possible its nothing to do with the garage and the gasket just went bad.
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The car gets driven a lot, over some less-than-perfect roads, and it wasn't blowing before the accident.

It could just be a gasket, or it might be the manifold, it could simply be age-related and the accident has triggered the failure.

They could use the same coincidence argument for any damage they found during the assessment, and claim it was either there before the accident or about to go anyway. Hopefully the very recent MOT, inspection 2 and track day is proof that there was nothing mechanically wrong in the weeks preceding the accident.

I've said I'm happy to take it to a specialist to diagnose, but if I do that I'm sure the bodyshop/insurer will wash their hands of the affair.

The only driving it's done since the accident (5 months so far) has been in the hands of the repairer, and the EML was on from the moment they said it was ready to pick up. Great if it's just a gasket, but if not, I'm sure the accident was big enough to 'finish off' a 150,000 manifold - it did after all bend 2 rear trailing arms, so it must have take a bit of a belt.

The same goes for the newly recalcitrant 1st & 2nd gear change (which was fine during the 200 miles I did a couple of weeks before at Oulton Park) - but they've investigated that with a local transmission specialist and said it's down to the clutch - which was replaced not long before the accident - 'dragging' I think they said. I'm going to have to take this up with the garage who did the clutch & flywheel, but I just know they're going to say it was fine when it left them (which it was), and that it must have been caused by the accident.

Bit of a Catch 22 with me stuck in the middle of a 4-way spit-roast.

I'm have to question what else their QA process has missed, as they're obviously as good at 'ticking the boxes' as most main dealer master techs :thumbsdown:

They handed it back (i.e. overlooked during the QA):
  • mismatched front tyre (fixed)
  • loose sideskirt (fixed)
  • 1st/2nd gear change (investigated, out of their hands)
  • EML (reset once, came straight back on)
  • inoperative handbrake (fixed)
  • missing wheel centre badge (fixed)
  • etc. (fixed)
Some are easy to overlook/forgive (like the missing badge, sticking up window seal, mastic on the windows, greasy spray all over the cabin), but roadworthiness items should never be missed (EML, handbrake, gear change), and bodywork ones should be covered by the QA process (or why bother with it?).

Looks like they're happy to rectify issues where it's just a bit of labour, but don't have the will/approval to fix anything that could cost them a bit more.
 
Had this too with mine,and ended up paying nearly 1k of my own money fixing things like removing and refitting windscreen,replacing damaged trim,renewing passenger seatbelt(even tho they had the windscreen replaced,it wasn't ftd right,and pass seat had been out,the seatbelt wouldn't retract by itself,yet BMW garage said it wasn't down to anything they had done!!)

Hope u get it resolved, but mine dragged on for months on end too,and while some stuff did get rectified,several others didn't, so had to bite the bullet and sort it myself.
Best of luck getting it fixed Mate :thumbsup:
 
Latest reply is that the EML is not being caused by the blowing exhaust manifold, it's being caused by the Gruppe-M - which has been on for over a year :headbang:
It appears that your car has had an After Market modification to the air flow system in order to make the car go quicker. This is putting air flow out side of the BMW parameters which is causing the BMW mass air flow sensor to register a fault which is causing the engine light to come on. We do not know why this has registered since the accident. This is a specialist modification and would have to go back to the specialist repairer for diagnosis and rectification if required. Whether this can be corrected with this kind of modification we would not know as it is outside of our expertise as far as we are concerned the vehicle would have to be returned to its standard system to prevent the mass air flow sensor from registering the fault and causing the light to come on. The specialist who fitted the new system may know a way around this or be able to modify something to prevent this from happening!!

The insurance company are saying they do not think this is part of the accident and are refusing to pay for any rectification.

If you are worried about a time scale because you have engagements booked with your car then I would suggest to give yourself some peace of mind and bring the repairs to a conclusion I would take your car back to the specialist repairer who has carried out the modification or a repairer who deals with this sort of specialist work for them to carry out diagnosis and rectification I am quite sure if you receive a report off them to confirm the fault has been brought about by the accident then the insurance company would be quite willing to pay for the repairs or reimburse you for any costs. I am quite sure the problem can be resolved at not a great expense. You would need to consult with the insurance company direct over this resolution.
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They're not going to do anything about it, and suggest I get my own report/inspection done!

Don't want to risk driving it the 280 miles to my specialist (now in Cornwall), so will get the much more local Graeme Martin Automotive to do an investigation on the EML, intake, manifold and 1st/2nd gear change, and take it from there.
 
Yeah,sounds like the best plan, get it tb checked by someone who knows what they are actually doing,then get it fixed as required......and get some compensation back from insurance,if it is proved the accidejt was the cause(always hard to prove),even tho it was OK before :headbang:

Good luck :thumbsup:
 
mmm-five said:
Latest reply is that the EML is not being caused by the blowing exhaust manifold, it's being caused by the Gruppe-M - which has been on for over a year :headbang:
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Can you demonstrate the location of the leak from the manifold with soap solution when the engine is cold before the manifold gets too warm? Or, can you hold some strips of tissue over the places where it blows to show gas escaping? If the manifold/exhaust got cracked during the collision, then surely it is still part of the cost of repair which should be covered by insurance?
 
If your in the Cheshire area at any time,im more than happy to run a diag on it for you and try and locate the noise...

Wil only take 10 mins whilst you brew up... :thumbsup:
 
exdos said:
mmm-five said:
Latest reply is that the EML is not being caused by the blowing exhaust manifold, it's being caused by the Gruppe-M - which has been on for over a year :headbang:
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Can you demonstrate the location of the leak from the manifold with soap solution when the engine is cold before the manifold gets too warm? Or, can you hold some strips of tissue over the places where it blows to show gas escaping? If the manifold/exhaust got cracked during the collision, then surely it is still part of the cost of repair which should be covered by insurance?
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I haven't looked/listened to see exactly where it's coming from, I can hear something, but am only taking their description as to the cause of the sound.
 
Z4M-2006 said:
If your in the Cheshire area at any time,im more than happy to run a diag on it for you and try and locate the noise...

Wil only take 10 mins whilst you brew up... :thumbsup:
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Thanks, got it booked in tomorrow morning at Graham Martin in St. Helens - about as far as I want to take it with an EML.

I'm only wary of driving on EMLs because that's all the warning I had when I had my engine replaced at 23k.
 
Latest news - and not looking good for my Ring trip next week...
  • The gear change issue may be due to an old clutch hose which is expanding under pressure, to be rectified by braided hose which is late arriving from the US
  • 'Air leak' in the system is nothing to do with an air leak (after a smoke test, airbox replacement, MAF replacement) - and is due to a timing issue - VANOS to be rebuilt (hopefully with Besian/Mr/Dr Vanos parts if they have time) to see if it solves the problem
How likely are these things to be purely coincidental, considering they were both perfect before the accident?

I can see a Z4MC going up in smoke in a couple of weeks :fuelfire:
 
Tony..

I will say this, the 3 fault codes that the Car faulted on have nothing to do with the vanos ..
 
I would say it's unlikely that the accident didn't at least push the these faults on,even if not the entire cause,but the insurance company will not see it that way :headbang:

Hope you get it sorted in time for the Ring trip,fingers crossed.
And don't give up on the car,i almost did,but well worth sticking with it. When it does get fully resolved(which it will,one way or another), you will love having the car to use again and forget about this annoying time,mate. :driving:
 
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