Wheel Balancing...fair price?

gazfocus

colino wrote: »

When you do change, don't bother with the 525D, you'll always wonder how such a small difference in engine size can take a supreme car like a 530D and turn it into an also ran.

Thanks. I am kinda like that with the 520i now, otherwise I would keep it. Once it's at about 40-50, it gets up to 70 quickly, but getting to 40 seems to take a while.

colino

I may be wrong, but I would have thought that even a 99 would have adaptive auto. If you start it up and drive like you stole it, in around 20 miles you will notice it hangs on to lower gears for longer and changes down on deceleration much more often. Murders the fuel economy though!

gazfocus

Just for the sake of updating the thread, the garage has looked at the car and has found there is a faulty speed sensor....total cost including diagnostics and labour is £145+vat. They did say that the wheels may then need balancing to get rid of the wheel wobble but they will check that once the speed sensor has been replaced.

colino

Did you book it in to have a look at the front end shimmy and they've come up with a faulty abs sensor? It may well have a faulty sensor, but that isn't really related to the shimmy, and I sincerely hope they aren't rank amateurs changing a sensor because they've found a stored code. (The code would have been flagged in the ecu as you mentioned the intermittent abs warning light coming up). Usually faulty sensors just don't work, so you have a permanent warning light every time you start it up and it runs through its self check.

gazfocus

colino wrote: »

Did you book it in to have a look at the front end shimmy and they've come up with a faulty abs sensor? It may well have a faulty sensor, but that isn't really related to the shimmy, and I sincerely hope they aren't rank amateurs changing a sensor because they've found a stored code. (The code would have been flagged in the ecu as you mentioned the intermittent abs warning light coming up). Usually faulty sensors just don't work, so you have a permanent warning light every time you start it up and it runs through its self check.

No, I gave them details of the ASC light flashing and when it was flashing. They said the vibration in the steering wheel is likely a seperate issue so they will look at that once they've replaced the speed sensor.

When they phoned they said they were experiencing issues with the speed sensor, rather than saying they found a fault code on the ECU.

Spicy_McHaggis

gazfocus wrote: »

No, I gave them details of the ASC light flashing and when it was flashing. They said the vibration in the steering wheel is likely a seperate issue so they will look at that once they've replaced the speed sensor.

When they phoned they said they were experiencing issues with the speed sensor, rather than saying they found a fault code on the ECU.

Also known as finding a fault code?

gazfocus

Spicy_McHaggis wrote: »

Also known as finding a fault code?

I don't agree. If they were going off a fault code, they would have said. I am sure of this as I have used the garage for many years.

At the end of the day, I have to trust their diagnostics. If they replace the sensor and the fault still appears, then they will have to sort it out.

Unfortunately, not everyone knows everything about cars so I can't do the diagnosis myself.