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Thread: What to do with m 540!

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    South Africa
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    2011 BMW 550

    What to do with m 540!

    Its been a while since I was on the this forum, but things have changed ....well sort of.
    Being the owner of a 2000 540 meant I was forever trying to find cost effective ways to keep my car running.


    8 months ago it starting making a clattering noise up front after a bit of heavy footed driving. I drove it home and left it there for about a week.
    One afternoon I started it just to see if the problem had gone away. you never know... any way the car still sounded terrible!

    I was lucky to still have my van to drive around in, but it gets heavy going after a while in traffic. Just by chance I went to look at a F10 550. Well lo and behold I bought it. I love the car and love the maintenance plan even more.

    But here is my issue. My 540 has been standing in the drive way ever since! I cant sell it! I don't want to sell it its been part of life years. Half of that time it has actually been running too.
    I have just had it loaded on to a flat bed and sent of to a reputable (after market but reputable) BMW repair works. They are going to quote for repairs.
    Being in South Africa every costs a Gazzilion Rand as we don't have a proper currency like Dollars or Pounds
    lets see what happens!

    Richandy
    (rich, but only in name)

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    ( ͡° ͜ʖ*)
    Well look at it this way. It's no longer your daily driver, so if it can't be fixed right away (too expensive) it can sit a while till it can be and enjoyed once again. If it means that much to you, do what you can, when you can. Just don't abandon it and let it become a home to mice and stuff. I see that around here a lot with old BMW's, breaks my heart.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    The reason repairs are more expensive over there has nothing to do with the strength of your currency and everything to do with supply and demand. There are less BMWs out there, thus less parts, so parts have to get imported from Germany and international shipping is expensive, and there are less techs since there is less demand, so they can charge more.

    Good luck though. I've got some rand left over from my last South Africa trip... maybe I will send it your way if its too expensive a repair

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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
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    Quote Originally Posted by richandy View Post
    Its been a while since I was on the this forum, but things have changed ....well sort of.
    Being the owner of a 2000 540 meant I was forever trying to find cost effective ways to keep my car running.


    8 months ago it starting making a clattering noise up front after a bit of heavy footed driving. I drove it home and left it there for about a week.
    One afternoon I started it just to see if the problem had gone away. you never know... any way the car still sounded terrible!

    I was lucky to still have my van to drive around in, but it gets heavy going after a while in traffic. Just by chance I went to look at a F10 550. Well lo and behold I bought it. I love the car and love the maintenance plan even more.

    But here is my issue. My 540 has been standing in the drive way ever since! I cant sell it! I don't want to sell it its been part of life years. Half of that time it has actually been running too.
    I have just had it loaded on to a flat bed and sent of to a reputable (after market but reputable) BMW repair works. They are going to quote for repairs.
    Being in South Africa every costs a Gazzilion Rand as we don't have a proper currency like Dollars or Pounds
    lets see what happens!

    Richandy
    (rich, but only in name)
    Howzit boet,

    The Rand is stronger now. I remember when it was R13 for $1.

    Good luck with your car. Indy shop is probably your best bet. Or, just park it in hillbrow overnight.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    South Africa
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    42
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    2011 BMW 550
    Quote Originally Posted by RidgeBack View Post
    Howzit boet,

    The Rand is stronger now. I remember when it was R13 for $1.

    Good luck with your car. Indy shop is probably your best bet. Or, just park it in hillbrow overnight.


    Hey Ridgeback! Yeah! But if you want to lose a car in good old South Africa, you can park it any where. They are not called German takeaways for nothing. LOL
    My problem there is its not insured, so that plan is out the window. NLAL (Not laughing as Loud).

    Blackxs thanks for the offer hahaha! But it costs more than an Rand to send a Rand these days. LMAO

    Well here's a follow up!
    Before I sent car off I was told that I would have to pay R600 for a thorough quote on all that was wrong. I happy to do this as it would help me make my decision.
    A few days after watching my car get humped down the road I realised that I had not even checked to see if the car had arrived at the workshop.
    Its terrible that you can get so busy that you can forget a car....a V8 BMW ... really! I've got look at my priorities!
    Anyway I called the guys and they said they had started checking the car and that they would need to remove the tappet covers to see what the noise was.

    Here is where I saw this all going pear shaped. They asked for R4500 to do this. In the current exchange rate that's about 5 US dollars or 2pounds UK. In SA its lot of cash for a quote!!!!

    Well I said go ahead anyway and tried to list all the positives! 1........2....3..4.5....Its a lot of cash for a quote!
    Two days ago they called and told me the verdict. I could feed the panic rising as they started with the costs.

    Here's what we have, all the front chains, guides and pullies, water pump seal and one other seal.
    Cost R25000.00.

    I'm thinking OK! its a bit cheaper that I thought! About R10000.00 cheaper.
    Then I started to add in the R4500 plus the R600 plus the towing R600 and I was not far off with my guess.

    But was I wrong!
    They had given me a discount of R5000.00 and the price is R R20000.00 all in. I have not yet had to part with any cash , except for paying the tow truck guy.
    I went there today to get their banking details and there was no panic or pressure, they are like, cool. you can pay a deposit if you want, but it will be ready next week and you can settle then.

    All I have to do now is take the kids out of school and send them off to work in the mines to raise some cash!

    Maybe I can buy a roaring exhaust, so that it can sound like it should LOL!
    But probably I will spend some money on the body and remove a few minor dings.

    So spooner its definitely not going to the rats and mice!

    I'm sure my 550 is missing slightly too, maybe I will pop down to BMW and have them look at it while I drink their coffee.
    Like I'm on a Roll! LMAO!
    Damn I may even get a bumper sticker made saying "My other car is a BMW"
    Last edited by richandy; 06-12-2014 at 03:50 PM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    South Africa
    Posts
    42
    My Cars
    2011 BMW 550
    So the saga continues! My 540 was started and was tested last week, but the mechanics were not happy with the way it was running.
    I popped in there on Tuesday and they explained that they had found something really strange.

    It turns out that there was a Stanley knife blade in my oil pump! This had blocked the flow and in turn caused the oil filter to collapse and pieces of the oil filter had blocked one of the channels and caused all of the damage to the chains! They are now working backwards to find the blockage!

    I sort of felt that it was all too good to be true! On the bright side at least I can be sure that the problem will be fixed.
    On the down side, How could my friend allow this to happen to my car while it was in his shop on the previous repair or even the repair before that.

    I actually paid him more than these (reputable) guys are charging me for practically same job!

    This was all done a couple of years ago and there was always a noise up front! (The car was standing half that time) I often queried this and was told it was after market parts so it will always make a noise. The truth is now obvious. It was running dry all the time. As the car seldom did long runs or much mileage it survived. But after giving it some decent leg room it died.
    I have been using this guy for 20 years and always felt he had my best interest at heart. It's sad really because we are no longer friends. This is all due to bad workmanship and this prior to the Stanley blade issue. It all came to head when he could not understand why I would not pay for the drivers side window repair, because it was not fixed. His repair only lasted 1 day.

    For last two years I have been taking my cars elsewhere and have found that at times even the agents are far cheaper. They may charge twice as much, but they do the job, (properly, mostly) in a 3rd of the time. so it costs less anyway.


    Oh well! Now I must wait see again!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    South Africa
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    My Cars
    2011 BMW 550
    Well! Its nearly a year Later and I still don't have my car back. They damage from the blocked oil pump and crushed filter, blocked the channels at the back of the block. So all work done on the motor was wasted. The Mechanics thought the noise was the gearbox so they had that overhauled R14k. Problem still there! So I heard 3 days ago that the block has arrived and they will reassembling.

    The car has been there so long now that I have had them redo all the body work and tart it up. R20k. I don't know what the final figure is going to be, but I'm not looking forward to it.
    The car has practically had a complete rebuild. way more than the actual book value, but I'm in too deep now pull out.
    Btw The SA Rand is now 12 to the Dollar
    Looking forward to getting it back though. When I make some more money one day I will put a decent exhaust so that I can hear the V8 roar. Its not like I'm going to lose anymore money by changing it now.

    On side note my 550 started using more oil than usual. I went into panic and took it into BMW. They said that the turbo's needed replacement. 2 days all done! R54k later. Thanks goodness for maintenance plans

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    South Africa
    Posts
    42
    My Cars
    2011 BMW 550
    Can you believe it.
    In December I finally got my 540 back. R107000.00 later. it drove for 12km and started missing again.
    I managed to get it back to the mechanics a few weeks ago. They charged me a further R1500.00 after replacing a coil and the car drove for 25km and the same problem again.
    The car back with them and this time, if it is not right, I will have go the legal route. (why am I doing this to myself?????????????)

    My 550 on the other hand was still smoking after the turbo replacement, so Germany sent me a brand new motor.
    It was brilliant "Here is the invoice for your records Sir"
    Total cost of turbo's, 330kw motor and labour R250k.
    Cost to me R0.00 and a "Our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience Sir"
    Renewed my maintenance plan and keeping the car for a bit longer

    Oh! Ridgeback! The Rand!!!!!!!!!!!!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2001
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    Manhattan, NY
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    That's quite the story! You should change your name to PoorAndy now. lol. But I'm glad that you have your car back. Basically, you've paid about $6700 (USD) for all this and in the grand scheme of things, it's not outrageous. I wonder how much you can sell it for if you try to get rid of it now. But 540i's are awesome cars. How do you consider the 540 vs the 550 in drive, torque, handling, etc?

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    Btw, how are the kids liking their new job at the mines?
    Not so much a signature as a cry for help.

    Hold on, saw this in a cartoon once...think I can pull it off.

  11. #11
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    USA
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    What a story.
    Yeah you probably have to go the legal route if your car isn't fixed this time.

    Also, sometimes it's best to let things go and pull the plug, no matter how hard that decision might be. I would cut my losses and get rid of the car, if it's not fixed again. Then get a nice exhaust for your F10 if you want to enjoy a nice V8 sound.

    Another option would be to replace the whole engine with another used unit, preferably with warranty.
    Lazy Saturday drive in my E34: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzvZgPnOos

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