Quote:
Originally Posted by Jklad
Oh do tell...
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Well since you asked...
So because the throwout bearing was rattling like a spray paint can; it only does so once the car is warm, I took the Z4 to BMW of Sterling in Northern Virginia near my office to have it verified and to check the alignment (within the CarMax 5-day return policy). I bought the car from CarMax in Charlottesville. There happens to be a CarMax dealership in Northern Virginia down the street from BMW of Sterling (this is a key point).
The SA at Sterling asked me if I had bought the CarMax extended warranty. I found the question odd and answered "No". I asked for an evaluation of the clutch noise and to check the alignment. A few hours later I get a call from the SA. He said the transmission noise was the input shaft bearing and that the transmission would have to be pulled to verify. Secondly, he said the rear-end was not able to be aligned and needed $1,200 in new suspension parts in order to get the car in alignment. Now, I know a little bit about cars I must say... The Z4 had only 23,000 miles on it. I have a lift at home in my shop, so trust me when I tell you I went through an in-depth evaluation of the car for an undercarriage suspension check the day I brought it home and to inspect it for any other undercarriage damage. The only way the rear could not be put into alignment is if the suspension bushings were totally shot, or there were bent suspension components. It is a common issue with the Z4 that inexperienced tow truck drivers or auto carriers will use the lower rear strut arms to tie the car down to transport it and bend the arms in doing so. The rear lower strut arms on my car showed no such damage. The lower control arms are beefy cast aluminum, which would break if damaged, not bend out of alignment. Bushings shot at 23,000 miles... I highly doubt it, even in serious track use.
So my suspicion was the SA thought I did have the CarMax extended warranty (he must have thought I bought the car at the CarMax down the street and didn't hear or forgot I said I didn't buy the extended warranty) and decided he'd try to milk CarMax (me) out of some BS warranty work. Now also, in October of 2014, a few months before, I took my then 263,000-mile E90 to Sterling (same SA) for an alignment, which the SA came back after the alignment and stated "the next time it may need some new suspension parts just due to the high mileage." So a 23,000-mile Z4 needing suspension parts as told to me by the same SA at the dealership in December 2014... yeah, right... BS.
So I took the Sterling BMW report back to CarMax in Charlottesville. Because the trans diagnosis was a possible bad input bearing, that blew my chances of getting CarMax to pay for a throwout bearing replacement. CarMax insisted the noise "was normal" (normal for a rattling throwout bearing...
) and for the alignment, CarMax took the Z4 over to BMW of Charlottesville, which is literally across the street (and where I bought my 2006 E90 in May of 2006) to have the suspension checked and the trans noise evaluated. BMW of Charlottesville came back with... the transmission noise was not found (sure, sure) and the only noise they
did hear was possibly a bad serpentine belt tensioner. BMW of C-ville was able to get the rear-end in perfect alignment (miracles upon miracles). So either BMW of C-ville didn't drive the car long enough to heat the throwout bearing up to have it start rattling, or they were in cahoots with CarMax in denying there was a throwout bearing noise thus avoiding the cost to CarMax to drop the trans and replace the bearing. The rear-end obviously wasn't damaged.
So fast forward to today... The Z4 now sits with 89,000 miles on it three and a half years later. The belt tensioner is still original, the trans is still in fine shape (I've changed the oil in it at 35,000 miles and ran a magnet through the old juice with not one grain of metal showing up). A bad input shaft bearing rattling like it was (is
) supposedly doing would NEVER last another 65,000 miles; I have the new throw out bearing ready to go in, but haven't had time to drop the trans to replace it. And one last thing, in March of 2015 (I bought the car December 2014), I was rear ended by an Acura MDX, which hit its left front tire into my rear right tire (after going through the rear bumper...). The Acura glanced off to the right, Joey Chitwood style, on it's two right wheels sliding down the guardrail (it was pretty cool
to see the undercarriage go buy my passenger side window I must say) - the driver was totally freaked out when she finally landed back on 4 wheels. Anyway, that collision
did break the right rear suspension among other things... I had the Z4 repaired by BMW of Fairfax; they have an in-house bodyshop, which is rated the best BMW bodyshop on the East Coast. The Z4 is was put back together ($11K worth of damage) and is still in perfect rear-end alignment.
So the moral of this story is, CarMax is full of BS as are some BMW dealerships, or there's a lot of incompetence going around.