RE: Ongoing experience from hell with a BMW workshop - 2

Even if they didn’t have the shims in stock they should be able to order parts for delivery the next morning. Shouldn’t be two days.

As an aside, given my experience with BMW dealers (fingers crossed) I find it hard to believe they’d try to rip you off. If you think they are, and you want go on your trip, I suggest taking it up with BMW directly afterwards, let them know what happened and get their opinion. If they agree the dealer has been out of order they should help.

Sorry for your hassle.

Last minute servicing is always risky.

As a trivial comparison, I changed my oil just before my recent trip, but filter only arrived the day before departure and when I got onto Eure shores I found the oil level to be a bit lower than I would like. Leading me to buy oil on the run and top up a little. Crazy by my own standards.

The lesson of course is NEVER, EVER change anything close to a departure. Bike. GPS. Nothing.

ps - I'm so glad my 8 year old, 42K bike hasnt seen a dealer since the second service and warrant expired. Running like a dream.

pps - what's "valve clearance check"? (just joking- I do know)

Zitat von Becksy im Beitrag #16

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Even if they didn’t have the shims in stock they should be able to order parts for delivery the next morning. Shouldn’t be two days.

As an aside, given my experience with BMW dealers (fingers crossed) I find it hard to believe they’d try to rip you off. If you think they are, and you want go on your trip, I suggest taking it up with BMW directly afterwards, let them know what happened and get their opinion. If they agree the dealer has been out of order they should help.

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Not really wishing to play devil's advocate here but:

On the 1200, I have MAMoto covers. I don't know how similar the 1250 is but when you fit the aftermarket covers it causes a potential problem. The bolts usually tighten fully, to the end of the thread. The torque wrench basically comes to an immediate 'tight' reading and the gap between cover and head, where the gasket sits is exactly correct.

With covers fitted this no longer works. It's possible to get the gap too small and there is less thread in the head. There is also potential to over tighten especially if some of the bolts that aren't holding the cover on are fitted first.

It's possible that your inde mechanic did the damage. No one is perfect.

That would leave the coolant bolt. Corrosion can be an issue here.

It's quite possible that the dealer is blameless, in my opinion.

Peter

Zitat von Boxerboy55 im Beitrag #17

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Sorry for your hassle.

Last minute servicing is always risky.

As a trivial comparison, I changed my oil just before my recent trip, but filter only arrived the day before departure and when I got onto Eure shores I found the oil level to be a bit lower than I would like. Leading me to buy oil on the run and top up a little. Crazy by my own standards.

The lesson of course is NEVER, EVER change anything close to a departure. Bike. GPS. Nothing.

ps - I'm so glad my 8 year old, 42K bike hasnt seen a dealer since the second service and warrant expired. Running like a dream.

pps - what's "valve clearance check"? (just joking- I do know)

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I worked in the motor trade as a technician for almost 45 years , the last 15 years at a Mercedes dealership. I would not trust some of the people I worked alongside to service my wheelbarrow. Also, I've seen more bolts sheared with a Torque Wrench than any other tool. These things are lethal in the wrong hands. They don't give any feeling of impending disaster.
Remember, not everyone in overalls knows what they are doing.

Zitat von crossthread im Beitrag #21

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I worked in the motor trade as a technician for almost 45 years , the last 15 years at a Mercedes dealership. I would not trust some of the people I worked alongside to service my wheelbarrow. Also, I've seen more bolts sheared with a Torque Wrench than any other tool. These things are lethal in the wrong hands. They don't give any feeling of impending disaster.
Remember, not everyone in overalls knows what they are doing.

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Zitat von zer0netgain im Beitrag #22

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Zitat von crossthread im Beitrag #21

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I worked in the motor trade as a technician for almost 45 years , the last 15 years at a Mercedes dealership. I would not trust some of the people I worked alongside to service my wheelbarrow. Also, I've seen more bolts sheared with a Torque Wrench than any other tool. These things are lethal in the wrong hands. They don't give any feeling of impending disaster.
Remember, not everyone in overalls knows what they are doing.

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Torque or Impact wrench? Some use it interchangeably, but a torque wrench shouldn’t shear a bolt.

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I have three torque wrenches of various sizes and I am pretty sure that I could exceed the set torque on any of them. They click, or do something similar but it doesn't stop you from keeping on going. Also, a quick tug would shoot past the correct torque quickly. I have never had a problem with them be they do have to be used carefully.

I have good feel from working in the motor trade and servicing my own vehicles for a lifetime.

For lighter stuff a poorly calibrated or oversize torque wrench can be a nightmare. Using a torque wrench at the extremes of its range is to be avoided.

Zitat von Steady Eddie im Beitrag #23

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Zitat von zer0netgain im Beitrag #22

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Zitat von crossthread im Beitrag #21

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I worked in the motor trade as a technician for almost 45 years , the last 15 years at a Mercedes dealership. I would not trust some of the people I worked alongside to service my wheelbarrow. Also, I've seen more bolts sheared with a Torque Wrench than any other tool. These things are lethal in the wrong hands. They don't give any feeling of impending disaster.
Remember, not everyone in overalls knows what they are doing.

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Torque or Impact wrench? Some use it interchangeably, but a torque wrench shouldn’t shear a bolt.

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Not if used correctly and provided the bolt is not already weak at a critical place. Post #12 of this thread is how things can go wrong. My torque wrench has a non-ratcheting head, and although I had it set correctly to 10 Nm, I had the tool upside down. In other words, it did not break when the torque was reached. The non-ratcheting tool will only break if used in the correct orientation, if I'm making myself clear. My fault entirely for not taking more care. One can argue that I should have had better "feel", well I confess that it didn't feel right and that's when I should have stopped and checked. I'll bet it's happened to some very experienced mechanics. Sh*t happens, it's how we learn.

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Zitat von Freddyfruitbat im Beitrag #1

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That turned into a definite 'Monday'(today) and I phoned this afternoon for an update. 'It's on the bench now, will let you know'. 5 pm they rang back. 'Bad news'. They'd apparently needed to drain off some coolant in order to check the valve clearances and had to remove a drain bolt to do this... which apparently they've stripped. Only solution is to order up a new one which won't be here till Wednesday morning (hopefully). Oh and also? My valve clearances turned out to be out of spec so they need some shims to sort that.... but oh, they don't have them in stock so need to order those in too, also for delivery on Wednesday. For real???

I'm absolutely beside myself as you can imagine.

My only chance of making it to my early-morning Thursday Eurotunnel crossing on time is if they can actually finish the job by mid-Wednesday, leaving me with a blast down the motorway to reach my hotel in Ashford late evening. As you can imagine I have minimal confidence that this will actually happen.

The final kicker is when I took the bike in, I also asked them to investigate numerous occasional spurious error messages on the TFT screen, which haven't affected me directly but do worry me. Needless to say they haven't even looked at this yet (engine in bits) so I won't get the diagnostics until Wednesday, with no chance of getting any possible issues rectified.

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Zitat von Freddyfruitbat im Beitrag #27

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I feel like a rant at the original dealer is warranted, but I think I'm just going to go to another dealership and let them sort it out.

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