- Joined
- May 24, 2007
- Location
- Wisconsin Northwoods
A few weeks ago I noticed fluid on the garage floor, forward of the driver-side rear wheel of my E60 BMW. It wasn't motor oil, coolant, or trans fluid way back there, and didn't smell like fuel so I assumed it was brake fluid. Kinda weird because I just drove the car around for about half an hour with no issues and the brakes felt fine. My first mistake was not towing it directly to Rodger's shop. I didn't want to deal with a tow truck so I drove it the half mile to the nearest mechanic I deal with in Barrington. Again no issues driving it and the brakes felt fine. They put it on a lift right away and halfway removed one of the underside panels as well as the cabin air filter box to get at the brake fluid res. It was obvious a section of rear brake lines were leaking at a spot that wasn't really protected from salt and road debris. Older, almost 200K car, I'm not mad, this was going to happen sooner or later driving in northern IL and Wisconsin salt. I called BMW Parts and a few other shops to get an idea of what this should cost. No one could give me a solid price without looking at the car (understandable) but everyone including Rodger said this is about a $500 job. The next day shop in Barrington called me with an estimate. I don't have this first estimate in writing but the service advisor said they need to drop the rear subframe for repair. Pretty sure he told me $3000+. If they use an aftermarket brake line $500 less. The BMW parts guy said they don't make prebent OEM brake lines so I didn't really give a shit what they use. I silently LOL'ed at the guy and told him to let me think about what route I wanted to take for the repair. The next morning I walked over and told them I would be taking the car somewhere else. They had a few customers in the waiting room so I could have put up a stink about price gauging but since they still had to put back together the car a little bit I left it at that. The service advisor took about $1000 off the original estimate to be more "competitive", but I still declined. I paid their 1-hour diagnostic fee, had them top off the brake fluid, and drove it out of there. Fuck them, won't go back. I once again didn't want to deal with a tow truck so figured I would send it and drove it to Rodgers about half an hour away. After a call to James the night before he basically said the front and rear brakes are isolated so if you have a failure you would still have two other wheels with brakes to stop the car in an emergency. I checked the area the brake lines were leaking at after a few miles and there was minimal leakage. Figured worst case I would get a brake fluid low light and I would have to tow it. Kept off the brakes and made it to Rodger's shop with no issues.
Rodger called after a few days since he was very busy and told me to come to pick up this over-engineered piece of shit. His total for the repair was ~$650 since he said it took him longer than he originally thought. Almost $1700 cheaper than the place I originally brought the car to. AND he replaced a larger section of brake line. Thank you Rodger for being honest and not price gauging because I brought a "disabled" car into your shop. I am done with that shop in Barrington, they pulled that same price gauging shit for some rear suspension work my BMW needed that Rodger ended up doing for much less. What pisses me off most about automotive repair shops is price gauging and selling of additional unneeded repairs or services. I should have just taken my car to Rodger in the first place.
Rodger called after a few days since he was very busy and told me to come to pick up this over-engineered piece of shit. His total for the repair was ~$650 since he said it took him longer than he originally thought. Almost $1700 cheaper than the place I originally brought the car to. AND he replaced a larger section of brake line. Thank you Rodger for being honest and not price gauging because I brought a "disabled" car into your shop. I am done with that shop in Barrington, they pulled that same price gauging shit for some rear suspension work my BMW needed that Rodger ended up doing for much less. What pisses me off most about automotive repair shops is price gauging and selling of additional unneeded repairs or services. I should have just taken my car to Rodger in the first place.