Hi everyone, does anyone know a good place where I can get my bmw serviced? The dealers are charging me way too much; I'm getting owned! I live right near Chicago. Thanks

Hi everyone, does anyone know a good place where I can get my bmw serviced? The dealers are charging me way too much; I'm getting owned! I live right near Chicago. Thanks
try the regional forums... lots of people there that can help.

K thanks

buy for 60 bucks or download for free, get the bentley manual and become a DIYer...best and cheapest way to find a good mechanic within yourself ;)

buy for 60 bucks or download for free, get the bentley manual and become a DIYer...best and cheapest way to find a good mechanic within yourself ;)
where would you download for free? I don't see a free download offer from bentleypublishers.com?

hahaha, you wouldnt see it there....let me find the link for you

here you go man, rigth click and save:

BentleyBMW-E36ServiceManual.pdf (http://hosting.data.bg/bmw/BMW/E-Books/E36/BentleyBMW-E36ServiceManual.pdf)

Enjoy ;)
Stan

P.S. The server that hosts the file is in Europe, so it will take a little bit depending on your connection, but worth the wait and save the 60 bucks :)

In Naperville: Beckers Service Center.

The owner Jim Becker has been a family friend of ours for years, and also our neighbor. He is a BMW/Porsche expert and he worked on about 5-6 of my father's bimmers. He is a trustworthy guy who knows his stuff when it comes to German cars.

Any major work for my car, and I will make the 120 mile drive from Urbana back to Naperville just to take my car to him. For smaller stuff I have a local indy shop that does very good work.

EDIT: Will that manual you linked to....cover the E46 as well?

no sir, that is for e36 model only...for e46 i only have owners manual....i have owners manuals for every model, but service manuals not every...

Well...I'll probably download and read it anyway...can't hurt to learn something new :-)

Thanks for letting me know...I may have to just buy the E46 manual when I get the chance.

here you go man, rigth click and save:

BentleyBMW-E36ServiceManual.pdf (http://hosting.data.bg/bmw/BMW/E-Books/E36/BentleyBMW-E36ServiceManual.pdf)
Hey, thanks man! Too bad I don't own a E36. :lol

But it was interesting to read that they have the correct torque value for the bolt that holds the rear shock to the trailing arm (77Nm). For some reason, the Z3 manual lists that torque value as 100Nm which is totally wrong and I found out the hard way (broke the bolt off in the trailing arm). I was told it was copied over from the E36 manual, but I guess that was wrong.