richjant

Thanks Kieran, I feel so much safer driving the BMW since all the maintenance work has been done and I am looking forward to having the loyalty out of it. Cheers Janice

That really helped alright, I printed off the step by step instructions and the BMW tech changed the pollen filter no problem. He said it was really black, quite yukky actually, so it obviously had never been changed in the time (149,000 km) that anyone has owned it. Story of my life, buy a used car and do all the maintenance no one else bothered to do. I'm the 3rd NZ owner. The power steering fluid was just about non existant, the brake fluid was black and so was the trans fluid (took 12 litres in the flush until the fluid was showing clear!). So have had a trans flush done, brake fluid changed, steering fluid filled, pollen filter changed and replaced RF outer ball joint and LF rack. Then wheel alignment done. Another local service centre had done a 10,000 km service recently, you'd think they would have checked the power steering fluid wouldn't you? They were very thoughtful to put some glass cleaner in the window washer container (where's their priorities???) When I bought the car I also got 4 new tyres fitted as the previous owner had all different tyres on it and the tyre pressure was way out on all of them. I have also had the radiator flushed and filled with anti freeze and replaced the battery. I feel like I need to keep this car for a long time now after getting it up to a good mechanical standard! And it sure grips the road and handles corners so much nicer now. I can't believe how slack some people are with keeping their vehicles in good condition. I really appreciate this forum as I can talk turkey with BMW tech's now from what I have learnt from it. Which is an amazing achievement for a (blonde) female LOL.

Thanks, that's a big help, I've printed off the step by step guide to give to the BMW tech here, since he thinks I haven't got a pollen filter in my car. It's a bit of a worry because I would have thought he should know where it is situated. Yes Gavin's pricing is great. Cheers

Thank you so much Jo, you have been so helpful I really appreciate it

Problem is that we don't have a BMW dealer as such in Taupo and I had my car in to a service centre today (who have a BMW mechanic) for a second opinion on what needs doing on it and they said they couldn't find a pollen filter. They said they couldn't find any "housing" for one. So they told me it doesn't have a pollen filter and I'm really confused! Do all BMW's have a pollen filter?

Can anyone tell me where the pollen filter is in my 1996 323i e36 car? It has been recommended to be changed when I had a recent service. Thanks

Thank you so much, I will have a talk with the service centre tomorrow and see what arrangement we can come to regarding parts, I don't want to lose their support in maintaining my BMW as in Taupo, as I mentioned, there are not a lot of choices, and I know how important it is to have a mechanic work on it who is a trained BMW specialist. That is the one main thing I have learned so far! And I do believe that it is important to do the maintenance that is needed on any vehicle, as in the long run it pays off. Cheers, Jan

I've never had a mechanical warranty on a car before, can you tell me a bit about how they work? What company offers the best one? Would I still be able to get one on my car now even after owning it for a year? Surely they would want a report done on the mechanical state of the car before they would allow me to buy a warranty on it?? Sorry for sounding so dumb about this!

Yes maybe I will just contact the service centre and suggest I supply the parts, but just afraid they will treat me like a cheap skate and "lecture" me about using "inferior" parts. The guy I spoke to at Euro Italian said these parts were the same as all the other BMW parts except they don't come in the fancy packaging. I didn't ask him what the warranty was on them but I intend ringing him back and asking this. But it made sense to me because when we owned a computer shop and custom built computers we could buy "OEM" parts to build the computers and they were just the same parts as the ones in the retail packaging that we bought for the shelf in our showroom, except for the packaging. So that's why it seems logical to me that the same applies to car parts. But I may be wrong.........thanks so much for all your feedback I really appreciate it. I may be blonde but I'm really just a brunette in disguise!

I bought a 1996 BMW 323i (japanese import) a year ago and love it. The problem is I've had a lot of negative feedback from the average mechanic about having a BMW. I live in Taupo and there is no real speciality BMW vehicle service centres here. But I have found a local general service centre who has a BMW mechanic working there, they don't have a BMW computer but he does know how to work on them. I took it in for a 10,000 km service last week (it has done 149,000 total) and I mentioned that I have to go easy in the first few gears as otherwise it seems to slip gears and asked him to check how the transmission fluid looked while it was in there. The service was done and the following recommendations and prices for the work needed were supplied to me: Transmission Flush (as trans fluid very dirty and he said the trans is slipping between 1st-2nd gear) Pollen filter to be replaced, RF outer ball joint & LF rack end worn, they contacted BMW who said it is cheaper to replace whole tie rod rather than just the rack end, then a wheel alignment. Parts Prices (all excl GST): Pollen filter - 119.02, LH Tie Rod - $203.69, RF Lower Ball Joint - $89.63, Trans Kit & Gasket - $223.72 so these parts all total $636.06. Labour: 1hr for Trans, .4hr for pollen filter & LH tie rod, 1hr for RF lower ball joint & then the wheel alignment. The labour seems well justified but what worries me is the parts prices. When I phoned Euro Italian in Auckland for prices on these parts I was given the following OEM prices: Pollen filter - $48.00, LH Tie Rod - $188.50, RF Lower Ball Joint - $55.00, Trans kit - Filter $55.00 & Gasket $28.50 ($83.50 for both) and these parts all total $375.00. So the difference in parts price is around $261.00. What bothers me is that this service centre is just contacting "BMW" and getting top dollar prices for parts when there are other companies around who obviously supply cheaper OEM parts. I would like to approach this service centre and ask if they will allow me to supply the parts and still pay for their BMW mechanic to do the work as quoted. I'm a bit nervous as I'm not sure what reaction I will get? Has anyone else been in this position with a BMW vehicle? Apart from the transmission oil, is a filter and gasket all that is needed to do the trans flush? It's just that on the quote I got from the service centre they stated "trans kit & gasket". My husband is not very mechanically minded so I have had to do some "googling" on the net to try and learn about how to deal with the ongoing maintenance on my BMW, hubby has a Toyota Prado so he doesn't encounter the negativity that I seem to strike with my vehicle. I also read on your forum that it may be advisable to get my transmission reset on the computer back to factory defaults to get it to learn my driving style (and I do drive like a nana!) we live on a lifestyle block and I travel 13kms on SH 1 to work each day so is different than the previous owners that probably lived in cities and used the lower gears more. Sorry for such a long winded post for my first one, but I need some good advice! And I am determined to keep my BMW and not give in to the negativity that seems be associated to BMW's from some sectors but I also don't want to be ripped off in parts prices at the same time.