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No luck with the indy shop. They have great reviews and their focus are European cars with a lot of BMW's waiting in line to be worked on.
This was the first time I took my car to a shop in about 30 years and I was less than impressed.
I took them a one page letter listing the history of the issue my X is having, what I've done and what I've replaced. After having my car for a week, they call to ask what issues I've experienced and what have I done.....clearly didn't refer to my letter.
Later that day they called to say they would need to remove both valve covers to see if the chain skipped a tooth or if a valve is stuck. He said it would be an additional $1400 to remove the valve covers and the $1400 wouldn't include the labor it would take to research the issue after the valve covers were removed. $1400 + the amount for what they've already done + the additional cost for further diagnosis and that's only for exploratory work with no guarantees that will point them to anything.
Needless to say, I told them I would be pick it up.
So I paid them the $268 for what they did/didn't do and took my car. They charged me $268 to do less diagnosis than I did for free in my garage. The mechanic told me he switched the vanos solenoids and checked the oil filter cap. I did both of those (45 minutes to switch the vanos solenoid and 5 minutes to check the oil filter cap).
He mentions nothing about checking the cam shaft positioning sensors, nothing about the non-return valve that is located above the timing chain tensioner. Did he even consider checking it to make sure the valve is not clogged and the ball and spring did not hang up? I doubt it.
Shouldn't he know to check to see if there is a TSB associated with this issue? I don't think so.
I lost confidence in them when the mechanic told me he only checked the easily Googled low hanging fruit items. Plus he failed to check or suggest checking the other items prior to wanting to move to the big ticket items.
I wouldn't of mind paying the $1400 if it was the path to resolution but all they were offering was to pay them to hunt and peck.. I can do that on my own for free.
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