[Enelson]

I received my recall notice about the aux water pump and made an appointment last Thursday to drop the car off Monday afternoon at the dealer to have the recall completed. At the time, I asked if they were also going to change the coolant since they would be opening the system and they said no; I opted to pay for a coolant flush and change the brake fluid (it was due). Charge for both was $300.

Upon inspecting the the car, I was told I needed to have the front thrust bushing replaced (Est. $1135), rear diff mnt bushing ($1893) and rear brakes ($1226). They also wanted to replace the front and rear active sway bar for "rust" ($5002 each).

I have an extended warranty, best I could find since the car is not a CPO, but still lacking. I told them they could do any of the work that was covered by the warranty. They only covered the front thrust bushings and I declined the rest of the work.

I picked up the car late Wednesday afternoon, paid my bill of $300, and went home. I wanted to speak with my warranty company about covering other items and upon detailed review of the invoice, I notice that under the recall portion "part not available at this time". At no point had anyone told me that this work was not done. I am headed back today to drop it off and hopefully have it done tomorrow (I have been promised a loaner car.) I really have no choice.

There are several issues here which I welcome your thoughts. I have always generally accepted that Dealer service is excessively expensive but competent and restricted OEM parts. There rear brakes cost is well beyond reason. $1,226 for what should be under a hour of labor and how much in parts? Same story for the rear diff mnt bushing.

The larger problem I have the failure and expense parts. Granted this is a 2011 550ix, but it only has 55k miles. Why are the bushings failing at this mileage? The "rust" issue on the active sway bars (and connecting hoses/fittings also, previously noted) represents a huge engineering failure of to use the proper materials for the operating environment. The exhaust system shows no rust. The price to replace these parts is totally unreasonable given the the design failure. Are the replacement parts "better" or will they rust out by 100k? They are superseded by new numbers.

I like the car and enjoy driving it, but I don't believe I can live with this lack of reliability. I have owned BMWs since 1980 so I am aware of the expense of maintenance, but I have always worked on my own cars. I have the parts for the rear brakes and will get to that this week. Dealer says they are below minimum, car info says 3000 miles left (Yeah, thanks BMW for having the Ebrake reset as "dealer tool" instead of an option on the Idrive. Same for battery replacement.)

I am really concerned about Engine failure. My extended warranty should cover if that happens, but nothing is certain. I have never experienced this level of failure rate on any other BMW that I have owned.

Your thoughts?

[Stück]

Those are all very common wear and tear items to this platform, the swaybars aside. The swaybars are likely a cosmetic issue and I would not be worried about them.

The prices are in line with what I would expect from the dealer. Front trust bushings pay 3hrs or so to change, and that estimate seems a bit heavy, more like if they changed both arms complete. Diff bushing pays about 7 hours, rear brakes is right in line with expected cost.

The water pump that is under recall is 100% not available right now and the old part number is BLOCKED and cannot be purchased at any NA BMW Dealer right now.

Your gripes are largely unfounded from what I see, as it looks like you simply haven't aptly prepared yourself for what it costs to maintain one of these out of warranty, let alone what it costs when you go to the most expensive place in town to have it done.

Find yourself an independent shop that is master certified with these cars and enjoy better service and pricing than you'll ever find at the dealer.

[estarmer]

I've had to deal with the dealership for recall work on my 2011 535i and my wifes 09 X5. I've sort of come to the conclusion that BMW is so focused on getting people into new cars or CPO's that they are actively engaged in a practice of raping and pillaging people with older cars to try and up sell them into another vehicle. In both cases they came up with a list of things that "really needed to be done". Yes these F10's are known for weak bushings on the thrust arms and Diff Bushings but depending on how the car is driven will be indicative of when they actually fail. My Bushings are fine my car is the same age as yours and except I have over 130k miles. I was recently under my car looking for these exact issues. I looked at the bushings that they had said were bad, guess what not a crack in any of them, but the outer coating was flaking off, still though that is not a crack or a failure. I also had a very good independent shop verify my suspicions and he agreed the car was and the dealership was fishing for money. I'd find a good shop you can trust and talk with them before throwing in the towel.

[nedmon]

I took my previous BMW, a 328i to the local dealer for a freebie inspection. They found surface rust on the rear disks that was not on the braking surface. They quoted over $400 to replace the disks.

I wire brushed them and painted them black and lived happily ever after.

[visualguy]

All I can say is that most people choose to lease rather than buy these cars for good reasons...

[dbs600]

Originally Posted by nedmon

I wire brushed them and painted them black and lived happily ever after.

You painted your rotors!? How'd you go about that!?

Can't that contaminate the pads?

Trying to envision masking a circle.

Any pictures?

Thanks.

[nedmon]

Just held the brush steady with the car jacked up and the wheel rotating at idle in first gear!

[dbs600]

Originally Posted by nedmon

Just held the brush steady with the car jacked up and the wheel rotating at idle in first gear!

Neat. Good work.

Would love to see pictures if you have them.

Outer edge of my discs are rusted too.

[nedmon]

I did it on 328i that I traded in June for the 5. No need to take off caliper, just the wheel.

Chock all wheels n take off the one with the rusty disk. Engage first gear and while sitting on chair hold a stiff wire brush to the rust. Then apply a flat black hi temp paint with a brush.

Next, have the well deserved beer and replace the wheel.

[Enelson]

Stuck,

If your claim about the replacement part not being available is correct, it will be interesting what the dealership says today after I pick up the car. I dropped it of yesterday to have the recall done at their request after claiming they had the part.

My point is that the cost of service is to the point of ridiculous. Rear brakes and rotors costing $1226 is a prime example. It should take no more than an hour of labor to accomplish the task. If your estimate of 3 hours to do the front thrust bushing is correct, the labor rate at the dealership was $171/hr. I noticed from the invoice they replaced the just the bushing and not the arm.

Yes, the dealership is recommending replacing both active sway bars due to rust.

At some point the cost of repairing a car exceeds the value of the car. The question is when and just as importantly why. I expect things like brakes to be wear items, not sway bars. How long is a reasonable expected life of the engine?

[Dcm1952]

I've owned 6 BMW's in the last 20 years. I've never gone to the dealer after the warranty is over. It's been a combination of a trusted Independent Shop and DIY. Even with that being said I am contemplating keeping only my M Roadster and switching to something more reliable for my daily driver. I'd like to be able to retire someday.

[Enelson]

I just picked up my car and the recall was done. Parts are available based on VIN and those owners were notified. This was based on DMV records.

[Cvx5832]

With 5 BMW’s under my belt I’ve learned this much -

- Dealers, no matter which state you’re from or whatever relationship you think you have with them will always try to put the cost of that fancy showroom on you.

- Dealer estimates are pessimistic at best, unnecessary and uncalled for at worst. They declare stuff broken when they’re far from it. See above reason as to the “why”.

- When it does need service, it’s nowhere near the complexity they claim it to be. Again, see first reason.

BMW’s are great driving machines. But dealerships take a bit from that experience for people that don’t work on cars. But with all that said I can’t hate it too much. It’s those ridiculous dealer prices that sink the values of these cars on the used market. And that’s a yay for me

Sorry to hear about your troubles though.

[Bbb34]

Originally Posted by Cvx5832

With 5 BMW’s under my belt I’ve learned this much -

- Dealers, no matter which state you’re from or whatever relationship you think you have with them will always try to put the cost of that fancy showroom on you.

- Dealer estimates are pessimistic at best, unnecessary and uncalled for at worst. They declare stuff broken when they’re far from it. See above reason as to the “why”.

- When it does need service, it’s nowhere near the complexity they claim it to be. Again, see first reason.

BMW’s are great driving machines. But dealerships take a bit from that experience for people that don’t work on cars. But with all that said I can’t hate it too much. It’s those ridiculous dealer prices that sink the values of these cars on the used market. And that’s a yay for me

Sorry to hear about your troubles though.

100% agree.

I absolutely love the car, but the worst part of experience owning BMW (by far) wasn't the random issues that would pop up (and they were quite a few of them). For me it was dealing with dealership service department. This ranged from just not giving a s... for my (mostly time and) money to straight down (borderline) incompetent.

Once out of warranty, switching to highly recommended independent shop made me a lot happier. While it's only slightly less expensive, everything I needed was diagnosed quickly, and everything promised is done, and done on time and well.

[Cvx5832]

I'll second the part about dealership incompetence. Even if one was silly enough to bend over for the dealership they are nowhere near the best people to work on your car. Look for an independent with owners/managers passionate about BMW's. They're out there. Use Yelp or other review sites.

With a massive AR complex and access to information from sites like realoem and newtis it's easy to quantify dealership incompetence, for better or worse. Click on my signature and look for the repair BMW's own CCRC did on a simple bumper repair on my 2003 coupe. That's just the tip of the iceberg. I have similar stories for all our BMW's. Took me a while but lesson learned.

[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by Cvx5832

I'll second the part about dealership incompetence. Even if one was silly enough to bend over for the dealership they are nowhere near the best people to work on your car...

I guess that depends on one's dealership. Mine is VERY competitive with the local indy (whose less than a mile away) and has never let me down!

[Captain Cook]

I have the exact same car and it randomly suffered from a seized engine (you can check my thread for info on that). Just a little history, I currently own 4 BMWs - two e60 535s, 2011 f10 550 and an e90 328. The 535 (crossing my fingers) and the 328 have been pretty dam reliable in comparison to the 550.

While I absolutely LOVE the 550, I did have to get it towed more times than I can count in the past 6 months especially compared to the other BMWs I own. If I didn't have CPO I would've been out an arm and a leg a long time ago. To be quite frank and some of you may disagree, I would probably NEVER own a f10 550 without CPO after all I been through. Who knows... maybe I was just one of the unlucky ones. But from what I see from other n63 owners on the forums is that random expensive breakdowns are normal with this car.