[uucdigest] Tuesday, August 19 2003 Volume 03 : Number 6672
_________________________________________________________________ | | Search the ARCHIVES: | http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Visit Richard Nott's Ultimate BMW Database: | http://www.bmwdatabase.com | | For all available Digest commands including unsubscribe/subscribe, | visit the BMW UUC Digest page: http://www.uucdigest.com | | Send SUBMISSIONS to [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Complaints? Send 'em to [EMAIL PROTECTED] if you must. | Technical Problems? Send 'em to [EMAIL PROTECTED] |__________________________________________________________________ In this BMW UUC Digest: Re: [uuc] Book repair charges - WAS Central Locking Question [uuc] Atlanta Indep. shops and dealers Re: [uuc] E30 sloppy shifter Re: [uuc] E30 sloppy shifter [uuc] E34 transmission magnet [uuc] E9 Coupe Information [uuc] E34 Lic. Plate & Trunk Light Problem [uuc] Shifter for 320i transmission Re: [uuc] E9 Coupe Information [uuc] re: book hours versus shop charges RE: [uuc] E34 Lic. Plate & Trunk Light Problem ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 16:15:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Jason Knight <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] Book repair charges - WAS Central Locking Question I think this is Standard Operating Procedure for dealer service departments. I imagine that independent shops operate the same way. Jason - --- Dennis Wynne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > A guy I know had his 7 series into the local BMW > dealer for out of > warranty repairs. He dropped it off at 8:00am and > picked it up at 4:00pm. > > Looking at the bill he was charged for 10 hours or > so of labor (I can't > remember the exact numbers - but it was 2-3 hours > more than the time > the dealer had the car). > > He asked how many mechanics had worked on the car - > the answer was one. > > He asked how they could work on it longer that it > was in their possession - > the answer was that he was charged the book rate and > this his mechanic > (lucky for him) was faster than the book time. If it > had taken longer, then > he would have paid the same (they said). > > I would not mind having a good mechanic that can fix > my car in less time > that the books calls for. But it would SEEM tempting > to the mechanics to > rush through all the jobs. Do 12 hours worth of work > in 8 hours and make > 50% more money. > > Is this NORMAL for BMW dealers? > > Dennis ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 16:38:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Neil Deshpande <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] Atlanta Indep. shops and dealers Tim: Working on the E30 M3 and the S14 is NOT that big a deal. A dealership should know how to deal with it quite easily. If not, they should be able to reference a few specs and such and apply general principles. Yes, there are unique issues that they may not be able to find (like blowing clear the tensioner oil feed bore, etc.), but the suspension is not such an issue. 99% of the car is just ordinary. I highly recommend the Parts Deptt at Chris BMW. Dale, James and Mildred are both competent and pleasant. I enjoy going in there a lot, sometimes just to hang out for a few minutes. There are enthusiasts among the techs too. I met one guy who had done an E39 M5 Touring out of a Touring and donor motor. Another was putting dual HIDs in his E30 from scrap off the upper level cars. Cool! I've never dealt with the service writers though. Some of them seem to be non-car people, but are all waiters cooks? The salespeople tend to stay away when I'm browsing or just ask a few questions politely. Overall, I like that dealership. They are a bit of an exception from what I've seen though. The parts counter at United is decent too. Not browsed of hung out with the techs there though. Another thing to keep in mind is how pleasant are you being and how much of an enthusiast are you. Should not matter, but it does. Neil Deshpande *** "Tim Ng" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Josh, don't listen to what all Lee said, he is right about Phil Bowman, he has a great shop. ON the dealer side, Lee brings a 17 yo BMW that they only made 5000 of and he expects those guys to know how to fix it!!! They don't know how to fix a 745i!!! Lee has made some emenies @ most dealerships. ON the other hand, if you know the service or parts guys, they can be realllll helpful. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 17:57:53 -0700 From: Chris Baisley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] E30 sloppy shifter I have been wanting to do this too on my 325is. What is the degree of difficulty on this job? I am fine with brakes, electrical, basic maintenance stuff - but the transmission and its linkage fall in the "deep dark mysteries of the universe" category in my feeble little brain. Can it all be done from the top, or is a lift or other special tools required? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 22:57:54 -0400 From: "Gary Derian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] E30 sloppy shifter It is no more than basic pins, clips and bushings. Much needs to be done from below. Some from the top. I've changed my parts with nothing more special than a screwdriver. Gary Derian > I have been wanting to do this too on my 325is. What is the degree of > difficulty on this job? I am fine with brakes, electrical, basic > maintenance stuff - but the transmission and its linkage fall in the "deep > dark mysteries of the universe" category in my feeble little brain. Can it > all be done from the top, or is a lift or other special tools required? > > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 22:53:49 -0500 From: "Karl Zemlin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] E34 transmission magnet A4S 310R 100,000 miles (almost) New to me - no service records (but it looked so good I bought it anyway) Transmission had slight drip when I got it - tightened the sump and the leak stopped. Shifting was less than perfect, so I thought I'd change juice and screen. Here's what the magnet looked like. http://www.cheap-tracks.com/misc/magnet.jpg Should I be worried? I know they put the magnet in there for a reason, but this just seems like a lot of metal. Mobil 1 ATF - it shifts better now. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 13:47:00 -0700 From: "Kevin Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] E9 Coupe Information I ran in to a guy I have not seen for years at Laguna Seca this weekend and he told me he just bought a "fixer upper" E9 coupe. Does anyone know of a good coupe specific or senior 6 e-mail lists? We were talking about wheels for the coupe and my friend asked If I knew if BMW ever sold a 15 inch Turbine/Alpina style five lug wheel. On a related note did Alpina ever sell cars with "5 lug" 15 inch wheels (I know Alpina made 15 inch "4 lug" wheels since I had a set on my old E21 323i). Kevin Kelly BMW CCA 50039 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 14:03:08 -0700 From: "Kevin Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] E34 Lic. Plate & Trunk Light Problem A friend is having a strange problem with his E34 Lic. Plate Lights and Trunk Lights. Symptom OBC on the dash flashes "Lic. Plate Lights" but both are still working (but did seem a little dim). With the trunk open (and engine off) the lic. plate light up, but the lights inside the trunk lid do not light (the main trunk light works fine). When the trunk is closed the license plate lights turn off. We cleaned all the contacts and replaced all four bulbs (both lic. plate lights and interior trunk lid lights) and the problem was the same. When we pulled both bulbs from inside the trunk the lic. plate lights still worked but didn't light up when the trunk was opened any more (but the OBC still gave the Lic. Plate Lights message). Has anyone had a similar problem? Kevin Kelly BMW CCA 50039 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 20:59:37 -0700 (PDT) From: Jason Knight <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] Shifter for 320i transmission The wife has a '74 2002 with a 320i 5 Speed transmission. Since she got another Camaro I've taken to driving it a few days a week instead of the M3. The shifting on the car, however, is not as precise as I would like. Engagement of gears is a multi-notch affair. For sure, it is more precise than the 4 speed original transmission that it replaced, but I'm looking for something more akin to the m3. My question: Is this a function of the shifter or the transmission? Or could it be either, and the question is unanswerable without more info? Is there an aftermarket shit kit I can get that will make it so that I can be sure of the gear I'm in. Currently I sometimes have doubts whether it's Reverse, 1st, or 3rd. I'm hoping to sort this car out and make it a true blast to drive. Thanks for all input. Jason ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 00:06:01 -0400 From: ben keyes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] E9 Coupe Information Kevin Kelly wrote: > We were talking about wheels for the coupe and my friend asked If I knew if > BMW ever sold a 15 inch Turbine/Alpina style five lug wheel. yep. the standard wheel on the old CS'es is something very much like that, usually with a low (less than 15mm) offset IIRC. I've seen them advertised as both Alpina & "Alpina style", dunno what the story is with them. > On a related note did Alpina ever sell cars with "5 lug" 15 inch wheels (I > know Alpina made 15 inch "4 lug" wheels since I had a set on my old E21 > 323i). yes, they did those as well. I do not believe there is a covered-lugs version of the 15" wheel (like the 16's you usually see on E30's and the larger 17/18/20's you see for 5-lug cars) but there's one similar to the BMW factory wheels mentioned above. Ben semi-pro wheel guy :-P ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 21:24:20 -0700 From: jkerouac <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] re: book hours versus shop charges re: book hours versus shop charges: At a dealer I was associated with in the past, the top techs sometimes earned 60 book hours in a 40 hour week. One profitable job was E30 325 head gaskets. Customer pay was 6 hours, warranty paid 3.6? hours. But the whole job could be done in an hour using a hack procedure involving pushing up on the exhaust downpipes with a floor jack after unbolting the head bolts. R&Ring the head gasket then required it to be bent like hell. The bottom of the head could not be cleaned or inspected. New head bolts were not used, but the customer was frequently charged for them anyway. Angle torquing? What's that? Also that valve decarbonization procedure was a big moneymaker, according to lots of service advisors the cure all for rough idle and hesitation in mid eighties bimmers. The dealer charged it at an hour per cylinder, when a big six took under two hours to actually do correctly. Some of the real racketeers would check past service records, and if the complaint was hesitation but the car had old or dirty spark plugs, just change the spark plugs, dump a can of BG in the tank, and make deliberate wrenchmarks on the intake manifold nuts. We had a standing rule that the below mentioned dealer forgot to follow when hours charged are greater than time passed. That was to make a late afternoon phone call and apologetically lie to the customer that the car is taking longer than expected, and it will be ready the next morning, don't worry no extra charge for the longer amount of labor, feel free to keep the dealer's loaner until then. Another fraud dealers commit is to offer to include a repair on an out of warranty car, such as replacing a bad lock actuator or window winder, at no charge if you buy the major $ervice. What they do is find a car in the dealer's service records that was still in warranty, had not had the bad part replaced, and with serial numbers that would take the same parts as the customer car would be getting. Then a false warranty RO would be written for the in warranty car to cover the cost of what the dealer told the customer was being performed for free. Btw, if your friend's car was in for warranty repairs, why was the customer charged for them? 'jk - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 17:47:13 -0500 From: Dennis Wynne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] Book repair charges - WAS Central Locking Question A guy I know had his 7 series into the local BMW dealer for out of warranty repairs. He dropped it off at 8:00am and picked it up at 4:00pm. Looking at the bill he was charged for 10 hours or so of labor (I can't remember the exact numbers - but it was 2-3 hours more than the time the dealer had the car). ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 00:25:56 -0400 From: "KMS - Brett Anderson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: [uuc] E34 Lic. Plate & Trunk Light Problem The harness at the left trunk hinge has deteriorated to the point where multiple wires are broken and shorting against each other. The fix is to cut the harness before and after the hinge, add some new, good quality, wire to reconnect the trunk harness to the main harness. Brett Anderson KMS > -----Original Message----- > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Kevin Kelly A friend is having a strange problem with his E34 Lic. Plate Lights and > Trunk Lights. > Symptom OBC on the dash flashes "Lic. Plate Lights" but both are still > working (but did seem a little dim). With the trunk open (and engine off) > the lic. plate light up, but the lights inside the trunk lid do not light > (the main trunk light works fine). When the trunk is closed the license > plate lights turn off. > We cleaned all the contacts and replaced all four bulbs (both lic. plate > lights and interior trunk lid lights) and the problem was the > same. When we > pulled both bulbs from inside the trunk the lic. plate lights still worked > but didn't light up when the trunk was opened any more (but the OBC still > gave the Lic. Plate Lights message). ------------------------------ End of [uucdigest] V3 #6672 *************************** | | In memory of Michel Potheau - friend, enthusiast, founder of the BMW CCA. |________________________________________ | Please visit these UUC-approved BMW parts vendors/service providers: | (listed alphabetically) | | Autoscope-Motorsports - http://www.autoscope-motorsports.com | |==================================================== | | Koala MotorSport . BMW technical information, special tool sales/rental | http://www.koalamotorsport.com | |==================================================== | | Taylor BMW - http://www.taylorbmw.com - Doc Bimmer! | |==================================================== | Turner Motorsport Inc . The Ultra-High Performance BMW Specialist | 207 Elm Street, Amesbury, MA 01950 | 978-388-7769 / fax 978-388-4202 | http://www.turnermotorsport.com | |==================================================== | | UUC Motorwerks - BMW Performance Fine-tuning | and home of the Ultimate Short Shifter - accept no substitutes! | 908-874-9092 . http://www.uucmotorwerks.com |__________________________________________________________
