Hello from Wirral - why am I here!

[Hoof]

Why am I here?
I’ve had BMW’s for 30 years and this Forum is absolutely excellent source of practical information. I do my own maintenance and servicing but will never reach the perfection of some service garages. My latest purchase (low mileage R1150R) was serviced for the previous owner just 1000 or so miles ago (I have the invoice) and the servicing garage clearly has very superior fluids, tools and spares than I can access anywhere. The 4 new spark plugs (£60 plus 20% Tax plus Labour) were tightened with some sort of torque spanner with a 4ft handle and were all rusty and dry fitted with some sort of oxide all over them presumably to act as a barrier to further oxidation. The oil was changed miraculously without removing the sump plug which is also dry and oxidised. The oil must be very special (called workshop oil) it cost about 4 times the best synthetic I can get (plus tax and labour)…..and so the list goes on to a final price of over £600, so the unknown items checked must be very expensive / time consuming as I manage a full service in a morning for about £40…..They gave the bike 15 times more care and attention than I can muster!
I join the guy on the forum who gives a blank list of all those he’s allow to even touch his bikes.
Thanks everyone for the fine practical advice.....Hoof

[Photoguy]

And Welcome!

[towerworker]

" The 4 new spark plugs (£60 plus 20% Tax plus Labour) were tightened with some sort of torque spanner with a 4ft handle and were all rusty and dry fitted with some sort of oxide all over them presumably to act as a barrier to further oxidation."


I've always feared the plugs would loosen on their own so I use my 1/2" breaker bar with a long piece of pipe on the handle to ensure I've torqued them enough. And I thought I was the only one.......

[sykospain]

When I first joined a car workshop's team of mechanics as a raw recruit many decades ago, when meat was cheap and I had hair, and started servicing cars like the Morris Minor and Ford Pop., the head honcho there showed me how to put a dab of grease on each nipple under the car to make it look as if the joints had been greased. Standard practice among the 'criminal dealer' fraternity.
I imagine that traces of the same sort of mind-set exist today in certain dealerships.

[Photoguy]

My first experience with a BMW dealer was at a local shop in my hometown. Really good guys that seemed to care and do a good job. They even had a large glass window so you could look in from the waiting area and watch the work being done. And to carry the image even further, the mechanics all wore these silver mechanics overalls...looked like something out of Berlin.

Sadly they were sold and absorbed by a larger regional dealer (Max) and some of the staff relocated to the new shop. They're 40 miles away so I really only go there on occasion (for parts) though I've heard good things about the service.

Price wise, dealer servicing isn't really an option if I want to keep marital bliss. My bike came with service records going back to new and I've had a chance to go over them to get a sense of what's been done in the past. What really jumps out at me is the cost of service at the dealer. Previous owners have literally spent thousands and thousands. Some things have been a relatively easy DIY for a non mechanic like me (and with help from here...) and have been budget friendly.

[Hoof]

When I first joined a car workshop's team of mechanics as a raw recruit many decades ago, when meat was cheap and I had hair, and started servicing cars like the Morris Minor and Ford Pop., the head honcho there showed me how to put a dab of grease on each nipple under the car to make it look as if the joints had been greased. Standard practice among the 'criminal dealer' fraternity.
I imagine that traces of the same sort of mind-set exist today in certain dealerships.

I notice now that the grease scam has been updated with white lithium spray grease - takes far less time to spray anything visible that actually needs greasing and is much more visible to the customer.....it would take very little time to wipe off the overspray but then who would notice the care and attention!

[Bogdan]

Yeah......I'm trying to get away from doing stuff I don't enjoy doing anymore and maybe never did. For example: I gave away my tire changing apparatus....stand, weights, lubricants....all of it. Never did like brake fluid...first time it needed changing, I rode over to a respected, independent guy and had him do this crazy, involved task. Two years went by and he doesn't want to do it anymore. Don't trust the dealer. Oh well...there's the forum, the internet and Bemmer Boneyard....guess I'll do it myself. When I got into it I realized I'd made the right decision. How could I be sure that an outfit I didn't have confidence in to begin with, would do all the time consuming bleeding - like the ABS control module - or just do some of what's required ?

[Hoof]

I'ts hard to let a stranger service a machine capable of high speed with my life onboard; especially as he's doing it for money! I enjoy the servicing and it's really the only way to be sure things like the caliper bolts haven't been left loose because of a tea break! This R1150R I've bought is a very different bike to the 70's BMW bikes I've ridden for sooo long. It's low mileage (16k) but the fasteners are not good. Several have snapped for no reason other than from new they have never been shifted and never seen any lubricant. On the other hand I don't need to rush to replace one of the snapped off exhaust downpipe nuts as the pipe is as strongly stuck to the broken stud with corrosion as it ever was!