The saga finally ends...in a good way!!!

So, last week I got my 2012 E92, with 8 miles on the ODO and a burnt clutch and horrible rattles!
Yikes!

So, I put a call out to BMWNA, and get a CSR who's response is:

CSR: yawn, "what exactly is bothering you about this?"
Me: "The burnt clutch, rattles, intake boot shot off while driving, scratches on the hood, and so on"
CSR:" I would suggest taking it to a dealership"
Me: "I will, but what happened at Port that the clutch smoked into dust in 7 miles?....and did you at least replace the flywheel??"
CSR: "It isn't our car, the dealer owns it"
Me: "at port?"
CSR: "No"..........silence follows for 20 seconds while she files her nails.....
Me: (clears throat) "Are we going to have to get nasty about this with lawyers and such?"
CSR: " I don't understand what you are upset about"
Me: "hmm, have a nice day" click......

So, BMWNA couldn't care less, and offered no comment. Nice.

I go to me dealership and they were OUTSTANDING! 2 Managers come to speak with me, they walk through all of the steps they are taking, they assure me that I will never be questioned on the Clutch as long as I own the car. They document the conversation for me. I get a nice loaner, and I am out the door. 3 Days pass, and I get the call to pick up.
The manager says, "We found all of the problems"
List:
Loose intake boot, improperly fitted
Loose intake plenum, not bolted down fully
Loose heat shield on firewall
Loose Strut braces
Loose transmission mounting bolts
loose rear transmission brace
loose exhaust hanger bracket
So the synopsis is that the VDC- never finished putting the car back together!!!
And BMWNA's response- "well, the car is fixed and the inquiry is terminated"
LOL! Not even a "sorry for hurting your feelings!"
So- Props to Flemington BMW!! Your staff rules and your techs are awesome.

Here is what is interesting:
The car feels very different, and may assist some of the complaints I have heard lately. For one, they bled the clutch and tightened some of the bolts around the firewall. this ended several rattles, and made the clutch go from the typical "ball-point pen spring" feel, to a more direct and firmer feeling unit. I don't do the "pogo-dance" as much in first gear anymore either. I DO get a bit more vibration through the shift knob and clutch pedal , but it is about the same as my porsche and not annoying at all. I can feel the engagement point of the clutch, and that alone is worthy of happiness! So, anyway, I am very glad that the car is where it should be from a build-quality standpoint. I can't wait to pile the miles on. My only complaints are small and should go away over time, as I learn the car more.
The only issue I am working on now:
I heel/toe on every downshift that requires braking and downshifting. I was taught that it becomes second nature at the track, if you do it all the time. So, when I do it with the M3, I bounce my head off the steering wheel (kidding). but, the brakes are touchy!! And the throttle pedal is very lightly sprung. My porsche was kinda heavy in the pedals, and for a size 12 foot like mine, I could be smoother with them! So far, it has helped by keeping it in Sport mode (don't have to depress the throttle as much..which makes me lean on the brake more), but I wish I could put a stronger spring on the throttle.
I also wish i could lower the seat and steering wheel about an inch, but it is no biggie!

PS:
The rear rattle, which sounded like the trunk floor was being lifted and dropped was another odd annoyance. They did not give me the full explanation of the fix, but they blamed it on the exhaust, and frame bolts! I was shocked that none of the rattles was in the car's interior.....

Wow...a couple questions:

When you asked the BMWNA customer service person if they had also replaced the flywheel, does that mean that the clutch was burned at the port VDC, the problem was noted at the VDC, and they replaced it there, or was the damage not recognized until you took delivery at the dealership?

I'm just trying to understand the sequence of things. It sounds like the repair was done at the VDC, since you said that they didn't bother to put it back together and the loose transmission mountings, etc., were then noted at your dealership.

In any case, what a PITA. I would have been furious. I might not have even accepted the car.

Once we have a brand-new, built-for-us car in our possession, we do our best to take proper care of it and not ever let a valet drive it, but to think that the VDC workers can't be trusted either--pretty depressing.

As far as the heel-toe practice goes, It's my understanding that it's much more difficult to do smoothly on the street, because the pedals typically don't line up properly in terms of height. It tends to be much easier in a track setting, where you're hard on the brakes, threshold braking at the end of a straight, pushing the brake pedal down further where it's much easier and more natural for your foot to roll to the right to the gas pedal.

paradocs98 wrote

Wow...a couple questions:

When you asked the BMWNA customer service person if they had also replaced the flywheel, does that mean that the clutch was burned at the port VDC, the problem was noted at the VDC, and they replaced it there, or was the damage not recognized until you took delivery at the dealership?

I'm just trying to understand the sequence of things. It sounds like the repair was done at the VDC, since you said that they didn't bother to put it back together and the loose transmission mountings, etc., were then noted at your dealership.

In any case, what a PITA. I would have been furious. I might not have even accepted the car.

Once we have a brand-new, built-for-us car in our possession, we do our best to take proper care of it and not ever let a valet drive it, but to think that the VDC workers can't be trusted either--pretty depressing.

Yeah, all of the damage and repairs occurred at Port. They "fixed' the clutch there, and sent the car to the dealer for delivery. They were about to give it to me, and a smell starting coming from under the hood, and they thought it was the clutch. So they said they would call Port and see what is up. Port called back and said the clutch was bad and replaced. that is all I could get out of BMW. My dealer hadn't done any work on the car up to that point. When I found all the problem, I brought it back the them, and they re-repaired everything!!!

Wow. That's quite an experience. Good for you that the dealership stepped up. I hate to think how maddening that was with BMWNA.

paradocs98 wrote

As far as the heel-toe practice goes, It's my understanding that it's much more difficult to do smoothly on the street, because the pedals typically don't line up properly in terms of height. It tends to be much easier in a track setting, where you're hard on the brakes, threshold braking at the end of a straight, pushing the brake pedal down further where it's much easier and more natural for your foot to roll to the right to the gas pedal.

You're right there for sure. You have to have limber ankles to do it on the street. Oddly, the porsche pedal does not change much at all between 120-50 braking on a track, and 50-20 around a street corner. the pedals line up either way. With the M, (I have not tracked it yet) it seems that the brake is too high on street. I also think that they will be less "grabby" after a few more miles!

immiketoo wrote

Wow. That's quite an experience. Good for you that the dealership stepped up. I hate to think how maddening that was with BMWNA.

Thank Mike!

As long as I got my car, and it is great...screw BMWNA!

Sadly, my wife does not feel that way, and dropped her 5-series order....

SehrSchnell wrote

I'm glad it worked out in the end. I've dealt with BMW NA before, and I agree, in most cases they don't give two shits.

Heel/toe driving/shifting takes practice - and with each (new) car you kinda have to learn it again.

danke SehrSchnell!

Too bad they didn't at least sound sorry:D

Thank god there are a few decent dealerships out there though....

I agree that the M3 brakes are touchy and make heel and toeing quite difficult. I can do it on my 997 and don't bother on the M3. I only track the Porsche anyway.

DocJohn wrote

danke SehrSchnell!

Too bad they didn't at least sound sorry:D

Thank god there are a few decent dealerships out there though....

Happy to hear you got your issues worked out okay and have it all documented.

I too had issues with BMW NA and BMW Canada Customer Service that dragged on for over 6 months.

In my case it was 2 cracked rear wheels on my 2009 sDrive Z4 35i one was replaced without question under warranty and the other one I got screwed over but good by a lousy US BMW Dealership.

Story here ===>Click here and Scroll down to Region: Idaho

Yes I was fairly pissed at the time I still got back into a ///M3 for it had nothing to do with the end product.

I just wish that BMW Germany would conduct more quality control checks of there so called "Customer Service Organizations" to make sure that the BMW product is represented properly and foremost the Dealerships should be checked out in much more detail. Like in my case in Idaho Falls that Dealership selling cars in excess of $100K and not having the staff or the right equipment to change a wheel on a new BMW or to tell a Customer that warranty in the US and Canada are not the same should not happen.

Good luck with your car now that it is all behind you.

I'm glad this all worked out. I'm most impressed with the fact you can now feel the clutch engagement point. Where most of the rest of us can barely feel the engagement point. Maybe BMW has secretly addressed this issue and not told anyone. Just a thought.

glad everything worked out for you

Glad everything was taken care of! After my experiences with Flemington BMW, I wouldn't go anywhere else. I couldn't be happier with their service.

What have I missed? Why call BMWNA? Just call your dealer, which I guess you did, and voila, all magically was taken care of. Anyway, good all was resolved.
vz

I know you praised the dealer, but shouldn't they have caught most (if not all) of these (obvious) problems during their pre-delivery inspection/prep prior to delivering the car to you. However, it's good to know that at least the dealer will back-up the product even if the manufacturer will not.

DocJohn wrote

The manager says, "We found all of the problems"
List:
Loose intake boot, improperly fitted
Loose intake plenum, not bolted down fully
Loose heat shield on firewall
Loose Strut braces
Loose transmission mounting bolts
loose rear transmission brace
loose exhaust hanger bracket
So the synopsis is that the VDC- never finished putting the car back together!!!
And BMWNA's response- "well, the car is fixed and the inquiry is terminated"
LOL! Not even a "sorry for hurting your feelings!"
So- Props to Flemington BMW!! Your staff rules and your techs are awesome.

Based on the problems listed, I would have declared the car as a lemon if I were in your shoes. Am glad you are happy but this is certainly not acceptable from BMW and IMO the CSR represents them!!

DocJohn wrote

Thank Mike!

As long as I got my car, and it is great...screw BMWNA!

Sadly, my wife does not feel that way, and dropped her 5-series order....

Too bad for your wife. What's she getting instead?

BTW, heel toe on this car is way easier at track speeds than on the street IMO.

Glad to hear all is well OP! I commend Flemington BMW as well. I got my service done there. Few interactions with the sales guys tell me that they care about their customers.

I wonder why BMWNA csr was so rude.

What will your wife get now that she's not getting the 5 series?

I don't track my M3 nor do I intend to, but I've been trying to learn how to heel toe on the streets. I totally know what you mean by almost hitting the steering wheel. I'm surprise to hear that veterans have trouble on the M3. This is like 6 different topics discussed in one thread. hahaha

paradocs98 wrote

In any case, what a PITA. I would have been furious. I might not have even accepted the car.

I would not have accepted delivery for a few reasons. First of all it lets people off the hook that would have otherwise had to answer to the mistakes that led to the cars condition. There should have been consequences and if there had been this might not happen to someone else. Then you are buying a new car and its status after a major repair is not in a as new condition do to the work done and you are more likely to incur squeaks and rattles because of it.

DocJohn wrote

Loose transmission mounting bolts
loose rear transmission brace

Did you hear any difference in transmission clunking sound before and after the repair? When you step on the clutch pedal hard while moving slowly in 1st gear, the car loses momentum and your body lurches forward. The transmission lurches too and makes a loud clunking sound. Or at least that's what it feels like to me. I'm curious the bolts they tightened had an effect.