A New Breed of Mechanics - Utterly Ridiculous !

[Philo]

This might sound like an isolated case but have a feeling it's not. Chime in if you've had a similar experience.

Recently I've been looking for a shop around the SoCal area that could offer a new perspective on why my S54 Vanos keeps failing the factory vanos test. I wanted to depart from the usual suspects out there and find a shop that had specific experience with these engines and vanos issues. I was able to find a small shop with a young owner, clean and knowledgle, deep in OC. A long drive from my location but felt it would be worth the time. Moreover, their parking lot was filled with M cars and the shop filled with engines in various stages of rebuild. Ahh, HOME !

After a few days I get a call that my car won't start.., so I ask why and their reply was, it's just dead and there's no dash lights. So I ask, "what's the battery voltage?" Their reply was, "we put a quick jump on it, and nothing." I told them there is a possibility that I could have left the headlight switch on when dropping off the car and to please check the switch, charge the battery, etc. A week later I checked in with the shop and got the same answer., "it's just dead."

So now I'm thinking there's an issue deeper than a simple dead battery. So the next morning I loaded up the truck with a new battery, a battery charger, extension cord, hand tools, soldering gun, water, a sack lunch, and hit the road. Upon arrival I found the car unlocked and sitting outside. Not a big issue but I could have gotten my power amps stolen. Ok, let's dig in., headlight switch?, yup, left it on. Next, battery voltage check. Amazing, no voltage at all, zero. I thought my voltmeter was in-op so did a quick test on my truck battery, nope, all good. So I swapped in the new battery and she started right up.

What shop out there doesn't know how to get around a dead battery issue, lets the car sit for ten days and then tells the owner to come and fix ix. What if I brought the car to them with a no start issue ? Could they have figured it out ?

I was totally baffled and asked the owner why he didn't throw in a new battery and charge me. He said something about getting blamed for killing the battery, bla bla.. So I ended up taking the car to another well known M shop in OC. I hope they don't disappoint.

A very very weird experience, I think this shop is new to the M scene but what's baffling is all the heavy M iron being worked on. Granted, my e28 was 20 years older than anything in the shop, but should that really matter?

Will report after the second shop gets back to me with a review of the S54.

[Aldo525]

I understand the feeling well. For many years now, mechanical workshops have become "part changers" and do not repair anything, everything comes down to finding the fault and changing the part...a lot of scanners, pretty parts, "upgrading" but not finding the reason for the problems and failures. This is the reason why I finally learned to fix any failures, preventive maintenance, check and replace a battery!!!! or disassembling an automatic transmission...at least I have the satisfaction of having done it myself and what I learned along the way is very valuable.

[Shawn D.]

please check the switch

They pretty obviously didn't. That they forgot to do such a basic thing is a red flag.

[Foonfer]

I bet their Instagram presence is top notch though...

[Mike W.]

It's clear to me he just didn't want to work on it. He should have said so, but there's lots of shoulds out there. Look at it this way, you're probably better off if he doesn't work on it. Yeah, two weeks down the drain, but your car is unique and no telling what he could have fucked up if he did try to work on it.

[stuartinmn]

I'd like to say it is an isolated case - it's hard to imagine that level of incompetence is the standard. I know there are several very reputable independent BMW repair shops in my area. I am curious about the week delay in checking to see if they had done anything...I would have been calling much sooner than that.

[Philo]

I bet their Instagram presence is top notch though...

Funny, they do have a great Insta page with lots of different low shot angles of M3s, wheels, carbon wings, etc.

To Shawn's point, I learned long ago in business that it's better to turn down work that deviates from one's core competence. When I was in tech sales the CEO would tell me to get any deal possible and then we'd scramble to get it done. I can't count how many times I had to tell the client it's gonna take longer than expected.

I guess the point of my post is with our cars we need to go with a proven entity. I've told this story to several people over the weekend and the response is always the same... "WTF.., you say"

[gadget73]

this verges off car stuff a bit but stick with me for a second

I used to be a much bigger computer nerd, running Linux and assorted freeware/open source stuff. A core principal of *nix command line programs is do one thing, but do it well. You end up with a pile of very specialized applications rather than one that tries to do everything and does it poorly.

I kind of like that philosophy for professional services. A place that specializes in one type of car and knows it extremely well vs one that tries to work on everything and doesn't have deep knowledge on any of it.