Understeer in E46, is something wrong?

  • Thread starter Thread starter NVP
  • Start date Start date
[TW]Fox;16673088 said:
Just get it MOT'd at a local place for 25 quid and let Sytner do the brakes.
Click to expand...
The thing is as my weekends are full I only have time during the week and I'm having to take an hour out of work to drop the car off tomorrow, if I had to take another hour out of work for a second seperate "appointment" it would negate the 25-30 odd quid I'd save from taking it to an indie.

Khaaan! said:
Those prices were just pulled off Google, I'm sure you can find them even cheaper. My sensor leads were £5 for example and were genuine BMW ones.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm sure sourcing the parts seperately and getting and indie to fit them would work out a little bit cheaper but I don't have the time as I need my car in working condition this weekend and I don't want to risk running it around on low pads and damaging the discs :(

AgentSm1th said:
*snip*
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I will definitly get it re-tracked somewhere with a Hunter, especially after Fox informed me of the £200 price tag BMW would charge!

Fox, what's so special about this KDS Alignment that it would cost so much?
 
Dropped it off this morning, enquired about the KDS alignment and they quoted £110 for my model. Interesting... do I get it re-aligned at a cheap place or pay over double for a "proper" BMW alignment? She couldn't actually tell me what was so special about the KDS apart from "it takes an hour of labour".
 
Hmmm... after a quick google reading up on KDS I'm think £110 isn't too bad a price to pay. May just ask them to do it so I can be sure that my tracking and everything is legit once again.
 
Was that from BMW or somewhere else? Was it with a Hunter? It seems Hunter machines are to the BMW spec (or BMW use Hunter machines themselves). Yeah I think I'll just pay the £110, as the saying goes "you can't put a price on peace of mind".

(Not sure if that's a saying or a song or whatever but it makes a good point)
 
So they kept it overnight to do the alignment and have just performed the MOT... it failed :(

They say my rear tyres are illegal too even thought the tyre place who changed my fronts said they were fine.

They said not only do my front brake pads need changing but also my rears and both sets of discs as the discs are on their minimun wear :confused:

They also said my power steering fluid needs topping up and i need another litre of oil?!! Considering I just had inspection II a couple months ago I can't see how they could have become low already?! :confused:

I feel like I am getting scammed as the tyres should be OK and the discs seem fine as braking is exactly as it has always been, or is my ignorance biasing my opinion?

Looks like it's going to be an expensive month for my car :(
 
Rear tyres looked fine to me but as we have seen previously my observation skills aren't that great. The guy who replaced my fronts said the backs were legal though, and that was only a week ago.

The front pads definitly need replacing as even the tyre guy told me they were very minimal. I have not checked the rears or any discs but I have a feeling my rear pads could need replacing judging by the wear of the fronts.
 
Thanks for the advice guys, I have asked them to change the brake discs and pads and top up the steering fluid, I will top up the oil myself.

Tyres, they only have RE040s at £200 each but I can get RE050As fitted for £180 each so they've said take it today, fit them over the weekend and bring it back for a free MOT re-test early next week which should work out ok for me. :)

So basically it's £428 for all pads n discs, £54 for the MOT, £110 for the KDS and £10 for power steering fluid. Then 2x £180 for the tyres somewhere else... At least my car will feel like new after all of this :D


I was suspicious about the power steering before this as I could hear a slight hissing sound while the car is stationary but the sound stopped when I turned the steering wheel which lead me to suspect there was a leak of some sort but I wasn't really sure. What's the best action to take to resolve this issue? Find a decent indie to fix it up? Or get BMW to sort it now? Should it have been picked up during Insp. II?
 
Does sound quite bad that we are charged this much on a "premium" service yet a couple months down the line core componenets need replacing. All they mentioned when I had insp II was that my brake pads were "70% worn", but nothing about anything else :(

Regarding my suspected PAS fluid leak, what would be the best course of action do you guys think? Will it be easy enough to check for leaks personally?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom