BMW Dealer wants £1000 and 2 weeks to fix broken Glowplugs -

[MikeHunt79]

Have they tried an air wrench?

 

[Datamonkey]

Spoken to the dealer today, the glowplugs are actually stuck in the head, asked them why cant they get them out without removing the head.

They mentioned that if the head needs to come off its a good few hours work on my engine. so the cost is mostly labour. The warranty company want a few scans of the documents which i will provide but still why cant BMW actually be able to fix it by thinking outside the box a little.

How would you remove stuck glowplugs without removing and damaging the head, what sort of tools are available to do the job.

Good luck with warranty direct,

Had nothing but fun and games with them and my e46 convertible

Steering rack was worn for some reason, bmw diagnosed it, warranty direct eventually agree'd after take 5 days to send out an engineer to look at it. They then agreed to only pay £900 of the £1800 bill!!

So in one way a £300 warranty saved me £600 but the warranty should have covered the whole thing

And then i had to pay the full whack £1800 and then claim it back from WD, which they then took a month to send me the cheque for.


Also BMW Stevenage are now refusing to do any work on any customers car which goes through warranty direct. They had such touble when dealing with them.

 

[Scania]

Where did all the excess metal go? There would be no way in hell id drill a glow plug and retap a thread which is above the cylinder. Any metal filings go in there and its bye bye..

Anyways back to ops thread, its just one of those things, your warranty will pay so dont worry.

I asked the fitter who did the job tonight about this, he laughed and pointed out that some tools are designed with this in mind, the metal filings in question get extracted apparently.

Anyways, as my Mondeo is now long gone, who cares?

 

[Sam]

BMW will simply get a local guy in to do the work if the glowplugs have snapped inside the head. He will charge a very small amount in comparison (bmw profit) so i suggest you try and make your own connections and get it done far cheaper

 

[Raven8472]

Just to finish up

I have recieved the car back 3 weeks of waiting while driving a mini one ( kept asking for a 4 door and they said the didnt have one). Overall i am about £200 out of pocket as the dealer ( service rep) got me a what they say is the best discount available and my warranty company is paying a decent chunk of the additional costs. The overall expereince wasnt good as i had to keep chasing them for updates , leaving messages, emails etc. They waited over a week for a so called expert to show up to try and get the glow plugs out and he failed so they took the head off sent it away and put it back on. They didnt even wash the car as its dirty.

Now at work when i popped the hood the engine cover ( large removable one has a nice crack in the plastics, looks like someone forced it wrong or stepped on it ) and im noticing that the steering seem decent amount heavier. ( are steering components removed, adjusted while removing the head) I sent a email and will call the service rep but i really dont want a lot to do with this dealer anymore.

Thanks for all your advice.

 

[4T5]

I changed the heater plugs in my Renault Trafic Camper yesterday. Cost £6.50 each so 26 quid in total & took me around 20 minutes to fit.


Sorry I just had to.

 

[SB118]

I had a mercedes diesel a while back and the main dealer wouldnt accept liability if they broke one when removing them. It is a common problem and most garages will not accept the liabilty as like you said the head has to come off to rectify the problem.

I've never, EVER known Glowplugs to snap when trying to remove them, even on the skankiest of worn out, ill maintained vans and cars that I've had any dealings with.

Spoken to the dealer today, the glowplugs are actually stuck in the head, asked them why cant they get them out without removing the head.

How would you remove stuck glowplugs without removing and damaging the head, what sort of tools are available to do the job.

I managed to snap off two in the head of a Merc Sprinter a few weeks ago. Warned the customer in advance so he knew it could happen. Managed to drill out part of the body of the plug and use an easy-out to wind it out. Have to be careful as you run the risk of pushing the heating element into the combustion chamber and that's when the head has to come off.

Probably down to the poor build quality of german cars.

 

[Tesla]

I imagine the steering feels heavy as you have become accustomed to the Mini's.
The steering in my van is super-light, when I drive anything else my forearms start to bow and it feels like a lot of effort.

With regards to the cracked plastics. OK, some may say it's only a cover but when you pay an expert to do the job you don't expect such idiocy.

If a customer pays me to replace the PSU in their computer I don't return the base unit 4 weeks late with dents in. The service you have received sounds dreadful. Generally, people accept this sort of crap though.

 

[Matt82]

as has been said. easy outs work.

a plug broke what i was trying to get out of a diesel mondeo years back, luckily they were easily accessible and the easy out did it.

it did take a lot of force before it broke, but with hind sight, i should have just got the gun to shock it out as soon as i felt it was tight. the gun would have had much more of a chance etc.

i cant imagine access being too good on the bmw engine

 

[Raven8472]

The steering could be my weak arms getting used to the Mini's steering but yes its only a plastic cover but im paying a premium for them to touch my car and even in the past i have removed Bmw engine covers without breaking, snapping or stepping on them.