BMW E90 320i workshop headakes - warning

[happy1]

Hi,
Just to let out some frustration, and to send out a general warning to stay away from BMW E90 and other new BMW products.

They may look stylish, and appear to be 'ahead' of other brands, but what I have just discovered is not a pleasant surprise.

Conclusion: BMW are specially engineered to be hostile for mechanics, and ONLY attempt to repair one if you have access to special tools worth $3000 or more.

My wife has one, not looked well after, and hardly serviced. She ran it out of oil a couple of times, and developed some horrible crunching noises from the engine. To cut story short - Got a second hand replacement engine with low K's, and dropped in to a nearby 'European' workshop in Wangara, Perth.
They quoted $2000 +GST for the swap, including filters, oil, and a new mechatronics plug at the back of the ZF transmission. Come back in two weeks and all will be ready for you..

One week later.. I made a surprise visit, car was still outside, not even started the job. No parts ordered.
Then they called me 4 days later. Job done, but a 'little' problem.. It will not start. They explained we have hooked up the computer, it is telling us the valve timing is flickering, therefore your supplied spare engine must have been so impacted that it is messed up. We will offer to shift it to our 'other branch' they are more specialised. They will need to strip the head off, and inspect everything, then put it back together, with new timing chain guides. Then it will be running.. Fixed price for strip head will cost you $450. Please pay your bill, and we will shift it to the other branch at Jandakot, on a tow truck. We send all our big jobs to them, our head office. They are much more specialized..

What else can I do, other than to fork out $$ and

Then, today the new workshop called, they said 'we understand the engine has been replaced by someone else'. We are calling to tell you it will cost from $ 7000 to $11000 to get this car running again.

Ok, fair enough, they had identified that the cylinder head on the one I supplied second hand from a private wrecker had been knocked 1mm backwards, and the engine did need a new head gasket. However there were nothing wrong with the timing. Instead there was a faulty position sensor in the variable cam timing arrangment.

My argument was this car is not worth much anymore, and spending $11 grand on a brand new engine is not possible.
I had brought with me a car trailer, and since they were not willing to work with second-hand parts, or make the best out of the two engines I had, then I paid another $500 for the strip job (now they wanted $800 rather than the quoted 450) I explained that unfortunately its not worth throwing $11 grand on this 7 year old car, and started preparing to load it up on the trailer, in bits and pieces, with the boot full of parts.

The workshop owner/manager explained how this particular E90 engine clearly has been specially engineer to require a lot of tools, for example the cam chain wheels doesn't have a spline or a mark on the cams. Instead they are installed flat to flat with a strething bolt. The sensor wheels on the cams requires another tool, and if the front pulley has been loosened it requires sump off again to re-align balance shafts etc,

The workshop then went on describing how the head on the supplied spare engine had to be stripped, pressure tested, planed, and even machined, (only done 30K's) they insisted spending nearly $1000 on the head, just to service that. Then they said you should really get a new bottom end for it. We have one we can supply to you, but it will require lots of hours for the re-build. (they said: These alloy engines are so delicate, and after an impact your spare engine probably has lots of internal cracks etc.)

Anyway, I ended up convincing them to but it back together, with a new head gasket, a new sensor on the cam, a new vaacum pump, and a new water hose, and to see how it goes. They insisted the head job is necessary, therefore it will end up around $2700 to $3000 just to rattle it back into one piece. Hopefully it will run good enough, at least for a while.

If it had been any other engine I would have done the work myself after the first workshop said 'valve timing wrong'. But with this purposely complicated piece of german revenge from WW2, it is impossible to do something myself, and we are subject to rip-offs like described above.

NEVER EVER BMW-products anywhere near my household again if my opinion is asked.

Cheers