More for information and interest.
Had the car serviced by BMW in July at 37k miles, asked for full diagnostic and return a fault with two glow plugs. After check with my indy in Elstree who looks after our 1998 E46 318 and 2000 Z3 (yes we have three Bimmers in our house hold:thumbsup) was advised to get BMW to do the job - bit the bullet and booked it in. On it's return, noticed a small oil leak on the drive. Retuned it to BMW thinking it may have something to do with the job undertaken, they inspected the car and gave it a clean bill of health.
Over the Christmas period notice the oil leak was getting worse so asked my indy to have a quick look - low and behold he told me it was pi$$ing oil all over the intercooler, starter-motor and into the undertray. Indy told me it looked like a big job. He called his contact at BMW explained the situ i.e. Full BMW service history, 44k miles recently serviced and just come out of workshop but importantly out of warranty :jaw-dropping. He was advised to give the BMW garage stick and push for goodwill not just because they missed the leak on a requested inspection, but a car of this condition age and mileage should not be showing this type of fault. BTW they didn't think the glow-plug work had any bearing on the leak but would have expected the technicians to have spotted it.
Yesterday took it back to BMW and let them have my displeasure. Today they called to confirm that it requires a new sump gasket and - this is the strange bit, they need to take the head off to pressure clean the pistons:eek. Estimated 12 hours labour!!!
I started to kick off but they immediately stated they would check with BMW HQ to see if they could undertake this under goodwill as they had checked the car specifically for leaks less than 6 weeks ago. I'm waiting to get an update tomorrow but thought I'd let open this up as a discussion as I've never heard of pressure cleaning the pistons - maybe the car has been burning oil?
Had the car serviced by BMW in July at 37k miles, asked for full diagnostic and return a fault with two glow plugs. After check with my indy in Elstree who looks after our 1998 E46 318 and 2000 Z3 (yes we have three Bimmers in our house hold:thumbsup) was advised to get BMW to do the job - bit the bullet and booked it in. On it's return, noticed a small oil leak on the drive. Retuned it to BMW thinking it may have something to do with the job undertaken, they inspected the car and gave it a clean bill of health.
Over the Christmas period notice the oil leak was getting worse so asked my indy to have a quick look - low and behold he told me it was pi$$ing oil all over the intercooler, starter-motor and into the undertray. Indy told me it looked like a big job. He called his contact at BMW explained the situ i.e. Full BMW service history, 44k miles recently serviced and just come out of workshop but importantly out of warranty :jaw-dropping. He was advised to give the BMW garage stick and push for goodwill not just because they missed the leak on a requested inspection, but a car of this condition age and mileage should not be showing this type of fault. BTW they didn't think the glow-plug work had any bearing on the leak but would have expected the technicians to have spotted it.
Yesterday took it back to BMW and let them have my displeasure. Today they called to confirm that it requires a new sump gasket and - this is the strange bit, they need to take the head off to pressure clean the pistons:eek. Estimated 12 hours labour!!!
I started to kick off but they immediately stated they would check with BMW HQ to see if they could undertake this under goodwill as they had checked the car specifically for leaks less than 6 weeks ago. I'm waiting to get an update tomorrow but thought I'd let open this up as a discussion as I've never heard of pressure cleaning the pistons - maybe the car has been burning oil?