Found A Good Private Mechanic in So. Cal
07-24-2010, 08:46 PM
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My Ride: 2009 550i, RPI Exhaust, AVIN Head Unit and Backup Camera
Model Year: 2009
Engine: V8
My warranty is running out soon and so I wanted to take the 550 to a private mechanic to take a look for anything that might be covered by the warranty. I found Chad at Solely Bimmer through Yelp of all places and there were numerous accolades on the level of service that was received at his shop.
On Saturdays Chad offers a "Saturday Consult" which is what I basically wanted. I called Chad on Wednesday and chatted with him about what I wanted to accomplish. When I asked if I needed an appointment, he said that wouldn't be necessary. What he said next floored me. When I asked how much he charges for the consult, he said that there is no charge! He then said, "Just bring it down any time after you wake up on Saturday and we'll take a look at it."
I took my car to his neat, clean shop located in Mission Viejo, CA around 9:30 and told him that I wanted him to give my car the once over and see if he spotted anything that I should ask the dealer to repair. I told him I was having an issue with the passenger side mirror pointing too far inwards after it had been cycled up and down a few times and a vibration in the steering wheel around 40mph (I had already had the tires balanced twice and it still shook so I wanted him to check the suspension/steering components).
He got the car up on the rack and unlike other garages, I was made to feel welcome to look up my car's skirt
We immediately spotted a fluid leak of some kind but I had no evidence on my garage floor ...yet. All the bushings looked good as well as the other steering/suspension components so he lowered the car back to the ground. He then told me that the Nexen tires that I had on my car could be the culprit but recommended another tire shop to try to balance the tires again for me if I wanted. BTW his tire recommendation was Michelin Pilot Sport 2s.
Next I told him how I wanted to have the driving lights on and he said no problem. He connected the $15k computer (the same one the dealers use) to my car and switched them on. That took all of 30 seconds! The dealer would have charged me $100 to do just that! I then told him about the weird shift points the car had adopted and told him about the 25 second trick I learned about here. He said let's take the car outside and I blank out the memory and then tell you how to retrain your transmission. He pulled out his computer again and hit a few buttons and then told me how to retrain the transmission. His instructions were to drive up to 55mph, never exceeding 2K rpm, then stop for 15 seconds and repeat for a total of 5 times. How cool was that? And again, no charge!
So, for me going forward, whenever the dealer wants to charge me for any service, I will thank them politely and take my business to Solelybimmer.com.
Admins, if this post is inappropriate or in the wrong place, please remove or move as you see fit.
On Saturdays Chad offers a "Saturday Consult" which is what I basically wanted. I called Chad on Wednesday and chatted with him about what I wanted to accomplish. When I asked if I needed an appointment, he said that wouldn't be necessary. What he said next floored me. When I asked how much he charges for the consult, he said that there is no charge! He then said, "Just bring it down any time after you wake up on Saturday and we'll take a look at it."
I took my car to his neat, clean shop located in Mission Viejo, CA around 9:30 and told him that I wanted him to give my car the once over and see if he spotted anything that I should ask the dealer to repair. I told him I was having an issue with the passenger side mirror pointing too far inwards after it had been cycled up and down a few times and a vibration in the steering wheel around 40mph (I had already had the tires balanced twice and it still shook so I wanted him to check the suspension/steering components).
He got the car up on the rack and unlike other garages, I was made to feel welcome to look up my car's skirt
We immediately spotted a fluid leak of some kind but I had no evidence on my garage floor ...yet. All the bushings looked good as well as the other steering/suspension components so he lowered the car back to the ground. He then told me that the Nexen tires that I had on my car could be the culprit but recommended another tire shop to try to balance the tires again for me if I wanted. BTW his tire recommendation was Michelin Pilot Sport 2s.Next I told him how I wanted to have the driving lights on and he said no problem. He connected the $15k computer (the same one the dealers use) to my car and switched them on. That took all of 30 seconds! The dealer would have charged me $100 to do just that! I then told him about the weird shift points the car had adopted and told him about the 25 second trick I learned about here. He said let's take the car outside and I blank out the memory and then tell you how to retrain your transmission. He pulled out his computer again and hit a few buttons and then told me how to retrain the transmission. His instructions were to drive up to 55mph, never exceeding 2K rpm, then stop for 15 seconds and repeat for a total of 5 times. How cool was that? And again, no charge!
So, for me going forward, whenever the dealer wants to charge me for any service, I will thank them politely and take my business to Solelybimmer.com.
Admins, if this post is inappropriate or in the wrong place, please remove or move as you see fit.
07-25-2010, 08:03 AM
#4
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Irvine, CA
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My Ride: 2009 550i, RPI Exhaust, AVIN Head Unit and Backup Camera
Model Year: 2009
Engine: V8
jcool10181 I didn't pay anything! Chad believes in the pay it forward philosophy and believes that by providing this service for free, it will come back to him multifold. It's a win/win and it worked for me because I'll be bringing my business to him going forward.
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