Tell us us something we don't know

[Basil]

no, you pay for

View attachment 75401

We’re going to need a bigger jar.

 

[JPSmit]

We’re going to need a bigger jar.

a much bigger jar!

 

[BobHaskell]

Might fund BCF?

 

[maynard]

And make sure to put a cover over it that only releases by crawling under the car and reaching up with a 3 foot socket extension. And just to make it really fun, put in the service manual just the two words, "remove cover"...

Just like a starter bolt on a V12 XJS, except you need a swivel at the end. And it has to be a twelve point socket.

 

[John Turney]

I'll second that!!

It is interesting, how a car that is so well engineered when driving, is such a pain in the donkey to service. Some of that is on purpose - to keep the revenue flowing to the BMW service network, but some of it is just absent-minded engineering.

I have a neighbor up the street who has a couple of BMW coupes, 3 series and a Nissan Z. Says the BMWs are easier to work on than the Z.

 

[JHaydon]

And it has to be a twelve point socket.

... but not THAT kind of 12-point socket. Not the kind that everyone already has in their toolbox. The kind where four of the flats have an extra 10 degree angle to the others. And make it an odd fractional metric size (13.5mm). With one side cut away for clearance.

When I worked at a VW garage in the early 2000s the Passat 2.0T engine had I think it was a recall (? -- or maybe just notoriously leaky water pump to be replaced under warranty) that paid something like 0.4 hours to replace the pump... which required removal of the entire front clip including the radiator. An industrious (hourly) junior tech volunteered to do every one that came in until he figured out a way to get it done in half an hour. IIRC he used an oversized oil filter pliers to hold the pulley and a 16" long offset box-end wrench to get at the pulley bolts without disturbing the radiator. He was a hero.