Lack of Care in "Stealerships"

Angus just read your post and to be honest I do not go to Robert Sterns with any of my cars, as I have found them to be over rated and over priced I have found a really good specialist in Pershore called Allen PMW.

The guy who runs the business, Phil Allen, has been BMW trainned, all his working life and I have him look at my 8 and 540. Attention to detail is as far as Iam concerned second to none, he has all of the diagnostic equipment and a very well equiped facility - I would recomend him to anyone - if you want his number call me.

I'd never take something like an 8 Series to a main dealer, none of the workshop staff will have never seen one before and none of them will have a clue of how to look after it properly. Then there are those delightful BMW labour rates. Specialist all the way for me.

You will have noticed the 4 threads coming from underneath that battery holder. There is some likelihood that those can be accessed from inside the wheel well once the plastic lining has been removed. This way you ought to be able to also clean out underneath the battery holder where certainly more damage was done.

The battery holder itself can also be purchased per P/N: 8108482 for ca. 20 EUR ea. (16 GBP). It will come unpainted.

Cheers
Reinhard

Angus,

I have mailed the details to you

Absolutely shocking service, I try to stay clear of dealerships now as I've had my fair share of dealings with them in the past.

The area where the threads are looks like it could be where the back boxes are and might be a real PITA for access

Correct Wayne, those bolts coming up are actually the rear silencer hanger mount bolts.

That powder from the batteries should most definately been cleaned out but I imagine the health and safety implications of doing that are ridiculous. A stiff paintbrush and a vacuum cleaner would do it but oooo nooo, probably need a nuclear fallout suit to comply with health and safety!

8Tech.

I avoid the stealers like the plague--unless it's absolutely 100% necessary

Zitat von anguswolfendale;54427

Thanks Reinhard, I thought the battery holder plate was welded in place and the threads related to something under the rear wings being bolted up into the body shell. I will have a poke around underneath.

Steve5 - Yes, please let me have the details of your man in Pershore. I don't have workshop facilities at home yet and I was not aware of any local specialist - hence using Robert Sterns.

Please let us know if the battery holders are welded on or only attached by screws as I also want to remove mine for cleaning.

Thanks,
Michael

Zitat von anguswolfendale;54427

I thought the battery holder plate was welded in place

Checked this today and unfortunately found it to be true. The plate seemingly was spot-welded in place during assembly of the shell.
Tried crowbar and heatgun to no avail...
The holder plate can be bought "real cheap", comes painted in black and there is no way to to get the old one out bar using brute force.

Cheers
Reinhard

I should have thought it was possible to drill out the weld spots to remove the tray. This is the normal method of removing panels for replacement.

Yes, this is certainly the proper way to do it.
Requires removal of exhaust, heat shield and parts of the underbody coating.
We did not see weld spots from above, hence we were quite optimistic and hoped that it either came loose removing the silencer hanger or (if glued in place) upon heating the 4 oval areas.

Quite a bit of trouble for a little cleaning and preservation

Cheers
Reinhard

Possibly not quite so much trouble as having to deal with the results of allowing an acid attack on the body structure to develop any further though. If it was my car, I would want to neutralise the problem now rather than worry about what was happening under the tray in the future.

Alan