From: Scott Andrews [andrews@gol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 1998 1:49 AM
To: I_am_mad_too@bmwlemon.com
Subject: my bad bimmer

Mine isnt a real lhorror story like yours, but the problems with BMWs
are now new. I bought a used 1976 2002 in 1983. I liked the way the car
drove, and at that time it was "cool" to own a bimmer. THe car had a
slight shimmy at about 30 mph, but this felt for all the world like an
out of balance tire. I drove the car, and it was generally reliable for
about a year. 

After replacing the tires, I found that the shimmy was still there. Some
sleuthing turned up a bad U-Joint. I was in LA at the time and I went to
the local BMW dealer, Vasek Polak (we used to call this dealership
"Vicious Polak"), for a new U-Joint. The guy at the desk was very nice.
He told me he would sell me the parts, but that there was "nobody in LA"
who would repair the thing. It seems that in their wisdo, the BMW
engineers decided to eliminate the usual C-clips that hold together any
common U-Joint, and they used pressed in cups to hold the assembly
together. I asked what the usual appraoch was for fixing U0joints and he
told me that I should replace the drive shaft! So, for want of a $10
part I was supposed to pay $400!(this was in 1984, when $400 was a LOT
of money), I balked, but after cheking around, I found that yes, this
was so...I eventually bought a new driveshaft..ouch!

About a year later the heater fan started squeaking (I guess this squeak
is an OLD problem that they are still trying to fix!) . I spent a whoel
morning removing the heater from under the dash only to find that the
whole assembly was riveted together, and, despite being an obviously
unreliable part, there was no way (short of drilling out the rivets,
disassembling the heater and then trying to somehow bolt it all together
again) that I was going to fix this squeaky fan..I just squirted a ton
of WD-40 on the fan bearings and put the SOB back together again...

By this time the cam lifters were getting worn.It had become impossible
to really set the valves properly..I figured this was an easy afternoon
job, so I set about removing the valve covers and valve assembly to
replace them. As I started to look int this mess I realized that for
somereaosn the problem was wear in the rocker shafts! Weird, but how
hard could this be to repair? Plenty! It turns out that the rocker
assemblies are pressed into the  cylinder head! After asking around I
discovered that, no, ther is no way to fix that problem...you need to
buy a new cylinder head...cost $850!!!..by this time I was totally
dispirited... The metallic blue car paint was fading white in the
california sun, the whacky oil pressure light on the top of the dash was
flickering regularly, and the tappets wer clacking away.What other high
dollar/unfixable problems were lurking  in this ca? I adjusted the
valves as best I could, got a cheap paint job and dumped the car on some
unfortunate slob. 

I have never again even fantasized about owning a BMW..Why would any
engineer design things that could not be easily fixed?(OK, Enzo Ferrari
welded the cylinder head onto the block..but that was a FERRARI!) Why
would someone integrate simple assemblies into horrifically expensive
assemblies when there was a simple, inexpensive way to do it? Why take a
large expensive part and make it totally and irrevocably dependent on a
small wear prone part? These were mechnical assemblies, I can only
imagine the feindish tricks these same designers must have played when
they got hold of some electronics! 

I no longer do my own service, but I know what I'm paying for..I had an
Acura Legend that beat the pants off a BMW in terms of performance and
reliability..for mileages that might require the purchase of two BMWs,
and I now drive a Toyota that is so smooth and quiet, I need to honk at
pedestrians so they will get out of my way! My Japanese cars have never
failed to start, never acted strange,and when sonething needs fixing it
is inexpensive and it stays fixed!.

Regards, 
Scott
 
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