dropped my CSL of today for the sub frame repair, they need the car for 1 month with a man working on it the whole time !

trust me if you get it done properly it is more than £1000

try more like £5000 and as for head gasgit it may be £200 from barrys motors down the road but i wouldnt trust any one apart from G- DOG to sort mine out

one word

warrenty !

Jon you are right in that to replace the whole rear boot floor is approx £4500, rather than £1000. However these boot floor repairs are a decent compromise for cars that are outside of manufacturers warranty, as a fair few E46 M3's now are. Only time will tell if the repair is substantial enough;)

I think it's fair to say the same with regards to the BMW replacement floors as well, yes they are slightly different and have the resin filling but only time will tell if its right or not. They didn't get it right the first time round!

Again with head gaskets, if you have a BMW warranty (which I have said on many occasions is definately worth the money) then great. However to pay retail price for a head gasket repair at a main dealer is going to be considerable. For CSL's you can maybe justify it against the value of the car, but a 2002 M3?! Dont think so. As long as you have an experienced technician at a reputable garage with the special tools for the Vanos timing its a fairly straight forward repair. Time consuming though, approx 1.5 days from drive in to drive out.

Straightsix - yes Stuart's car has done 170k, this includes numerous track days:) We felt the engine had lost its performance a little, we had some S54 bottom end spares kicking around so we rebuilt it during the quieter winter months. As you rightly say there were no issues with the head gasket.

Sorry been up to my nuts in it today (funnily enough doing a boot floor repair) I'll post the head gasket photo tomorrow for sure.

Head Gasket replacement at the dealer will take the best part of 2.5K from you if you do not have warranty.

Warranty Costs
 

After much thought, I'm going to go without the warranty. £167/month or roughly £2,000 a year is a lot for named component/£250 ex. The car has had HG, Vanos (both Elms) and sub/flr recently and is on 5k limited annual mileage, 6 months use - so I figure chucking the £167 at my offset mortgage instead of BMW coffers. This gives me a few quid interest saving and if i need to "claim", i have a pot to claim from. If the claim is a biggy greater than the accrued pot, i can overdraw with sub-3% interest until the £167s catch up again.

£2,000 a year is a lot to shell out - except if there's £2,001 worth of claims of course. It's a gamble either way I guess.

It doesn't feel comfortable though!!!!!!!

The warranty claim to BMW on my sub-frame repair was over 7K :shock: :shock:

Crazy that BMW are honoring these on cars worth less than that, would have been an an insurance right-off ages ago.

But we definitely aren't complaining :smokin:

If you know a good specialist, it's about managing your own risk. Some of the numbers thrown about in relation to dealer prices are mad. We all know very reputable and capable specialists can perform the work at fractions of the prices. It's a BMW 3-series, not a Veyron.

Do your homework, know the car, do the sums and assess your own risk. Self insurance isn't a bad thing. Only you know your own circumstances.

Well said....:thumbs::thumbs:


I have 2 places I can take mine 1 of which is a 1 man band who was a previous long term CSL owner who sold his to start his own business repairing M cars and alike.


Steve

Honour
 

I guess they are honouring these repairs as cheaper alternative to litigation, when somebody gets killed in an accident caused by this major structural fault?? Puts the hairs up on the back of the neck thinking about it:(

61k only hassle so far diff needed sorting around 54k small crack found in subframe by bmw 2 months before its 10 yr birthday (praise the lord:smokin:)

There's no answer is there - it's pure chance which way is the best way to go.

My BMs have been looked after by the same guy for 20 years or so now without issue, he's a main BM dealer mech and he knows CSLs so that's a safety net of sorts, but there's no documentation involved.

I'm going without and stuff will be recorded on the CSLR - fingers crossed it's the right way to go.