3.0 CSL - starting problem

 of some of those comments,the £7 million dealership, are  NOT the place to go.If the Computer has a prob with a 4 year - 3 series, the older models are Pre-historic----Forget it. WWW is the alternative to find the  Independents, who must give a good service, to survive.

The complexity of to-days Electronic everythings, not asked for by US, but the makers of the cars, have caused the probs, which WE Must pay for. Audi-have 36 Electric motors in a model, what chance do we have to afford such stupidity, Hence on the secondhand market, it will be , BUY one-get a 5 year old FREE.This is Progress???????

-having had a squint under the bonnet of John's CSL at Newlands, I reckon it may not be that simple- he has a later thermostat housing, and things are not quite standard in there, certainly not position-wise anyway.

cheers

 

jkyle69 wrote: The only thing I resented from the comments by ML was one talking to my fiance in a patronising manner about cars (she is one of the country's very few female owner/drivers of a TVR Tuscan - so thought that was a bit rich);

Ownership of a TVR (or any other car) does not automatically bestow superior knowledge or taste (whatever your sex), just that you have the money to buy it.

On the ML front, I bought my 635 from them because of their reputation & knowledge. I haven't been disappointed. I don't believe they would rubbish your car just because you didn't buy from them.

As for main  dealer v specialist - specialists (even ML) are cheaper & when was the last time your main dealer saw a 635/CSL?

Thanks for that - I will take it to a fuel ignition specialist and get the voltage regulator sorted out.

Funny that it all comes full circle in the end, back to the starting problem. I have only just read through the topic, but found a few things notable.

First: the mechanics of a CSL or any E9 are very straightforward, so that you don't need a specialist for that. Engine, gearbox, suspension and brakes were all used in the 5-, 6- and 7-series cars, most (local) reputable garages can deal with those. There is also nothoing special about the bodies of the CS/I/L, except the bonnet, bootlid and doorskins of the CSL of course, any decent panel beater can repair, weld or replace parts. The problem comes with sourcing of parts, and this is where companies like ML, Linwar and Jaymic built their reputations on. Walloth & Nesch stick to providing new parts, but the abovementioned British firms thought that there was much more money to be made by suggesting to all and sundry that it is extremely important to use them also to fit the parts and service cars. Hey presto, everybody started to believe this, and it becomes true.

Second: It is interesting to see that all respondents have used ML or Jaymic at some point or still do. This perpetuates the myth. As long as we enthusiasts think that we need an opinion from somebody who claims to be an expert, they keep making money at our expense. And as long as we enthusiasts are willing to pay the prices we will keep them in business.

I am in Sussex, I am currently restoring a genuine Batmobile, I have had three other CSL's and use only local companies. As one of the members suggested, look in the yellow pages and find a garage that specilizes in fuel injection. The idea that you need a BMW specialist is a load of bollocks.

Hi Jkyle 69.What a sad reflection on the EXPERTISE of the Auto service world 04.I had 2 CSL,s from 72 - 95.Engine wise, its a Bog standard 3-Litre engine, never had ONE moments prob, with the service of.

Panels ???????, Ali bonnet, boot and Door skins.doors bubbled, had them treated with the steel frame / Ali barrier membrane, lasted 20 + yrs.

So easy to say!!!, BUT--you find the Biz craftsman, and you stay with them 4 Life!!!.take a day off, visit JayMic and have a chat. 

I don't car how mucky and knackered I get trying to do some jobs properly, at least I will knowI have done them to my satisfaction instead of having my time and money utterly wasted by people who don't have the same interest in doing the job properly as I do.....

I absolutely agree with this but at the moment I do not have the space to do the work but I dont mind paying if the job is done properly and the bottom line here is if you dont like working in a garage and has a face like a slapped **** I'm sure the local employment service can find you something else to do. Otherwise when paying £50-70 an hour to do a job I expect some degree of customer service. After spending time in other countries I am convinced that this is simply something endemic within the UK

I worked out the figures: this means these companies are getting £70 an hour for a mechanic that does a job that takes 10 minutes. Therefore at 40 hours a week over 52 weeks a year this is worth £145600 a year.
Aren't some CEO just about getting that much for a lot less hassle? And the garages have the nerve to claim they are having a hard time - bollocks - how much does a BMW or TVR mechanic earn - I bet it is not £60000 a year

Well I have just had a similar issue with TVR - it is like banging your head off a brick wall sometimes - it isn't an issue of not being able to afford to maintain the car - it is the principle of allowing cheeky fookahs the licence to rip you off - to your face even. Even the BMW dealership in Portsmouth were laughing their **** off when I was told I needed new panels. I keep getting told 'wathc out for the dealer they will rip you off'. After talking to the used salesman about the CSL and his M6 for half an hour got his email address (sent him a web address of the place in Germany as he wanted 17 Alpina wheels for his car) he said he would help find parts etc.
ML even told me they thought that £40K was expensive for a kit car sic TVR Tuscan, my other half thought that she thought it wasn't bad for a hand made car with stats that beat other cars that woudl cost in excessof £100K and certainly looked better on paper than paying £45K for an M3 which correct me if I am wrong is a production line car last time I looked on the BMW website.

I tell you something - everytime I visit garages these days it make me laugh - the latest chuckle being the £70 an hour labour charge for the Mercedes garage to service a colleagues SMART car. It is amazong how complex things have got with the internal combustion engine which in reality really has not changed that much in the last 50 years. As I explained the the head of one of the production departments at TVR when he told me the best TVR to buy was a Chimera because you can get a god 150,000 miles out of the engine no problem - I said that certainly be the case for an engine that had been in production in one form or another for 43 years.

Garages - dont you just love 'em - just goes to show it doesn't matter if its a dealer or Freds backstreet dodgy garage the attitude is the same throughout

I bought the car after about 5 years of looking aroun d and looking at forums, reading books and I know where the bad points of the car are etc and the fact that it will inevitably cost money to maintain the vehicle as it does for any classic car where the parts are either generally in short supply or produced by thrid party manufacturers for niche markets. The only thing I resented from the comments by ML was one talking to my fiance in a patronising manner about cars (she is one of the country's very few female owner/drivers of a TVR Tuscan - so thought that was a bit rich); the fact that they may have frightened the previous owner of the car into selling the car by convincing him that the car was basically a lemon and needed £10,000 of work doing which it blatantly does not and also I took the car to get an intermittant starting problem sorted out which they said they had fixed which then reoccurred the next morning - when called on Monday morning the owner basically told me that they had done an inspection 2 service on the car and they said that had sorted the problem which including getiing the door adjusted cots nearly £585. Now I used to own an M Roadster and paid £666 for an inspection 2 service which involved arsing about with a piece of kit that is a little bit more sophisticated and as you read in the magazines more of a bugger to do anything with - I cant see the point in taking my car 80 miles to East Sussex to have my eyes taken out when I took the car to Snows BMW dealership in Portsmouth . Here I met a salesman with an M6 and I am sure that the labour charge was not £50 an hour and he said he would have no problem giving me a hand to source parts.

Herein lies the issue - are the independants having a laugh? I think so it would have been cheaper to get it serviced at the dealership as it would not have cost the travel expenses in petrol and train tickets and I would have got a courtesy car and also the car would not have stood around at ML for a week when they blatantly did the work on Friday morning after I harrassed them for 3 days to do the work when they were meant to and to add insult to injury the lock was no t fitted to the door properly and the key would not fit the lock because they couldnt even be ****d to put wd40 into the mechanism and I didnt appreaciate some NED mechanic looking at me like I had stood on his sandwiches because they had not done the job correctly in the first place.

I dont think this is a reflection specifically on ML - it seems to be endemic within the culture of garages up and down the land