[*Vikki*]

Ok here goes the story....Took my 2004 MINI ONE with 34 thousand miles on the clock in to BMW a few weeks ago. As when i had her down at shoreham motorsports for the rear callipers painted red a few weeks ago the guy said it sounded like a suspected wheel bearing front passenger one has gone when he took my MINI out for a test drive after he installed the works remap.


I had been hearing for the past few weeks a funny noise that matched the description of a wheel bearing on its way out in the haynes manual. BMW took the car out as i say a few weeks ago on a quick test drive and said yea sounds like a wheel bearing, we will order front and back one in as we are not sure which on it will be. I booked in the car today to have it fixed. The cost was £175 inc vat for the front or £210 for the rear.

I had two weeks ago a health check on the car from a local garage that advertises work/servicing they do to MINI's. They said it sounded like a wheel bearing but at its very early stages. Nothing else was reported wrong on the health check. Took back my MINI to shoreham motorsports as the first time he painted my rear brakes he did an awful job and they looked brown rather than red. I had JCW brakes fitted from BMW only a month prior to visiting Shorham and after shorham had painted my rear callipers i my brakes were not responding very well at all. They were so spongey and i was scared of driving the car they were that bad! the ECU remap shorham had done was also resulting in a severe tugging back feeling whilst accelerating. I phoned up shorham and went back Thursday just gone to get the callipers painted properly this time (which he did) and to hopefully get the ECU reset to work properly or back to standard. He bled the brakes for me (as the haynes manual states that this should of been done anyway when taking of the callipers as he did first time around to paint them) We took my car out on a test drive and the ECU did not tug (it had got better in recent days prior to visiting him) SO ECU was reset and i was off on my journey again.


Took my MINI in to BMW today to get her wheel bearing sorted out two hours later and its ready for me to pay. I am then told that its NOT the wheel bearing and in fact all four of my (year old brand new tyres that have done less than 10k on) are feathered and need 4 brand new tyres and that i need wheel allignment done costing £200. I also have a power steering leak!?! which will cost approx £300 (not sure if that inc vat or fitting) and i have a rear brake leak and will need new hoses for that and a calliper?!? costing £300 now i really think shoreham have caused that leak
So to sort out the leaks will cost £700 and the wheel laser wheel allignment £200. I said to BMW i wont need new tyres as they are hardly worn!! they said in order for them to do wheel alligment i would need four brand new tyres as otherwise they cant allign them as it will bugger up the suspension?? I said cant you put four new wheels/tyres on then allign up then take off and put mine back on. They said they could do that but wouldent be able to source any brand new tyres/wheels. hmm what a load off bull


So my bill comes in at a hefty £1500 ish if i go and buy new tyres what BMW want me to do! ghr. So i went of and got a second oppinion and asked my local quickfit that i can really trust. He had a look at the tyres and confirmed they were featherd. I asked if they could allign them but they only have the machine to allign the fronts and thats no good if the backs are out as it would then make the fronts out. He checked the suppose rear offside brake leek and said that a bolt was loose and that he couldent see any leaks and for me to keep an eye on it over next two days. He couldent check the power steering as they dont deal with that. I am going to take that in to the garage thats started doing MINI repairs tomorrow morning to see what they say. They can do the wheel allignment for £100, instead of BMW's £200!

I realy am quite upset about this all. I just seam to get fobbed off and ripped off all the time from people that just want my money and do a crap job BMW have put grease all over my MINI's interior JCW mats and have frashed the hell out of it as you know where it counts down to MINI's next service, well thats dropped by 75 miles since they have driven it I just dont know who to trust no more. One person says something the other says a different thing. I am not tight ill go and pay £1500 but i dont want to pay for something if it dosent need it. Yes i could go and get new tyres but it could go and easily happen again the tracking knocked out as its happened by me going over rough roads. Sorry to rant but just dont like my MINI poorly and i am not used to her being poorly

[*Vikki*]

p.s just want to add as MINI Motorsports reset the works remap its started severly tugging back again. Dosent matter what speed or how much you put your foot down. It also happens when you take your foot off the throttle. The motorsports guy said that it can happen on this map!? i think that is what he was trying to say anyway and he said it will sort its self out to how you drive. Which is what i think it did before he reset it again. But i had to do quite a few miles before it stopped tugging. Its also made the car rev a lot higher/louder. And also it didnt start on 3 times yesterday , it only started after a couple of tick overs. This again is to do with the remap. Its totally put me off doing anymore to that car now

Oh and i really wanted to avoid rubbing anyone company name in to it but i am so furious as i gave him a second chance to put things right and am fed up being a push over to these people.

[R99]

Sorry to hear about this, it must be very frustrating.

I know what you mean about poor service and people just wanting your money. When I was enquiring at my local dealer about having some free Cooper S bumpers sprayed up, I got very vauge answers and was eventually refered to somebody who does the work for that particular dealership. He clearly quessed a price on the spot and was then rude to me when I asked for a price breakdown. (it probably didnt help that I was 19 at the time, but at the end of the day a customer is a customer. Age or sex should have no effect)

As a result they lost the business and Derek Woodman got over £1k of my hard earned for a full Aero Kit.

I hope you manage to get your MINI sorted. Just out of interest, what is tyre feathering?

Regards,

James.

[*Vikki*]

Thank you, tyre feathering is a word they use for it wearing at the sides of the tyre. Thats how i understand it anyway from what they showed and told me. But you can hardly see it on mine, you can only feel it. Run your hand down one side and its smooth run it back the other direction and its a little rough.

[*Vikki*]

So i took her in to Stearling Automotive today for them to check out the leaks. They were very helpful and so far i am really pleased with the service they have provided me. They showed me under the car and explained everything very well. There is no rear brake leak and i do NOT need a new brake calliper or hose which BMW wanted £300 plus from me!! so thank god for that. They checked the powersteering pump and there is a leak which he cleaned up and said for me to bring back later on in the week for him to establish where the leak maybe comming from. He is not sure if it could be just the seal thats broke (which would be a cheap fix) or the whole pump that is leaking. I am going to book her in Monday to have the tyres alligned sometime by them. He said i do NOT need new tyres and just alligning them will be fine. So ill be going back this weekend probably for him to check the power steering pump again to see what needs doing.

["Reedy"]

Glad you got some good news..... Things looking up...

[*Vikki*]

Thanks Reedy, yes fingers crossed

[James]

Quote: Originally Posted by R99 (original)

Sorry to hear about this, it must be very frustrating.

I know what you mean about poor service and people just wanting your money. When I was enquiring at my local dealer about having some free Cooper S bumpers sprayed up, I got very vauge answers and was eventually refered to somebody who does the work for that particular dealership. He clearly quessed a price on the spot and was then rude to me when I asked for a price breakdown. (it probably didnt help that I was 19 at the time, but at the end of the day a customer is a customer. Age or sex should have no effect)

As a result they lost the business and Derek Woodman got over £1k of my hard earned for a full Aero Kit.

I hope you manage to get your MINI sorted. Just out of interest, what is tyre feathering?

Regards,

James.

I know what you mean, i'm 18 and went in the other day to order some parts and they kept me waiting for 20 minutes for someone to take my order and then when I came to pick up the parts they had ordered the wrong ones Although today when I went back to get the correct parts the guy at the desk was really helpful so I think you just have to be lucky on the day with whos serving you. Also the female members of staff are often more polite and helpful...

[Shaun]

Some things never change I had a Mini form Rover yeah those old ones and it was in for a service they found play in the front wheels suspected ball joints as it was only 1½ years old it was a warranty job..... But they didn'tt do it at service as they couldn't get in touch with me and get my ok to do the job.
So for a free job I have to give my ok right.
So I book it in and drop it off and go back later to be presented with a bill. I said I thought it was a waranty job and they say ah yeah it was, but the ball joints were fine it was a bearing and its not covered by the warranty.
Now I don't know how that worked or how they were allowed to do an entirely differnet job than what I signed for but they did and despite 30 minutes argueing that I would have took the car to my freinds garage for chargable works i still left out of pocket.

I dont think I would stand it these days though I got an S for the day of my delaers because I told them they sucked.
When I took the bosses Range Rover in for a a pair of Mudflaps I hit the roof when they wanted to charge an hours labour (£90) for the job.
Who says you mellow with age?.

[humph]

Quote: Originally Posted by richjackson (original)

My opinion on the brakes is if it ain't broke don't fix.... taking perfectly working brakes apart to have them painted sounds a bit silly.... sorry I'm clueless when it comes to things like that... just wouldn't be something I'd be doing. If you spend that much time looking at your calipers how did you not notice the state of your tyres? And Shoreham not noticing either? Seriously spend the money on getting brakes, suspension and tyre's sorted rather than faffing with the colour of the brakes and fiddling with the engine!

The point Chili21 is making is that the tyres don't need replacing and that the feathering isn't even noticable. That is why she and motorsport centre didn't notice.

As for taking brakes apart for painting. If Chili21 wants red calipers, then red calipers she should have. The main reason I'm sure would be to match the red works front caliper she already has fitted. As far as I'm aware there is no need for them to be taken apart for painting though.

Hope it all gets sorted Chili without too much of a drain on your bank balance.

[Richard Crofts]

My tyres are feathered like mad...doesn't effect my car at all. No noise change or grip etc. If they rekon thats the reason I very much doubt it...but its your money and i'm not MINI tech

[Matblack]

For tyre stuff I would never use BMW, their prices are skyhigh and they don't have the tech stuff on site to do the best laser alignment. I always go to Elite who are just the other side of the Dartford bridge, they are a massive tyre dealer, very cheap and can source pretty much anything with notice, they also have the most advanced alignment kit and carry adjustment bolts for most cars

Hope you get it sorted soon

MB

[Vitesse]

BMW use a laser alignment system called KDS, which is very hi spec. I'm not sure about all dealerships but they have one in my local dealers.

[*Vikki*]

UPDATE

Went to Steerling to have Chillis wheels alligned and it took them 2 hours as some were very much out. Must be all the tracks i have driven around probably bad roads more like. That cost be £85.30 which is a lot less that BMW wanted.

Her powersteering pump is fine nothing wrong with it no leak or anything the man reckons it was just parts 'sweating'.

So total bill £85.30 instead of £1500 phew!

I then decided to go to BMW and tell them about this spoke to service advisor and then asked to speak to main manager. Anyway cut a long discussion short (i was no way expecting this outcome to come, just wanted to vent my displeasure to BMW) he has offered to give back to me half the cost of my JCW brakes which is £500...whoooooo!!!! he said he really dosent want to loose my custom etc. He also said the bolt loose on the brake must of happened when they did the JCW brakes. So looks like his going to have words.


So i am very HAPPY! woo! some luck at long last!

[minisoopercooper]

great news there - and well done to the dealers for admitting their mistake and compensating you for it

[*Vikki*]

yes credit where credits due the service manager whom i have never spoken to before was absolutely brilliant. He was human rather than like robots like the service guys are.

[works99]

Quote: Originally Posted by Chilli21 (original)

he has offered to give back to me half the cost of my JCW brakes which is £500...whoooooo!!!! he said he really dosent want to loose my custom etc.

Great result.