Tulsa independent shops

[Sirstopher]

I am looking for a good shop, one I can trust to work on my car. I have delt with Rennsport, and right now they are top on my personal list I would like some feedback.

Rennsport - great guys but I can find the parts I need cheaper online. I understand that everyone has a part markup and the hourly shop fee that is associated with this. I like the fact that Rick knows his stuff and is to the point on the repairs, but just being short of BMW shop prices why not just go to BMW for the repairs. I also have a problem when they can not seem to complete a simple task of replacing a battery in my car and the more advanced these cars are going to get the more electrical items mechanics are going to have to face and repair.

Benzen motor works- I took my car here because Rennsport was booked up and my car was leaking coolant. They got me right in and looked at my car. I was charged for the time 94.00 and was emailed a copy of the repair. On the estimate I got just the total parts and the total labor cost. I asked for a break down of the parts and they declined.

I asked also if they would or could use other parts in the repair but again I felt like I was asking for God to part the red sea. I do like the fact that I could walk back into the shop and see what was going on, but with them only getting prices for parts right from oem.com and I would have no idea what part they were ordering, I can not say I trust them. It's a bit shaddy. I know for fact that the part from Rennsport is 138.00 cheaper than what they quoted. I work dam hard for what I have and that's a nice evening out.

Obrian specialist - I really don't know the name nor do I care, I have called them and talked to try and get a price over the phone, all seemed good till I started explaining my problem and the guy was rude telling me I don't know what I needed to have repaired. I know my motor, I know what's broken, I know the parts needed and it just went south from there.

Mikesautohaus- I called the shop and he (forget his name) told me to bring in my car Wednesday. I am declining this as I just want a shop fee and part cost. Amazed he agreed. He is looking at the parts list and is going to call me on Tuesday.

Has anyone used this shop? It seemed that he was willing for me to buy my own parts and bring them to him to replace them, his shop fee is 10 dollars less than everyone else.

Swiss- every time he looks at my cars general direction I can see him start to twitch and I agree. I own the bangled butt 2002 745. It's a fantastic electrical and mechanical nightmare. It will be probably the sole reason of never owning a BMW ever again. I love the car, I love the feel on the road and it's comfortable to stick my family in and go places. I would love to own a more reliable car but the facts are that I pay for it every month, and from the time I bought it under book it has tanked into a number I feel somewhat embarrassed about.

Until I am out of the red and back into the black I get to keep shoving money into this never ending bleeding bath of a car.

Sorry for the long and drawn out post. The repair I need done is the dreaded n62 coolant pipe. I am leaking fluid out of the weep hole above the water pump. I can get the part for 606.00 shipped and so far my quotes have been over 2400.00 to repair with 10 hrs labor.

Thanks

[SWISS]

Ralph at Mike's is reasonable but slow IMO and a few others
( He had Pete's 318is for a little over a month to swap a motor.). Great guy to deal with though.

Benzin, EAS, I wouldn't waste my time.

Rennsport is good, but bad experiences they are not immune to either.

I'm sorry Chris but I have no desire to learn coding and the e65 is not a pleasure to wrench on like 3's,Z's X's and 5's. But if you want I would be happy to put it on the lift and take a look at it with you no charge.

And your are not the first E65 owner to get turned away bro!

[Sirstopher]

Ralph at Mike's is reasonable but slow IMO and a few others
( He had Pete's 318is for a little over a month to swap a motor.). Great guy to deal with though.

Benzin, EAS, I wouldn't waste my time.

Rennsport is good, but bad experiences they are not immune to either.

I'm sorry Chris but I have no desire to learn coding and the e65 is not a pleasure to wrench on like 3's,Z's X's and 5's. But if you want I would be happy to put it on the lift and take a look at it with you no charge.

And your are not the first E65 owner to get turned away bro!

You know how I feel and I completely understand and don't feel bad about it at all. I purchased the 7 without really knowing anything about bmw's and am learning the hard way now by having to deal with the daily little stuff that breaks on these cars.

If I had the extra $$$$ I would just dump it. Thanks for the offer on the lift, I didn't know you had one. I do need to look at the suspension at some point, just need more time and money.

I have started learning the coding, it's slow but I do have the tools now to run INPA and NCS expert. I use INPA to trouble shoot items in the modules and NCS expert to change options in the modules and change vin numbers in modules that I get thru third party suppliers without having to spend thousands at BMW.

So, am I missing anyone? Is there another shop in town that is good to great. I get that mike's may be the place, but am concerned about time. It's a ten hour job, I can leave the car for a week at tops, any longer and it won't work.

Thanks Swiss.

[kryptokatalyst]

Is this what you are referring to?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoCED1jyfL4[/ame]

[Sirstopher]

Yes, coolant tube from front of block to back. It's not just the 7 series that will have this problem, it was in most of the engineering of all v8 BMW motors up to 2008.

[EricP]

Wow that's freakin crazy. BMW just couldn't do it the normal way, eh?

[kroptastic1881]

You could give Autohauz Unlimited a try. They are on like 15th and peoria ish somewhere up there. I think they charge like $74 an hour and I wanna say you can use your own parts. Its actually a guy I work with's step dad's shop and I took mine there for diagnostic on starting problems. Nice guy, deals a lot with SAAB's but I always see BMW's there. Not sure on his electrical prowess though.

[Sirstopher]

I am getting pretty good at the electronics as it seems no one here really knows WTF is going on with these cars e65/e66. I am on my third month of solid reading of all the modules and am starting to get a good feel how to trouble shoot the problems.

Thanks for the other shop referral, it's a pretty straight forward job, just don't have the extra 7-10 hours to work on the car!!!!

[SWISS]

You could give Autohauz Unlimited a try. They are on like 15th and peoria ish somewhere up there. I think they charge like $74 an hour and I wanna say you can use your own parts. Its actually a guy I work with's step dad's shop and I took mine there for diagnostic on starting problems. Nice guy, deals a lot with SAAB's but I always see BMW's there. Not sure on his electrical prowess though.

3rd and just west of Lewis , and yes they are Saab specialists.

[Sirstopher]

Thanks Swiss

[z31maniac]

Used Mike's AUtohaus a lot before I started wokring on my own again. Good guys, know there stuff, but like Swiss said, they aren't the speediest.

Just like building a car, "Fast, cheap, reliable......pick two"

Mike's is cheap (relatively) and reliable......but they aren't fast. That's the extra you pay for at Rennsport/Benzin type places.

[kroptastic1881]

3rd and just west of Lewis , and yes they are Saab specialists.

Hey I was close... I've only been there that one time.

[SWISS]

Used Mike's AUtohaus a lot before I started wokring on my own again. Good guys, know there stuff, but like Swiss said, they aren't the speediest.

Just like building a car, "Fast, cheap, reliable......pick two"

Mike's is cheap (relatively) and reliable......but they aren't fast. That's the extra you pay for at Rennsport/Benzin type places.

I may be partial, but I hold Rennsport in a higher echelon than the other guys, including the dealership in town.

[EricP]

I may be partial, but I hold Rennsport in a higher echelon than the other guys, including the dealership in town.

My experiences agree with this.

[SWISS]

You know how I feel and I completely understand and don't feel bad about it at all. I purchased the 7 without really knowing anything about bmw's and am learning the hard way now by having to deal with the daily little stuff that breaks on these cars.

If I had the extra $$$$ I would just dump it. Thanks for the offer on the lift, I didn't know you had one. I do need to look at the suspension at some point, just need more time and money.

I have started learning the coding, it's slow but I do have the tools now to run INPA and NCS expert. I use INPA to trouble shoot items in the modules and NCS expert to change options in the modules and change vin numbers in modules that I get thru third party suppliers without having to spend thousands at BMW.

So, am I missing anyone? Is there another shop in town that is good to great. I get that mike's may be the place, but am concerned about time. It's a ten hour job, I can leave the car for a week at tops, any longer and it won't work.

Thanks Swiss.

Whomever you take it to, get that All German Auto coolant pipe and have them use it. That will save you thousands not tearing the heads off the block.

Otherwise it is a butt load of srs bzns.

[Sirstopher]

I ended up taking my car to Benzen to get the repair done. I took the car to both Benzen and Rensport to have the car looked over. Both of the estimates were within 100.00 of each other but ren could not get to the repair for two weeks and Benzen used all BMW replacement parts vs ren using some other part manufactures.

Both were the AGA coolant pipe.

I had the pipe replaced, water pump replaced, thermostat, Bally pan gasket, some mid tubes.

I also had the control arm bushings replaced along with a right side ball joint.

The repair took a week and the car sure does steer and handle like new, the steering is tight an the front end does not feel like its moving around on me at higher speeds.

I called mikes autohaus an had 2 appointments that fell thru, the price for the repair was 500.00 cheaper but I needed to know I could get the car back in a week and missing several times on the drop off gave me no security for that need.

Benzen did a good job on the repair. I feel confident that I ended up in the correct shop. I like the fact that they detailed my car and that was just an added bonus when I picked it up.

Thanks for everyone's input.

[SWISS]

I ended up taking my car to Benzen to get the repair done. I took the car to both Benzen and Rensport to have the car looked over. Both of the estimates were within 100.00 of each other but ren could not get to the repair for two weeks and Benzen used all BMW replacement parts vs ren using some other part manufactures.

Both were the AGA coolant pipe.

I had the pipe replaced, water pump replaced, thermostat, Bally pan gasket, some mid tubes.

I also had the control arm bushings replaced along with a right side ball joint.

The repair took a week and the car sure does steer and handle like new, the steering is tight an the front end does not feel like its moving around on me at higher speeds.

I called mikes autohaus an had 2 appointments that fell thru, the price for the repair was 500.00 cheaper but I needed to know I could get the car back in a week and missing several times on the drop off gave me no security for that need.

Benzen did a good job on the repair. I feel confident that I ended up in the correct shop. I like the fact that they detailed my car and that was just an added bonus when I picked it up.

Thanks for everyone's input.

So how close was the estimate to the final bill? Rumor has it Jack has been quoting A and charging B,checking if you mileage varied or not.

Also what did they quote you to do the job with the AGA pipe? The books don't mention that so I was curious the hours estimation they came up with.

I hear ya on Ralph but Buddy already gave the golden mechanic advice in this thread. Perhaps an E30 as a backup car is in your future.

[Sirstopher]

So how close was the estimate to the final bill? Rumor has it Jack has been quoting A and charging B,checking if you mileage varied or not.

Also what did they quote you to do the job with the AGA pipe? The books don't mention that so I was curious the hours estimation they came up with.

I hear ya on Ralph but Buddy already gave the golden mechanic advice in this thread. Perhaps an E30 as a backup car is in your future.

I was seriously going to dump the seven. Go put barstop in it and trade it in on something else. I looked at a 2000 911 carrera cab but its just too small.

I paid too much for this car in the first place with all the small repairs needed so far, but I swallow my pride.

Jacks estimate was more than the final bill, plus he forgot to deduct the 94.00 shop fee that I paid for them to diagnose the car in the first place.

The estimate for the pipe was close as follows as I don't want to dig out the bill, Sunday sitting on the couch watching ball.

AGA pipe was 750.00
Pipe 20.00
Intake manifold gasket 60.00
O ring 7.00
Another pipe 16.00
Water pump 280.00
Thermostat 72.00
Labor 940.00

The original estimate was 2353.00 plus or minus. And I had them add the thermostat and a coolant flush.

In all I am just happy it's now behind me. I swear these cars are cursed. I am the moderator on the fest under the 7 series and all the threads I have read on the repair and the end cost I think I ended up on the cheaper side of the repair cost.

I know I could have saved money with Ralph, he found the AGA pipe for 570.00 and a water pump for 190.00 but I could not wait as I already had a loaner car setup.

Chris

[mcgranahan41]

Just learned that Mike's Autohaus on south harvard in Tulsa closed. Ralph was very good. Who do you recommend? thx

[uuJIMtq]

Just moved to Broken Arrow.
Anyone know of any shops around BA?