[nthanos330i]

Let me preface this by saying that I love my E90 330i, and for my last two years of ownership, the car has been exceedingly reliable. For some reason this week, good old Sabrina decided to give me a run for my money —quite literally. I go to school in Southern California, and I bought my car from the local BMW dealership where I live in May of 2016 mainly as a new-er car for college (I was coming from a 91’ 735i so this was quite the upgrade). My 06’ 330i was one owner, maintained religiously at the dealer (or so I thought), and exceptionally clean for 114,000 miles on the clock. I would venture to say that anyone looking for a reasonably priced but reliable pre-LCI E90 would have jumped at this car as I did. Below is a picture of the day I picked her up and some more recent photos after some modding (and I already know it needs to be lowered).

Now this is where things seem to get interesting. When I bought my car, it showed that the previous owner had a dealer oil change every 5,000 miles or so, had some expensive repairs such as the oil pan gasket replaced, and overall treated the car very well. On Monday, however, I took my car in to have a noisy belt tensioner replaced at Best Motorwerks in Montclair, CA —the only repair I have needed other than control arms on a car with almost 130k miles at this point! On a side note, the guys at Best Motorwerks are fantastic and do amazing work for amazing prices; they’re a true BMW family and I would recommend them to anyone in the greater LA area. I normally do my own work, but being at school without a garage or tools, these are the only guys I trust, but I digress. Anyways, while the tensioner was being replaced, the guys had to remove the upper radiator hose, which was oddly brittle. To their surprise and mine, my N52 was filled with green coolant! Any good BMW owner knows to use BMW specific blue coolant, so I was rather surprised that my car had this coolant in it given that I bought it at a BMW dealer. Now before anyone sounds off about how the first thing you do when you buy a used car is change all the fluids, I know I know, but having bought the car from a BMW DEALER, I expected that it would at least have had the correct fluids in it.

Anyways, although it has been some time, I was able to get the dealer to pay for new hoses and a coolant flush, given I had had one of their special offer $89.99 oil changes performed less than a year ago where supposedly my “fluids were checked.” (I do my oil about twice a year or every 5,000). So, I pick my car up after the new tensioner, accessory belt, coolant, and upper and lower radiator hoses have been installed —the car runs perfect! So, I think ‘great, it wasn’t cheap, but at least she’s reliable now.’ Since I don’t really use my car during the week when I have class, I parked it that Monday evening and only went back to start it on Thursday. As I start the car, the idle is all over the place, its misfiring, and I have a check engine light... Oh deer. So, I take the car back to my mechanic, and he suggests spark plugs and coils. (I do want to point out that this just happened to be a very unfortunate coincidence, the ignition system and belts are very separate, so nothing from Monday’s service could have caused this).

When the guys begin to do the work, they discover that the inner valve cover gasket is leaking, and has left a decent amount of oil around a few of the plugs. At a 130K, I’m not too surprised, but this next thing did surprise me. The car had a jumble of different coils, meaning that the previous owner had them replaced as they failed and likely not at the dealership, and it appeared as if the car had the original spark plugs! Low and behold, I check the service records and although there are an array of services performed over the last owner’s 10 year ownership, never once were the coils or spark plugs listed! An just so everyone knows, $1600 is good pricing for an independent for all this work. The BMW dealer near me quoted me $1100 just for coils and plugs.

Dealer’s are scammers sometimes, and it pays to read the fine print! My car is what my dealer considered a “value car,” which means they only perform a safety test before selling them. As mad as I may be, this is in the fine print and I should have made less assumptions when buying and poked around the car a little more before purchasing. With that said, however, I believe that if any of us were buying a used BMW from a BMW dealer, they’re comes the assumption that the car is in good shape. I used to work for a Mercedes dealer, and I know that we only kept cars like my 330i if they were very clean and well taken care of at that milage and age —if not, they went off to auction. So the moral of my story: practice due diligence when purchasing a used car, even if everything seems great. This goes for private parties and dealers. Thoroughly read everything —service records, contracts, etc.— and sometimes you have to do some checking for yourself and get your hands dirty. My experience here is nothing new, and I’m sure I have said nothing new, but its a friendly reminder for some practices we sometimes forget.

[tlow98]

Ugh, sorry to hear. So 1600 = belt, tensioner, plugs, coils, coolant and coolant hoses?

And, yes, dealers can be some shady jerks. My mother’s 328xi was bought at a dealer. The same dealer that did the maintenance on the car for the first 45k miles.

They “quoted” new brakes when selling the car. The pads were new, but all four rotors had been resurfaced (incredibly rusty inner cooling vanes but miraculously no wear on the lip). Needless to say the rotors didn’t last 3k miles.

As I gave the car a tune up at 55k miles I discovered many broken clip, missing bolts and unplugged interior lights. It’s like everywhere they went they managed to break something. Passenger safety belt cover held on with electrical tape - same with the driver’s door kick panel.

Oh, and in the first 100 miles the smoke was so thick from the valve cover gasket failure that smoke billowed from the hood. Guess there’s a reason they clean the engine with a toothbrush before sale - just cover that failure up and sell, sell, sell. They met us halfway on that repair and I told them the rest was fine as I could do it all for under $200 anyway and that we’d never see them again. It’s funny how they look at you when you talk their language and could care less about the leather sofa experience they offer. It’s like being in OZ and finally you see the coward behind the curtain. They didn’t like me very much.

Good to hear your Mercedes dealership sounded like a nice place.

And sorry for ranting in your thread. Just wanted to commiserate.

Also, are those M-parallels from late 90s/early 2000s? They look awesome on the e90. Haven’t seen that pairing. 👍

[nthanos330i]

Originally Posted by tlow98

Ugh, sorry to hear. So 1600 = belt, tensioner, plugs, coils, coolant and coolant hoses?

And, yes, dealers can be some shady jerks. My mother's 328xi was bought at a dealer. The same dealer that did the maintenance on the car for the first 45k miles.

They "quoted" new brakes when selling the car. The pads were new, but all four rotors had been resurfaced (incredibly rusty inner cooling vanes but miraculously no wear on the lip). Needless to say the rotors didn't last 3k miles.

As I gave the car a tune up at 55k miles I discovered many broken clip, missing bolts and unplugged interior lights. It's like everywhere they went they managed to break something. Passenger safety belt cover held on with electrical tape - same with the driver's door kick panel.

Oh, and in the first 100 miles the smoke was so thick from the valve cover gasket failure that smoke billowed from the hood. Guess there's a reason they clean the engine with a toothbrush before sale - just cover that failure up and sell, sell, sell. They met us halfway on that repair and I told them the rest was fine as I could do it all for under $200 anyway and that we'd never see them again. It's funny how they look at you when you talk their language and could care less about the leather sofa experience they offer. It's like being in OZ and finally you see the coward behind the curtain. They didn't like me very much.

Good to hear your Mercedes dealership sounded like a nice place.

And sorry for ranting in your thread. Just wanted to commiserate.

Also, are those M-parallels from late 90s/early 2000s? They look awesome on the e90. Haven't seen that pairing. ðÃ'Ÿ'ÂÂ�

Sounds like you had a rough go of it as well! And yeah, $1600 for everything, minus $200 from the dealer that I bought the car from as after speaking to the GM, they agreed to cover the coolant flush and hoses, so I can say they at least somewhat tried to right their wrong even 2 years later. I think not bring a CPO, my car's "selective" service history is to blame on the previous owner. I really don't understand spending 2k+ on a dealer oil pan gasket job and oil changes every 5k miles, but then not doing coils and spark plugs at the recommended mileage! Anyways, the car should be running good for some years to come now.

And yes! They are M pars E39 fitment so pretty aggressive offset and they require hub centric rings. I'm running M3 control arms up front, so the added camber allows me to have an 18x8 13mm offset in the front with a 225/35, and in the rear an 18x9.5 25mm offset with a 255/35. I used to be have Z4m 224Ms, but was getting a weird vibration with spacers, so I took the M pars off my E32 (the project car).

[mecheng77]

I call BS. First you don't need to remove the rad hose to change the tensioner.

Secondly, you are saying the dealer went out of their way to buy green coolant? How do you know someone else didn't work on the car, the dealer doesn't carry aftermarket coils or coolant.
How do you know your beloved independent didn't put the green stuff in.

Too soon junior, don't become a lawyer

[Emilime75]

Unless I missed something, that seems very expensive for what you got. I just bought a bunch of new parts for mine(N54). Among the list are new plugs, coils, tensioner, both idler pullies, belt, coolant...those were right around $300 for genuine BMW parts. Also bought an aluminum hose fitting to replace the plastic one that often breaks on the N54, $25. If I was to add the hoses, I'd still be below $500 in parts.

Are 330i parts a lot more expensive than the 335i? What is the shop's hourly rate? This stuff shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours to do.

[tlow98]

Originally Posted by mecheng77

I call BS. First you don't need to remove the rad hose to change the tensioner.

Secondly, you are saying the dealer went out of their way to buy green coolant? How do you know someone else didn't work on the car, the dealer doesn't carry aftermarket coils or coolant.
How do you know your beloved independent didn't put the green stuff in.

Too soon junior, don't become a lawyer

He acknowledges that selective service happened at multiple places. Who’s to really know what happened?

You think he made this up for you to debunk?

[BravoJohny33]

Originally Posted by Emilime75

Unless I missed something, that seems very expensive for what you got. I just bought a bunch of new parts for mine(N54). Among the list are new plugs, coils, tensioner, both idler pullies, belt, coolant...those were right around $300 for genuine BMW parts. Also bought an aluminum hose fitting to replace the plastic one that often breaks on the N54, $25. If I was to add the hoses, I'd still be below $500 in parts.

Are 330i parts a lot more expensive than the 335i? What is the shop's hourly rate? This stuff shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours to do.

You forget that mechanics charge 350 to change spark plugs and then 300+ to change coil packets even though if they are doing spark plugs they already did the labor for the coil packs. But nope mechanics will charge you an hour labor just to pop the coil packs out. Nope 1600 sounds about right these days at a mechanic. Every thing is rocket science on a car. Only educated well trained people can replace spark plugs and coil packs. That is why they are paid 200 an hour +

[W37V]

Originally Posted by mecheng77

I call BS. First you don't need to remove the rad hose to change the tensioner.

Secondly, you are saying the dealer went out of their way to buy green coolant? How do you know someone else didn't work on the car, the dealer doesn't carry aftermarket coils or coolant.
How do you know your beloved independent didn't put the green stuff in.

Too soon junior, don't become a lawyer

I second this.

Too much bullshit in your post. You are lucky your car didn’t eat that belt and then you would truly have $1600 bill.

You feel remorse for having to pay for regular upkeep and blaming dealership for potentially someone else’s work? Per bmw plugs on n52 don’t need to be replaced until 100k anyway. You don’t need to replace all coils at once. Replace them as they fail. Everything you listed is basic maintenance that is expected at such age / mileage.

[nthanos330i]

Originally Posted by Emilime75

Unless I missed something, that seems very expensive for what you got. I just bought a bunch of new parts for mine(N54). Among the list are new plugs, coils, tensioner, both idler pullies, belt, coolant...those were right around $300 for genuine BMW parts. Also bought an aluminum hose fitting to replace the plastic one that often breaks on the N54, $25. If I was to add the hoses, I'd still be below $500 in parts.

Are 330i parts a lot more expensive than the 335i? What is the shop's hourly rate? This stuff shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours to do.

Coils and spark plugs alone for a non-OEM set start at about $230. And the valve cover gasket is quoted as a 5 hour job so there's a lot of labor charges there. I would be doing a lot of this myself, but without a garage or tools at school it just isn't possible.

[nthanos330i]

Originally Posted by W37V

I second this.

Too much bullshit in your post. You are lucky your car didnÂ’t eat that belt and then you would truly have $1600 bill.

You feel remorse for having to pay for regular upkeep and blaming dealership for potentially someone elseÂ’s work? Per bmw plugs on n52 donÂ’t need to be replaced until 100k anyway. You donÂ’t need to replace all coils at once. Replace them as they fail. Everything you listed is basic maintenance that is expected at such age / mileage.

I'm not saying none of it isn't expected maintenance, I'm just saying that for it to all fail in one weeks time is unfortunate and to have the improper coolant in the car just seems neglectful to me (given I probably should have checked it at some point, but we all know life gets in the way sometimes). I don't really see the 'bullshit,' there was definitely some things that the dealership should have noticed or did notice and didn't tell me. To tell me a car was only dealer maintained and then to have an array of non BMW coils installed is strange.

[nthanos330i]

Originally Posted by W37V

I second this.

Too much bullshit in your post. You are lucky your car didn't eat that belt and then you would truly have $1600 bill.

You feel remorse for having to pay for regular upkeep and blaming dealership for potentially someone else's work? Per bmw plugs on n52 don't need to be replaced until 100k anyway. You don't need to replace all coils at once. Replace them as they fail. Everything you listed is basic maintenance that is expected at such age / mileage.

I also made it very clear that a lot of this was the previous owner's fault. And I think 'remorse' is a strong term. It just sucks... I'm a 20 year old college student who really loves these cars, I understand there are maintenance costs that come with them, but I don't think anyone is especially happy to shell out $1600 in one week.

[nthanos330i]

Originally Posted by mecheng77

I call BS. First you don't need to remove the rad hose to change the tensioner.

Secondly, you are saying the dealer went out of their way to buy green coolant? How do you know someone else didn't work on the car, the dealer doesn't carry aftermarket coils or coolant.
How do you know your beloved independent didn't put the green stuff in.

Too soon junior, don't become a lawyer

There was obvious discoloring inside of the radiator hoses caused by improper coolant. I had seen similar damage when I worked at Mercedes... I don't think the dealer put it in. What good would that do them, I mean really, what good? I'm just saying while performing a pre-purchase inspection and "checking my fluids," it should have been noticed... but mistakes happen. Why I didn't feel the need to post this dealers name and bash them. The guys at my beloved shop (which I do love) are also my friends and I trust them, that's why I go there. There was obvious evidence the car had the wrong coolant in it. My mechanic noticed the brittle hose, and was going to throw one on that he had to be nice, however the fitting snapped as the coolant had caused the plastic to become brittle. Also, I'm a 2 time mock trial county champion, 3 year mock trial attorney, and was team captain. It may not be being a real lawyer, but it's probably more than you can say... So don't "junior" me, you don't know me like that.

[nthanos330i]

Originally Posted by W37V

I second this.

Too much bullshit in your post. You are lucky your car didnÂ’t eat that belt and then you would truly have $1600 bill.

You feel remorse for having to pay for regular upkeep and blaming dealership for potentially someone elseÂ’s work? Per bmw plugs on n52 donÂ’t need to be replaced until 100k anyway. You donÂ’t need to replace all coils at once. Replace them as they fail. Everything you listed is basic maintenance that is expected at such age / mileage.

Also oil around the leaking inner valve cover gasket had coated a few of the plugs. It was wise to replace them while doing coils.

[Welcome to NBA Jam]

I knew this was going to be an "I don't DIY" story when I read the title.

This is a good example for you, OP, and it sounds a lot like my first experience with buying a car and then having someone else do work on it. It will really pay off to do these jobs yourself. You'll save loads of money, and the tools to do it are cheap. Even if you had to buy all of the tools, it would be significantly cheaper than $1600.

Originally Posted by nthanos330i

Also, I'm a 2 time mock trial county champion, 3 year mock trial attorney, and was team captain. It may not be being a real lawyer, but it's probably more than you can say...

reddit.com/r/iamverysmart

[nthanos330i]

Originally Posted by Welcome to NBA Jam

I knew this was going to be an "I don't DIY" story when I read the title.

This is a good example for you, OP, and it sounds a lot like my first experience with buying a car and then having someone else do work on it. It will really pay off to do these jobs yourself. You'll save loads of money, and the tools to do it are cheap. Even if you had to buy all of the tools, it would be significantly cheaper than $1600.

I know. I do DIY. I'm just away at school with no tools or garage space. In fact, over winter break I did the head gasket on my E32. I know labor is a pain to pay for, at Mercedes is was $276 an hour when I worked there.

[tcphoto]

You don't have a PPI, don't DIY and you've worked at a Mercedes Benz dealership? A person with no budget for potentially high repairs should not own one of these cars. What kind of mechanic replaces plugs and coils without spending a few minutes investigating? The plugs probably needed changing but why replace parts if they're not broke?

[6ixSpd]

So you did not do any due diligence and bought a car solely based on multiple assumptions. You have no one to blame but yourself. The $1600 repercussion is your reward for that. Not sure what the point of this thread, is other than to draw sympathy.

Originally Posted by nthanos330i

It just sucks... I'm a 20 year old college student who really loves these cars, I understand there are maintenance costs that come with them, but I don't think anyone is especially happy to shell out $1600 in one week.

So buy a Corolla, like most responsible college kids without excess disposable income. Can't have your cake and eat it too.

Originally Posted by nthanos330i

Also, I'm a 2 time mock trial county champion, 3 year mock trial attorney, and was team captain. It may not be being a real lawyer, but it's probably more than you can say... So don't "junior" me, you don't know me like that.

[Needbmwpartzz]

The lesson to be learned here are;
1)Get a PPI on a used vehicle and educate yourself about cars and maintenance requirements.
2)Paying people to work on your BMW car(or any car for that matter)is going to cost you and these mechanics do screw up(people make mistakes after all)and those mistakes will cost you unless you can prove their incompetence.
3)Learning how to fix your own car is a very rewarding given you have the will:tenacity to do so.........just invest in tools and self.

[nthanos330i]

Originally Posted by Welcome to NBA Jam

I knew this was going to be an "I don't DIY" story when I read the title.

This is a good example for you, OP, and it sounds a lot like my first experience with buying a car and then having someone else do work on it. It will really pay off to do these jobs yourself. You'll save loads of money, and the tools to do it are cheap. Even if you had to buy all of the tools, it would be significantly cheaper than $1600.

reddit.com/r/iamverysmart

The guy said don't become a lawyer junior. I didn't really see what being a lawyer had to do with any of this, I was just making a point.

[nthanos330i]

Originally Posted by 6ixSpd

So you did not do any due diligence and bought a car solely based on multiple assumptions. You have no one to blame but yourself. The $1600 repercussion is your reward for that. Not sure what the point of this thread, is other than to draw sympathy.

So buy a Corolla, like most responsible college kids without excess disposable income. Can't have your cake and eat it too.

I have a savings account for repairs on this car. I think that's pretty responsible. I don't get why everyone acts like they wouldn't be a little sad to have to fork over $1600. And I get the whole PPI thing. You just think that when you are buying a used BMW from a BMW dealership things are going to be in order. I was 18 at the time, I've definitely learned a lot and don't deny that this was a learning experience. Would I have still bought the car even with a PPI that pointed out the wrong coolant and possibly the need for spark plugs and coils? Absolutely, it's still incredibly clean for 130k miles and I love it. As for my mock trial comment, childish maybe, but someone telling me not to peruse a career in law because of a service mishap with my car, that seems childish to me. If anything, I got a dealership to cover a repair on a car they sold me 2 years ago without a warranty, if anything I think that speaks to some argumentative skills.

[nthanos330i]

Originally Posted by nthanos330i

I have a savings account for repairs on this car. I think that's pretty responsible. I don't get why everyone acts like they wouldn't be a little sad to have to fork over $1600. And I get the whole PPI thing. You just think that when you are buying a used BMW from a BMW dealership things are going to be in order. I was 18 at the time, I've definitely learned a lot and don't deny that this was a learning experience. Would I have still bought the car even with a PPI that pointed out the wrong coolant and possibly the need for spark plugs and coils? Absolutely, it's still incredibly clean for 130k miles and I love it. As for my mock trial comment, childish maybe, but someone telling me not to peruse a career in law because of a service mishap with my car, that seems childish to me. If anything, I got a dealership to cover a repair on a car they sold me 2 years ago without a warranty, if anything I think that speaks to some argumentative skills.

And I guess my point was learn from my mistake here. Trust me I understand what I should have done when buying the car, it's just a cautionary tale for anyone else in the market for a used car without much experience. Nothing more, nothing less. If I had known these things when buying the car, I probably could have had the dealer do some work before the sale, or knocked a couple hundred or so dollars off of the asking price.

[nthanos330i]

Originally Posted by tcphoto

You don't have a PPI, don't DIY and you've worked at a Mercedes Benz dealership? A person with no budget for potentially high repairs should not own one of these cars. What kind of mechanic replaces plugs and coils without spending a few minutes investigating? The plugs probably needed changing but why replace parts if they're not broke?

I chose to do them all. It's common to do a full ignition service at certain mileage. Since my car obviously did not have the plugs and coils replaced at the suggested mileage by BMW, I thought it best to do them all and not have a problem on one of the many long drives I do a year.