Bad E30 M3 news - Time is Circular...

"Battery Tender Unnecessary" (carac) 05/27/2014 at 19:06 • Filed to: E30 M3, Bad Shop

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Apparently the rebuild it had 6k miles ago needs to be redone, either in part or in whole. Getting a lot of bottom-end noise that sounds like rod bearings, gaskets beginning to leak, various other issues, none of which should happen in less than 2 years and 10k miles. Something has felt "off" for a while.

"Good" news is that I'm committed to making sure its as good as it can be so it will be fixed, by a better shop and at no cost (minus legal fees, if necessary) if all goes well.

In "BMW knew what they were doing" dept, it has run flawlessly with an apparently self-destructing bottom-end.

I'll be posting the shop "nightmare" story that led to this point, which I held back because I'm nice and I thought it was over. But nightmares have a way of recurring.

jkm7680 > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/27/2014 at 19:08

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Very nice looking car Sir! Sorry that the rebuild went wrong, how many miles are on the car since new?

offroadkarter > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/27/2014 at 19:09

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Wow that ****ing blows. This car is definitely worth fixing right though. If it was just a 318i I'd say rip the whole damn engine out lol

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/27/2014 at 19:13

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and that kids is why we torque every bolt to spec. no more no less.

alexotics > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/27/2014 at 19:15

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Hopefully a strongly worded letter by your lawyer is all it takes for the original shop to own up. Hope everything goes well from this point forward. Looking forward to reading about the horrible experience (to learn from, not to laugh at). Beautiful little Bimmer too, good thing she found a proper owner. I just sold mine (1987 325is Coupe) that looked somewhat similar.

Battery Tender Unnecessary > jkm7680 05/27/2014 at 19:24

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It had 174k when I bought it in 2010. Previous owner was also a doctor. Had been garaged it's whole life, came with a binder full of its service history. Think it's up to 184k now. The kicker is that I probably could have driven it to the usual 200k-ish point you usually do a rebuild on these with nothing but oil changes, but I decided to do it a little early so I would be confident I could push it without it exploding...how ironic.

jkm7680 > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/27/2014 at 19:28

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Wow, That's the ideal situation for a car like that. Two doctor owners, that must be great. I can't imagine a doctor stancing a car like that. Hope the next shop does a great job this time around!

deekster_caddy > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/27/2014 at 19:45

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curious to follow the rest of the story. Good luck getting any repercussions from the machine shop who did the bottom end. Make sure they have a chance to be aware of the situation. If they are a BMW shop they would likely try to make it right. If they are a more generic machine shop maybe not so.

It's not easy to "prove" blame in this case either.

Battery Tender Unnecessary > deekster_caddy 05/27/2014 at 19:49

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Thankfully, no one else has opened the engine since them so the responsible party is pretty cut and dry. Multiple issues point to a shoddy job, which is a shame because he had the car for nearly 24 months. Plenty of time to do a good job.

deekster_caddy > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/27/2014 at 19:51

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good luck! It's a sucky situation all around.

Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/27/2014 at 20:49

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??

Scary__goongala! > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/27/2014 at 21:16

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Save the S14s!!!

BlythBros. > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/27/2014 at 22:21

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Geez, post some photos of that bottom end when you get it pulled apart again.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/28/2014 at 12:11

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Had it for TWO YEARS?! Damn... Hope you get a good resolution.

Battery Tender Unnecessary > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 05/28/2014 at 13:10

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Yeah and he just "offered" to try and fix it (which at this point looks like a complete rebuild). Basically told him if we can't "settle" in a way that avoids his shop then I'll take a legal route. I don't think any court would consider two years, more than $10k out of pocket, and a shot motor a reasonable outcome or blame me for keeping it out of his hands at this point.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/28/2014 at 13:58

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What a nightmare. Hope he complies quickly to make it right - probably in his best interest as a business owner, but not all people think rationally when it comes to stuff like this.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Battery Tender Unnecessary 05/28/2014 at 14:24

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What a nightmare. Hope he complies quickly to make it right - probably in his best interest as a business owner, but not all people think rationally when it comes to stuff like this.