General topics » Ongoing experience from hell with a BMW workshop

I'm currently having a tearing-your-hair out time with my RS in a dealership, and I'd really appreciate some insight/advice from the more knowledgeable folk in this forum. Sorry, buckle up...

I have a 2019 R1250RS, 12,900 miles, which I've owned 10 months/8,000 problem-free miles.

I'm due to head off on Eurotunnel for a 3,500-mile jaunt with friends on Wednesday. Had the bike serviced two weeks ago; decided to use a trusted local mechanic rather than the dealership I used just after I bough the bike, however he told me he didn't do valve clearance checks so as that was due I booked it into the dealership (an hour away) to have that done. Warning bells should have rung when I was advised I wouldn't need a courtesy bike as it was a very quick job! (Erm, how about the need for a cold engine??? So I made a point of delivering the bike at 5pm the previous day...)

The check was booked for last Wednesday. Wasn't expecting any drama; however I received a call that afternoon letting me know that when the mechanics removed my 'aftermarket' (quote unquote) cam covers (they are Wunderlich) they said one of the bolts was sheared off in the cylinder head. There were apparently a couple of turns of the thread holding it on, and no oil leaks. They put this down to use of aftermarket kit/poor installation etc, ie anything but their fault. BMW being BMW, no solution was forthcoming other than ordering up and fitting a brand new cylinder head, which there would just be time to organise before my trip. A mere £1500 if you please.

I made some enquiries about taking the dismantled bike away from the dealer and to a machine shop to fix, but unsurprisingly couldn't get anyone to guarantee they'd be able to sort it, sight unseen (I haven't even seen the damage myself, as the bike's an hour away). It was clear that once I took the bike away from the dealer I wouldn't get it back in there to fix the problem in time should it be necessary, and that would be the end of my booked trip. Similarly, no time to source a second-hand cylinder head. So very reluctantly I decided not to risk it, and told them to go ahead and sort it. Was told ready end of Friday or Monday (today at a push).

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.

The dealership are accepting no blame at all for any of this and are positioning themselves as doing all they can to help me out and get me on my trip. I really don't have enough knowledge but suspect I'm being taken for a fool. The broken cam cover bolt is down to poor quality aftermarket kit or ham-fisted installation (done by me 9 months ago exactly as per instructions, including torque setting. The stripped coolant drain plug is 'one of those things' with a second-hand bike (despite it being a 4-year-old premium-brand bike which has only ever been dealer-serviced until now. And it's apparently normal that the dealership doesn't carry spare shims for their own bikes despite having one booked in for a valve clearance check.... It's also not escaped my notice that actually the stripped coolant plug is irrelevant in that the bike still wouldn't have been ready until Wednesday due to the need to order shims!

Rant over. Any thoughts on any aspect of this shambles wold be much appreciated before I next speak to the dealership, please!

Pickup truck, ramps, tie downs and a buddy…or a vehicle with a trailer to transport the bike.

I’d not let them touch the bike further, and I’d make a complaint up the chain to BMW. You make every attempt to remove the bolt rather than replace the part. You can rethread holes sometimes.

The whole issue with the coolant shouldn’t have happened. They are either inventing work or incompetent at doing basic service. I’d not trust what they say about valve clearances. Get it out of their shop…take it to another BMW shop if you must but don’t let them have it in their possession any longer.

My massage therapist’s late husband brought his pristine Harley Davidson to a local HD shop for an oil change. It cost him thousands of dollars because stuff kept needing work…starting with the gearbox leaking and the chromed bolts being replaced with black ones.

It’s a bit late now, but if ANYTHING makes you wonder…do not let a mechanic touch your bike. Checking valve clearances is quite simple and should always be DIY as it’s easy for a mechanic to lie and say the work is needed then do nothing and claim it’s fixed.

Sorry to hear of your woes, not a lot of help in your present situation but for future reference Paul at The Workshop near York is very competent and has worked on my old Honda VFR and previous BMW a number of times and has always done an excellent job.
Hope it all gets resolved in time and you have a good trip

Sorry to hear of your experience. Hope you get sorted before your trip.

Regarding the sheared cam cover bolt:
I had a similar experience with my 1250RS. I have the OEM engine guards and I managed to shear the LH rear bolt off in the head while putting things together after a valve check. My own fault entirely for mis-using the torque wrench and being ham-fisted on top of it.. The bolt sheared off flush with the head surface, but I was able to easily drill and use an easy out tap to get the broken piece out with no damage to the head.
It’s not at all a difficult thing to do if you work carefully and patiently. A new cylinder head would be absolute horrific worst case scenario, unless things get totally botched. It would take a idiot to do that.

Good luck.

Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #3

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….although I do have some sympathy for the idea of rocking up with a van to liberate the bike.

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Thanks for the feedback, all. I think Wessie is spot-on.

Apart from the stripped coolant plug, it's a really complicated situation due to my involvement of a third-party mechanic; I'm totally in a he-said she-said situation which I'm not going to get to the bottom of. Plus, I really want to go on this trip, otherwise 100% I'd have gone and collected the bike when I first heard of the stripped cylinder head bolt. Virtually no chance I'd have made the trip if I'd done that, so basically I decided to regard the massive charge of the new cylinder head as a surcharge to the tour cost....

A couple of things - anyone tell me if it's possible to remove a spark plug without removing the Wunderlich cover first? Local Mechanic reckons he did it two weeks ago just by removing a plastic panel, so he cannot be responsible for the sheared bolt (bear in mind I can't see the bike at the moment). I'd like to know if he's lying to me.

Secondly - this issue with them not having shims at the dealership and having to wait 2 more days for them to be delivered. Sounds mind-boggling to me - is that really normal? I know bugger all about this, and how many different shapes and sizes of shim they'd need to carry in stock to cover most of their range; but even without the coolant bolt issue I'd still have been delayed by the 2 extra days, waiting for the valve clearances to be sorted.

Zitat von Steady Eddie im Beitrag #5

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I had a similar experience with my 1250RS. I have the OEM engine guards and I managed to shear the LH rear bolt off in the head while putting things together after a valve check. My own fault entirely for mis-using the torque wrench and being ham-fisted on top of it..

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Sympathies for the situation, I've had something similar happen a day before a long-planned trip (thankfully less serious) I ended up catching a next-day ferry and doing unsanctioned velocities to catch up with my group...

The main red-flag for the dealership is the lack of tools, I don't see how they could not have the shims for valve checks when that is the regular maintenance item and preformed on identical mass-market engines RS shares with GS/R siblings. It could be the one pair (...?) got broken or lost just prior as bad luck by the shop or employee but still it's comparable to missing a particular wrench and there are non-BMW tools they could use (this I suppose they cannot due to policy).

As for the question of stripped bolts I don't think you'll ever know for sure. Even honest people get a tendency to cover-up an 'oh shit' moment i.e. a trusted mechanic or dealership with the bolt. Maybe the same bolt was over-torqued and stressed even prior and finally broke recently...

Given the background situation I'm afraid the non-dealership mechanic use will ensure you can't really do much to them and to hopefully manage your trip you're stuck with them fixing it. I'd perhaps go see the situation in person at the dealership and ask to at the very least repairs be made by Wednesday - perhaps skip the electronics diagnosis as a later item if they take longer as non-essential fix. And when you come back and have more time see about using a different local dealer or mechanics per recommendations by others here.

Hope your bike and your trip turn both turn out well.

Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #9

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I would expect a dealer to have a decent stock of shims as you would think they would use quite a few during any week. They should be able to recycle shims taken from one bike to fit another.

This is the independent on the Wirral, which is not far from Macclesfield (where your profile locates you)
https://www.ukgser.com/community/threads...seyside.306566/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100048408648683
https://www.motorevive.com/

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Here’s the broken bolt in my case. The small piece was left in the head. It was flush with the head/cam cover joint surface. You can see how I drilled the small broken piece to get the tap in. Once the tap was in, the piece unscrewed easily (with a sigh of relief).

Zitat von Freddyfruitbat im Beitrag #11

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Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #9

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I would expect a dealer to have a decent stock of shims as you would think they would use quite a few during any week. They should be able to recycle shims taken from one bike to fit another.

This is the independent on the Wirral, which is not far from Macclesfield (where your profile locates you)
https://www.ukgser.com/community/threads...seyside.306566/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100048408648683
https://www.motorevive.com/

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Thanks Wessie.

Motorevive seems to be no more though, sadly: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?s...767230456845383

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001.JPG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
From my previous post #12