[Debacle of Mass Eruption.]

My e90 335i, that I just bought last november, started leaking coolant about a month ago. The light came on, I put coolant as directed. It came on again a week later, followed by vapor coming from under the hood. *SCARY SHIT*
Anyway, I went to a local shop in Mountain View and they told me It might be a head gasket leak. *SCARIER SHIT* They told me they weren't sure enough, so I should take to a "little shop down the road" that specialized in these types of cars, Dinan. The nice folks at Dinan checked my car and said my car had no coolant pressure.
After a full day with my car they told me the rear turbo had a leak, 2 water feed pipes and a return pipe. No big deal right? WRONG. The whole engine and tranny had to be pulled to change those pipes. (The price made my face pale and my stomach to ache.) I worked 12-hour days to buy this car and still do, I'm nowhere near raising the money they want.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do? Does anyone know any shops in the Bay Area that would give me a fair price for this repair?
Hope to hear from ANYONE on this matter, I can't drive my project car to work much longer...

[BlackBB6]

The initial price of the car isn't even that bad, what will get you is the maintenance and repair costs. Unless you start doing the repair work yourself I would look at another car. I would assume Dinan has a much higher labor rate than most shops, so that doesn't help the situation. Someone from the bay area will chime in with a better shop, after you give your first born to Dinan I would start there.

[Miller335]

You need to find a trusted Indy in your area and explain the situation and see if they have any ideas on the matter, maybe they know of a different way to deal with the problem.

If you do have to spend the few grand to pull motor I recommend you take that opportunity to have them replace all the orings/gaskets for all oil/coolent lines for both turbos.

[135Pats]

FFTEC is in your neck of the woods, give them a shout.

[Ingeniator]

Originally Posted by Debacle of Mass Eruption.

My e90 335i, that I just bought last november, started leaking coolant about a month ago. The light came on, I put coolant as directed. It came on again a week later, followed by vapor coming from under the hood. *SCARY SHIT*
Anyway, I went to a local shop in Mountain View and they told me It might be a head gasket leak. *SCARIER SHIT* They told me they weren't sure enough, so I should take to a "little shop down the road" that specialized in these types of cars, Dinan. The nice folks at Dinan checked my car and said my car had no coolant pressure.
After a full day with my car they told me the rear turbo had a leak, 2 water feed pipes and a return pipe. No big deal right? WRONG. The whole engine and tranny had to be pulled to change those pipes. (The price made my face pale and my stomach to ache.) I worked 12-hour days to buy this car and still do, I'm nowhere near raising the money they want.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do? Does anyone know any shops in the Bay Area that would give me a fair price for this repair?
Hope to hear from ANYONE on this matter, I can't drive my project car to work much longer...

So are they the coolant supply and return lines to the turbos? See the RealOEM link. I wouldn't think you would have to pull anything beyond the normal stuff to get at the turbos. Even if it was the water pump you don't need to pull the motor. Dinan repair bills look like their performance part bills. A lot of dollars and not much sense.

[135Pats]

Originally Posted by Ingeniator

So are they the coolant supply and return lines to the turbos? See the RealOEM link. I wouldn't think you would have to pull anything beyond the normal stuff to get at the turbos. Even if it was the water pump you don't need to pull the motor. Dinan repair bills look like their performance part bills. A lot of dollars and not much sense.

Yea I don't get why you'd need to pull the motor for that...Haven't done it myself but just look at the parts involved. Still going to take a long time, but nowhere near motor-out-of-car hours.

OP go anywhere but DINAN unless your goal is to hemorrhage money.

[MDORPHN]

Don't know whether it's convenient to you but Bill Arnold (Bill Arnold BMW Repair) in San Rafael has an excellent reputation.

Neil

[sammy_0559]

thats BS, check the Breather line going from the expansion tank to the radiator hose from across the top of the fan shroud. usually gets brittle and breaks and causes the coolant to leak everywhere and evaporate when engine is warm.

From my experience if the turbo coolant lines are in they are IN and not going anywhere. Find a better shop or figure it out yourself.

[Debacle of Mass Eruption.]

The price is what really has me feeling bummed out every time I see my car and can't drive it. (almost $3,000 USD) FML!

This is Dinan's list of what needs to be done:

• o-ring x8, $6 each
• waterpipe, return, $85
• waterpipe, feed (901), $85
• waterpipe, feed (899), $85
• gasket ring x6, $7 each

and for some reason, i'm being charged for a $10 can of break cleaner

i can give exact part #s if anyone wants to know

thanks

ps,
Anyone hear anything about Palo Alto Bimmer, Sonic MS, BavPros, German Motor Specialist, or Bavarian MotorSport? I know those shops are in my area, just want to if anyone' heard good things...

[Ingeniator]

Originally Posted by Debacle of Mass Eruption.

The price is what really has me feeling bummed out every time I see my car and can't drive it. (almost $3,000 USD) FML!

This is Dinan's list of what needs to be done:

• o-ring x8, $6 each
• waterpipe, return, $85
• waterpipe, feed (901), $85
• waterpipe, feed (899), $85
• gasket ring x6, $7 each

and for some reason, i'm being charged for a $10 can of break cleaner

i can give exact part #s if anyone wants to know

thanks

Yeah that labour rate must be crazy. Those are the turbo supply return pipes.

From Real OEM

• 01 Pipe, supply, cooling for turbocharger ZYL. 1-3 1 11537558899 $71.68
• 02 Pipe, return, cooling for turbocharger ZYL. 1-3 1 11537558900 $71.68
• 03 Pipe, supply, cooling for turbocharger ZYL. 4-6 1 11537558901 $71.68
• 04 Pipe, return, cooling for turbocharger ZYL. 4-6 1 11537558902 $71.68
• 05 O-ring 8 11427558936 $1.73
  
• 06 ISA screw M6X16 4 07129904588 $0.96
• 07 ISA screw M6X12 2 07129903805 $2.14

I'm assuming the other 6 o-rings are for the intake manifold but agin not sure why they need to take that off. Maybe someone who has done a turbo swap can chime in on how easy these coolant lines are to get to. Also if they are only changing two hoses they should only need 4 of the 8 o-rings.

EDIT: I see now they call them gasket rings so they must be on the exhaust side. That means they want to pull the turbos. Not sure what they are doing but I'd go somewhere else and get a quote with the above info.

[Debacle of Mass Eruption.]

Originally Posted by Ingeniator

Yeah that labour rate must be crazy. Those are the turbo supply return pipes.

From Real OEM

• 01 Pipe, supply, cooling for turbocharger ZYL. 1-3 1 11537558899 $71.68
• 02 Pipe, return, cooling for turbocharger ZYL. 1-3 1 11537558900 $71.68
• 03 Pipe, supply, cooling for turbocharger ZYL. 4-6 1 11537558901 $71.68
• 04 Pipe, return, cooling for turbocharger ZYL. 4-6 1 11537558902 $71.68
• 05 O-ring 8 11427558936 $1.73
  
• 06 ISA screw M6X16 4 07129904588 $0.96
• 07 ISA screw M6X12 2 07129903805 $2.14

I'm assuming the other 6 o-rings are for the intake manifold but agin not sure why they need to take that off. Maybe someone who has done a turbo swap can chime in on how easy these coolant lines are to get to. Also if they are only changing two hoses they should only need 4 of the 8 o-rings.

EDIT: I see now they call them gasket rings so they must be on the exhaust side. That means they want to pull the turbos. Not sure what they are doing but I'd go somewhere else and get a quote with the above info.

thanks for the advice
I can probably pay a grand if need be, but 3k is just too much for a car i'm still paying for. Dinan also want to charge me $120 to replace each DRL bulb. I'm new to Bimmers, I just hope I knew another n54 owner in my area to help me decifer all this. I might need to see if there are any meets in my area or something

[Debacle of Mass Eruption.]

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[Debacle of Mass Eruption.]

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[BlackBB6]

Try the California subforum: http://www.e90post.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=43

[Debacle of Mass Eruption.]

Anyone know any spots in the Silicon Valley area?