Good indpendent BMW (E46) mechanic in wellington?

[wild_weston 0]

Just wondering if anyone knows a good independant BMW mechanic place in or around wellington.

I need to get a new vanos unit put on an E46 and I want to make sure that the mechanics know the E46 (so they do it right).

Otherwise I'll have to go to the stealership and pay twice the normal cost.

Thanks for any replies.

[jjs 60]

Page European are very good.

Worthwhile giving them a call and asking whether they can do it and what machines / computers they have.

[kiwi535 538]

page are very good with the older cars....not saying they arent any good with newer ones but i think the newer ones need more diagnostic tools...Ring and ask,they are cool,Vijay will normally answer the phone.Tell em you were recomended of bimmersport!

[bmpower 3]

definatly try vijay @ page european, or you could try tony @ motortech in the hutt, i've used them for most of my stuff, really good with euro's.

[OSCAR 0]

Powerhaus (499 8715) for install and Richard Gillies (Petone) for dyno tune.

These guys prepare a heck of a lot of the targa race cars, the Porsche series cars and more. Don't faff around with the try-hards.

[martyyn 2]

Hmmmmm Powerhaus, they had my car once and it ended up coming away with scrathes on the tints, paint on the rear corner and scratches on my m-pars with not a word of apology or any acceptance of responsibility despite the fact that they were the only people to have touched the car once it was removed from the container.

You cant go wrong with Vijay and Bo at Page European. Do a search and see how many of us go there.

[OSCAR 0]

Hmmmmm Powerhaus, they had my car once and it ended up coming away with scrathes on the tints, paint on the rear corner and scratches on my m-pars with not a word of apology or any acceptance of responsibility despite the fact that they were the only people to have touched the car once it was removed from the container.

You cant go wrong with Vijay and Bo at Page European. Do a search and see how many of us go there.

Well, I'll be sure to forward your sentiments on to the guys. They have been in business for a very long time. Spent 18 months restoring one of my cars. Sorry to hear about your issue. One wonders...did you try and sort it out ??

[martyyn 2]

Oh I tried alright, I was fcuking furious with how they dealt with my car and the damage they caused.

The main guy there (cant remember his name right now sorry) didnt even have the decency to return my phone calls to sort it out and was strangely 'away from his desk' when I went in to see him about it.

Once he had his money (which he insisted I had to pay before he would give me the car back - without the damage being fixed) he didnt want to know me.

I wouldnt go back in there if you paid me.

[jjs 60]

Oh I tried alright, I was fcuking furious with how they dealt with my car and the damage they caused.

The main guy there (cant remember his name right now sorry) didnt even have the decency to return my phone calls to sort it out and was strangely 'away from his desk' when I went in to see him about it.

Once he had his money (which he insisted I had to pay before he would give me the car back - without the damage being fixed) he didnt want to know me.

I wouldnt go back in there if you paid me.

Sadly, I have heard similar stories.

Stick with Page European.

[tire 10]

Page... I went down there to chat about a service for my E30. They were a bit "don't have time for this kid" ish.

Some mad cars to look at walking down that Hania st though eh!

[wild_weston 0]

Thanks for all the replies.

I think I will try Page first. Will definately say it was recommended by bimmersport.

Ta

[wild_weston 0]

Ok, tried Page European first - they were pretty adamant that it required BMW tools that they didn't have. I sent them all the instructions and they didn't need them, as you don't mess with the timing - just lock it into TDC.

At least they were honest, they finally came back and said that they didn't think they could beat the stealership estimate (5 hours) because they hadn't done one before. Fair enough.

This leaves me with the choice of a dealership quote of $1036 and powerhaus.

I tried powerhaus and after they read the instructions they are happy to estimate three hours (parts supplier estimates 2+ for an experienced mechanic) so they are a lot closer. I did query the hours with the dealership, apparantly they always quote on hours from the germany supplied database, so no movement. Again fair enough.

I think I am going to give powerhaus a go. Fingers crossed that I don't have an experience like Penrys. The chap seems pretty amiable on the phone.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Edited May 15, 2008 by wild_weston

[kiwi535 538]

This is my own personal Opinion...If i was you ,and considering what it is you are replacing i would only go to the dealer....and use their part.Its not twice the "normal" cost...i wonder how much it would cost to do a similar job on a lexus, toyota, or Honda....

Will we see you tonight at th realm??

[wild_weston 0]

Update,

went for the powerhaus option.

I think they did a great job. Stuck to the three hours they had estimated. They also managed to get a part cheaper through a wholesaler than getting it through the dealership.

John was friendly to deal with and was really helpfull with getting quotes for parts. Ended up costing $640 - a saving of $450 over the dealership (nearly half the price)!

Got the car back tonight and it's all running fine (little bit more noticable vanos power with the new unit and seals -but nothing majorly different).

I do have one complaint though. There is a targa race day in rotorua, this weekend, and there were heaps of porsches there, being prepared for it. While I think my car is generally the smartest looking on any street I park in (and I hate to say this next part) those porsches really outshone my car. One day I'll get me one of those.

Other cars there of note were:

A very smart looking black E30 M3.

A very strange looking little fiat classic car which was about 5 feet long.

A ferrari having it's engine rebuilt (after only 60,000ks!). Which is another reason why German cars are better.

All in all I give them a big thumbs up. Definately recommended.

[Yuen 16]

Good to hear you didn't get a bad experience. What was wrong with the VANOS?

[wild_weston 0]

Ah nothing really. Just had a bit of a rattle upon acceleration (between 1.5 and 2.5k revs).

Had a bit of a read and it can be caused by the original vanos design not being suitable for the improved cams in the 330s and M3s.

Found a place that adjusted OEM vanos parts and got one from them (US based). Also got some new vanos seals (as the OEM ones seem to deteriorate).

Hence, far less rattle and recovered a bit of lost performance.

At the same time I also got a new intake cam sensor and exhaust cam sensor installed. Just overkill here, but my car sometime stalled when starting from warm. Best I could find is thta the intake sensor was probably faulty. Tried it last night and the "warm start up stall" problem seems to have gone as well.

To round things off I had a new gasket/ sparkplug seal installed while they were in there.

Just made sense to get everything done at once rather than doing peicemeal and costing way more.

Cheers

Edited May 30, 2008 by wild_weston

[Yuen 16]

Nice work Yeah doing them all at once makes sense. Enjoy the driving

[elmarco 56]

Yeah, nice work! Good idea to do it all at once - bit of a deal too by the sound of what's involved.