BMW and M Power Owners
- Thread starter panthro
- Start date
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Wouldn't your warranty cover them anyway? (Not being facetious). I definitely wouldnt particularly want these outside of warranty if they really are this expensive to repair.This is one of the reasons I opted not to go for an Adaptive Drive car, the dampers are so expensive
I must say, I have experience repairing hydraulic and air suspension cars, the prices quoted above seem borderline unbelievable, but perhaps these cars are still too new (or this suspension too rare?) to have proper aftermarket support available for them yet.
Soldato
Good to hear good reports of Sytner Cov, mini is going in for a new wing and two doors.
Soldato
Oil change alert came on over the weekend. I had seem the service mileage creep down of late, it was showing at over 3,000 until service, but I guess its mileage or date as it just popped up on the 1st. I was hoping it wouldn't of needed doing before it goes back at the end of this month.
A friend got absolutely stung from a local BMW dealer for what he thought was just an oil change, the change him £370 for oil change and checks. Some expensive checks going on there. So I found a local BMW specialist and got them to change the oil, log it all with BMW online etc, still cost me £160 for an oil change, which I think is excessive but there you go.
What with this and rear tyres I had to replace a couple of weeks ago as it was drifting through every damp corner, the last month of ownership has been the only one thats cost me any money (other than fuel) in nearly 18 months.
A friend got absolutely stung from a local BMW dealer for what he thought was just an oil change, the change him £370 for oil change and checks. Some expensive checks going on there. So I found a local BMW specialist and got them to change the oil, log it all with BMW online etc, still cost me £160 for an oil change, which I think is excessive but there you go.
What with this and rear tyres I had to replace a couple of weeks ago as it was drifting through every damp corner, the last month of ownership has been the only one thats cost me any money (other than fuel) in nearly 18 months.
Because every other service is actually a major service with plugs, filters etc too.
Soldato
No this definitely wasn't the case. His car was in warranty, but because he was going to go slightly over the mileage, the dealer brought the car in before Christmas, did all the filters etc that were showing up as needed changing. But they said because the oil change light isn't on yet, they couldn't do that under warranty. So come back in the new year,, at which point you will be over your mileage so it wont be free, but it wont cost much as all we will do is drop the oil.
Needless to say he wasn't at all pleased when he got the bill.
Soldato
My thoughts exactly, and from the little research I did there seem to be a lot of aftermarket options available for a lot less than what he paid - the F10 has been out for quite a while now, after all. I'm assuming NVP looked into those though.
I was amazed at how easy the air suspension was to replace on my Jag: I changed an entire shock in a car park with only a few basic tools. Plenty of people on the US forums going on about how it needed all kinds of fancy coding, turned out all you had to do was disconnect the battery once it was jacked up, and then reconnect it before you put it down again.
Often I think garages don't have the knowledge or interest to look into other options. I paid £1750 to replace the entire steering column on my Audi due to a circuit board issue - the board is apparently impossible to remove. They gave me the old part and I had the board out within 5 minutes with just a basic screwdriver.
Caporegime
Yes you perhaps could but at a stroke you lose one of the Fives biggest / best assets, the adaptive suspension, I’m yet to read a road test / review where it isn’t recommended to get the best ride from the car (which admittedly is already very very good).
The prices being banded about for replacement of these components seems pretty laughable but it’s the motor industry doing its usual “new & high tech ergo expensive” routine, joe public knows no better so stumps up.
In actual fact it’s far from new tech (even in some cars) and not expensive tech either.
The prices NVP has been quoted for his 5 Series are extortion - you wouldn’t pay anywhere near that kind of money to swap the air suspension on an HGV!
Last edited:
IMHO it's quite over-rated - and I don't mean it isnt good, it is, but the motoring press went bananas over it and almost every review says, as you mention, that its an absolute must have. What is worse is that most of these are reviews of the 520d for which Adaptive Drive wasn't even available - the only variable option was VDC which frankly isn't very good.
Happily NVP's car has the proper Adaptive Drive setup but it's incredibly rare.
The air suspension is only part of the story here though which people seem to be missing. The F11 does not have full air suspension, only the rear is air suspended (Standard on any F11 not just cars with Adaptive Drive). He has also had to replace the front suspension - and dampers for the Adaptive Drive system are incredibly expensive.
Caporegime
It would be interesting to hear our resident motoring journo’s view on this (adaptive drive) and yes, I’ve read praise in reviews of the 520d and indeed larger engined models.
I’m more than a bit puzzled as to why he’d need new front suspension after a rear suspension air bag failure though?
I’m reading it as a failure but would have thought this - the front needing replacement as well - more likely through accident damage?
As an F11 owner reading NVP's bill amount is somewhat concerning! I don't have adaptive drive though so I would hope it would be a lot cheaper. Only 4 months left on the AUC warranty though and 70k+ miles now means the warranty will probably be pricey.
@[TW]Fox do you know what I'll be looking at roughly for the warranty? I can't check online as it currently has the AUC warranty.
@[TW]Fox do you know what I'll be looking at roughly for the warranty? I can't check online as it currently has the AUC warranty.
Soldato
In that case, this is surely a huge consideration when buying a used F10, as I'd imagine shock absorbers won't be covered even under BMW warranty? On ECP, front shocks for the standard system are £245, and rears are £164, plus you could probably get them for a lot less with one of their perennial sales discount codes.
The adaptive drive system would have to turn it into a completely new car for it to be worth buying a used example with that system fitted - shock absorbers are a pretty standard failure once a car has a few miles under it's belt.
Soldato
- Joined
- 10 Oct 2006
- Posts
- 3,571
The extended warranty covers them to 100k
The F11 still has rear shock absorbers so I expect that these will be what are getting replaced rather than the fronts.
They are pretty reliable, if the car hadn’t been driven with it on the bump stops due to the compressor/bag failure the bill would have been a lot less.
The F11 still has rear shock absorbers so I expect that these will be what are getting replaced rather than the fronts.
They are pretty reliable, if the car hadn’t been driven with it on the bump stops due to the compressor/bag failure the bill would have been a lot less.
What does this have to do with the system on a 5 Series? The two are incomparable. With a 5 Series if you have VDC alone without Dynamic Drive alongside it really doesn't handle as well as a conventionally sprung M Sport car.
VDC + Dynamic Drive = Adaptive Drive = epic
VDC alone = SE ride height and inferior handling.
This is how i understood it, the front didn't suffer anything? The price seems unbelievable but i can only think that the parts are rare enough to not be widely supported.
Everything to do with it. Surely dynamic drive is just an addition to the VDC thus backing up the point adaptive drive is worth having and cant be beaten 'by some passive setup'. Are we suggesting something like coilovers here?
I see the same when people claim EDC cars are pointless yet also complain a standard M car is too stiff. The benefit of EDC is not handling, its the opposite - more comfort.
Don't have the hours to multi quote everything but just read this stuff about a good passive setup being better than a adaptive and thought BS.