[romanonj]

Two words - stay away!!

My experience with those guys had not prompted any concerns until the last incident. My 2007 X3 was purchased as CPO with ~ 40k miles. Has had several minor issues, but nothing major and Princeton has always repaired the obvious issue. Well, at about 75k, I started seeing a significant increase in oil consumption. So took it in for service at 80k, they tested and replaced oil filter housing gasket. Said everything else was ok.

The problem persisted, but inconsistenly. It seemed as oil consumption was ok until 3-4k after oil changes.. (see long thread http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=801440). So at 90k I complained again, and again nothing was discovered.

At 99k, a week before warranty is about to expire, I started dropping quart every 1100 miles. So again, called the SA, and he told me bring it in. Needless to say, the guy that I usually deal with had a baby that day, so I was stuck with SM. And I tell you, talking to this guy is like talking to a sales man, BS, BS and nothing than BS. So nothing was discovered, so I told them to do leak down and compression tests for my own peace of mind.

Tests came back negative, and I was stuck with paying $500. So it is what it is I am thinking, and then I figured I would just live with this.

1500 miles later, I was doing an oil change, and decided to perform a tune up as well. Take all covers off and discovered 3 oil leaks (valve cover gasket, rear main seal, valvetronic). Valve cover gasket was leaking inside spark plug cavity, so it blows my mind that these guys did compressions tests and did not notice that. That's IF THEY DID COMPRESSION TEST!!!

After sending a furious email to my SA along with pics of the leaks, I was told to bring in the car. They confirmed the leaks and said will work with BMW NA to get assistance.

Two weeks go by, and nothing, so I call BMW NA myself and put a claim in. I spoke with them when the leaks were first dicovered, and was told to get diagnosis from BMW dealer.

Another two weeks go by, I call back BMW and my claim is declined. I ask if the dealership has ever contacted you, and they said NO. We called service manager twice and received no response. BMW basically told me to take this up with Princeton, and I know that will not be getting me anywhere.

Needless to say, I replaced valve cover gasket myself. It was a bit tidious, but lots of DIY threads available to walk you through it. The consumption has decreased, but still there because rear main seal is still leaking. I ll be having indy shop performing this for me shortly.

So I filled complaint with BMW NA, and will never be going back there again. It is a major inconvenience, since they were right next to my office!! I had prepaid maintenance, and looking over my receipts they did absolute minimum, without doing anything extra.. At 99k with week left on my warranty, they could have at least tuned it up!!!

STAY AWAY!!

[ruslik]

really?
i had nothing but great experience there
mechanics really know what they doing there

[romanonj]

Originally Posted by ruslik

really?
i had nothing but great experience there
mechanics really know what they doing there

I am not making this up... I guess I felt the same way until I started asking questions.. Read the post!

[ruslik]

Originally Posted by romanonj

I am not making this up... I guess I felt the same way until I started asking questions.. Read the post!

i did read the post!
and im just saying that i had nothing but a pleasurable experience
dont make a thread if you are not ready to hear peoples opinions

[romanonj]

Originally Posted by ruslik

i did read the post!
and im just saying that i had nothing but a pleasurable experience
dont make a thread if you are not ready to hear peoples opinions

I didnt post my rant asking for your opinion, but to warn people to be cautious.. Opinions are like a$$ holes, everyone has gotten one..

I got screwed by these guys out of 3k of warranty repairs and $500 for tests that were not necessary. Needless to say, I went over some of my old e90 repair bills and found transmission leak repair order charging $700 and 5.5 hours of labor. According to BMW service bulletin, gasket replacement procedure takes 1.5 hours. This was at the time I thought these guys were still good.. I asked the SA to help me get this resolved, and both SA and SM never even bothered returning BMW NA calls or emails.

I am glad you like them, as I did in the begining.. Having experienced incompetency, I now warn people to go there at their own risk!

[fazman]

I got my CPO from them and had to go back for a We Owe item + service. I wasn't that impressed on my first visit either, never went back again. I've had great luck with bloomfield... But now they are under new management. I haven't had any real issues with my car tho... But most things i feel like bimmer techs don't know much about the car and just go for the quick fix of toss new parts at a problem rather then actually investigate or fix something that isn't working.

I hope that one day we can get away from the dealership model, so we can go to indys for warranty work. Because i tend to feel that i need to do all the diag and problem solving for the dealership service depts for them to actually act on an issue. I've never had them proactively find an issue on my behalf.

Also, i plan on having my indy look over my car before my CPO is up and take that laundry list to the dealership for any last minute fixes (2 or 3 months before my CPO is up). Don't want to have an issue with getting something done just barely under the wire.

Originally Posted by romanonj

I didnt post my rant asking for your opinion, but to warn people to be cautious.. Opinions are like a$$ holes, everyone has gotten one..

I got screwed by these guys out of 3k of warranty repairs and $500 for tests that were not necessary. Needless to say, I went over some of my old e90 repair bills and found transmission leak repair order charging $700 and 5.5 hours of labor. According to BMW service bulletin, gasket replacement procedure takes 1.5 hours. This was at the time I thought these guys were still good.. I asked the SA to help me get this resolved, and both SA and SM never even bothered returning BMW NA calls or emails.

I am glad you like them, as I did in the begining.. Having experienced incompetency, I now warn people to go there at their own risk!