dgjk

I was once told never to add your receipts. I should not do this but I am starting to lose my sanity. 2008 535xi with 149,000 miles.

Control arm bushings/intake cleaning/valve cover gasket/oil change/oil cooler gasket $2200

Suspension all around $2000

New catalytic converters $2000

Transmission oil change/o2 sensors/intake walnut blasting/reprogram DME $1000

New belt and pulleys $250

New pump and thermostat $550

New front R tie rod $450

Total $8450

And still have oil leaks - now the oil pan gasket and oil filter housing gasket

I am starting to get sick of this and think a new car may be on the horizon, but I keep hoping the next repair is the last.

I think I can DIY the oil filter housing gasket, but the oil pan may just have to leak.

sanjsanj

sounds wayyy too much


New suspension ALL around? Why?


Where did you buy the cat from? Something like that is best sourced from a car being parted out


tie rod over here is ~$100, you paid $350 in labour?

Does your mechanic know what he's doing? (I'm assuming you're not taking it in to the $tealers...).

KyleB

With those prices, you must be taking your car to the dealer.

dgjk

OK. You asked. I may cry while reliving the story. I changed the oil in the fall. Tons of oil on the flap I removed to drain the oil. Internet research and diagnosed leaking oil pump gasket. Called dealer and wanted $450. Considered DIY. Called an Indy who said $220. For that it was not worth my time. Also car had a few small issues. There was a rattle at start up and the car had a strange surging issue. Told the Indy to check these issues out also. Diagnosed leaking oil pump housing gasket and a leaking valve cover gasket. For the surging he thought the intake needed cleaned. Could not find the rattle but said control arm bushings were bad. He had the car two weeks. As far as the $2200, I felt ripped off. Was my fault. I thought I could trust him and did not lock in prices before he did the work. So I learned my lesson. It took a few weeks for my rectum to heal. And the rattle was still there and the surging was still there.

To be continued...

dgjk

At a meeting so this may be in a few posts. So daughter drives the car and did not think much about it for a few months. Then drove the car for a bit and the cold start rattle was worse. The surging was awful, and on the back roads the car wallowed a lot. At the dealer they had a low mile 535 on the showroom floor. Did the bumper test. The car had minimal bounce back. Went to my car and pushed on the bumper and the car bounced a lot. Decided getting new shocks was on the list.

As an aside. I have 6 kids and 5 cars. I found that it is always cheaper to keep something running rather than buy new. I hate car payments. The BMW is making me reconsider this.

So back to the story. Called the dealer about the surging and rattle. They would give an estimate for free. And I can not state the value of this, but they came and got the car and left me a car (X3 which my wife drove to DC for work). So the diagnosis for the surging was to reset DME. The rattle was the cats. They said threw a code for the cats but it was up to me to fix. Well they reset the DME and guaranteed the surging was gone. I said great and had them do the shocks/mounts/hardware. Believe it or not you can negotiate with the dealer. They will let me buy the parts and they will install or they could get them. And they price match the Internet whole sale prices. So I thought $2000 and a free car for 8 days was reasonable.

Again, tbc

dgjk

Ok. This is getting long winded. And there is oh so much more. But this is getting long so I am going to stop there for now and wipe my tears.

sanjsanj

And the expenses from the 6 kids, your okay with??

dgjk

I refer to my kids as depreciating assets. I also refer to one as my ferrari, one my lamborghini, one my beach house, etc. The problem with kids is after 18 years you are out all that money. If I bought a car with that money at least after 18 years I would get some return.

As for as $450 for the tie rod - yes, full dealer retail. Includes the diagnosis of the leaks and other stuff and an alignment. The diagnosis is $110, the alignment $189. So the tie rod is only a couple hundred bucks. At that point DIY did not seem worth it. Plus I get to drive their car for a week. They also diagnosed a leaking oil filter housing. Estimate for repair was $750. That I will DIY for $20.

I am not up on current BMW models. They brought me a brand new 428i xdrive and the thing has 4 doors? WTF?

KyleB

LOL!!!!!

yea, BMW is totally out of control trying to be everything to everyone. The cars are suffering for it too.