Best BMW shop in the Lower mainland?

Hey guys, I do some of my own maintenance, but theres some stuff I dont have the patience to try and figure out.

What shops in BC does everyone reccomend to take their BMWs too which wont kill your wallet and do quality work?

Im a big fan of CG in Richmond. Good quality and prices.

Chris knows his stuff and the quality as I said is top of the line. They are my go to shop.

I go to Nixon, they have treated me well. Always willing to take you into the shop and show you what is going on. Pretty busy though, it can take a while to get an appointment.

The PO of my car used Nixon and gave them a lot of praise for actually diagnosing problems rather than throwing parts/money at them.

What are you trying to fix? I find this car very easy to work on.

What kind of work are you looking to get done?

My front brakes need to be done, my vanos oil line is leaking and soon enough Im gonna need my cooling system done

i would recommend Nixon as well. Very good experiences

Originally Posted by Euro604

My front brakes need to be done, my vanos oil line is leaking and soon enough Im gonna need my cooling system done

Brakes are the biggest rip off in the automotive industry. Order the parts for 1/2 the price from the US and DYI. Super easy to do, no special tools required. Also measure your rotors, often they only need to be replaced every second set of pads.

Cooling system doesn't need to be replaced till it fails, unless you like throwing away money. Only exception is the water pump, replace it as soon as it starts making noise.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Bimmer App

sorry to hijack this thread, but what do you guys think is reasonable to replace the flex disk assembly (guibo) and the center support bearing? Apparently that is the cause of my rear end clunking (whew, not subframe)...

Originally Posted by taylor192

Brakes are the biggest rip off in the automotive industry. Order the parts for 1/2 the price from the US and DYI. Super easy to do, no special tools required. Also measure your rotors, often they only need to be replaced every second set of pads.

Cooling system doesn't need to be replaced till it fails, unless you like throwing away money. Only exception is the water pump, replace it as soon as it starts making noise.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Bimmer App

Every single person on this forum says to replace the cooling system before it fails so you avoid damage to your engine.

And I am ordering the parts from the states. I have a very good discount at lordco and they quoted me 400 dollars for front rotors, pads and a wear sensor.

Originally Posted by Euro604

Every single person on this forum says to replace the cooling system before it fails so you avoid damage to your engine.

And I am ordering the parts from the states. I have a very good discount at lordco and they quoted me 400 dollars for front rotors, pads and a wear sensor.

That's false. Search. There's lots of great advice from those with 200K+ still on the stock cooling system. It's your money, spend it however you want, just don't spread lies.

You might want to contact Nixon and CG before ordering parts. Most of the better shops won't install customer supplied parts. I ran into this headache with my Mercedes and my GF's Volvo. For brakes you can go to any shop. Budget Brake and Muffler on Marine will definitely install customer supplied parts for a rate less than the BMW shops.

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Originally Posted by BeFresh

sorry to hijack this thread, but what do you guys think is reasonable to replace the flex disk assembly (guibo) and the center support bearing? Apparently that is the cause of my rear end clunking (whew, not subframe)...

I'd say 2-3 hrs shop time plus parts, so probably $500+. To do this the exhaust and drive shaft have to be dropped, which should be easy with a lift and air tools.

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Originally Posted by taylor192

I'd say 2-3 hrs shop time plus parts, so probably $500+. To do this the exhaust and drive shaft have to be dropped, which should be easy with a lift and air tools.

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BJ BMW wanted $2,008.73

Nixon quoted my $705+tax so i'm taking it there...

honestly, Nixon's is a rip off. that's all i'm going to say about them.

break it down and you'll see it doesn't add up to 705.

buy the parts and take it to any of the hundreds of shops around.
I can get you OEM flex disc for $80 local. either febi or lemforders. no crappy beck arnley parts from lordco. its more expensive than online in the states, but you don't have to pay shipping charges or a run to the border. that's just how it is in Canada. parts are just more expensive up north.
and about 1 hours depending on the shop at $80/hr. looking around before going to that indy. its not something you need a BMW specialist for. its 6 bolts and depending on how good the guy is, you might not need the exhaust dropped.

Originally Posted by drbworld

honestly, Nixon's is a rip off. that's all i'm going to say about them.

break it down and you'll see it doesn't add up to 705.

buy the parts and take it to any of the hundreds of shops around.
I can get you OEM flex disc for $80 local. either febi or lemforders. no crappy beck arnley parts from lordco. its more expensive than online in the states, but you don't have to pay shipping charges or a run to the border. that's just how it is in Canada. parts are just more expensive up north.
and about 1 hours depending on the shop at $80/hr. looking around before going to that indy. its not something you need a BMW specialist for. its 6 bolts and depending on how good the guy is, you might not need the exhaust dropped.

To be fair he did ask about the guibo and CSB. The guibo is easy, I'd DIY, yet the CSB requires dropping the exhaust and driveshaft which is a PITA without a lift.

You are correct in that this is a repair any shop can do. The only gotcha is marking the driveshaft before splitting it, which hopefully most shops would know to do.

If in doubt, print out a good DIY with pictures and give it to the shop guys to look over. Any mechanic who's been to school should knows to mark it. It would cost much extra either way.

buy everything online, do it at home.

If you need to take it to a shop, I highly recommend The Speed Syndicate in Burnaby. I get all my work done there.

http://www.thespeedsyndicate.com

Ask for Alex, say M3 Leslie sent you =D

ya i wanna know a good place too. I took my car to Nixon for a transmission problem. Hooked the car up to read codes $200. yes you heard right. Get a call you need need a new tranmission they say its a bent fork. $8000 (new) Not beleiving them with all the reading about the problem on here took to bimmertek in langley hooked up computer for free just i thought gear postioning sensor. $1000 later good to go. So NEVER take your car to nixon scammers Plus they did my tranny oil and put atf in a mt
And anybody at Nixon read this get back to me look to get my money back you ripped off from me i have my receipt still bent fork in an smg tranny inpossable