Dealer won't remove wheels because I have CCB's??

[r1214]

Has anyone else run into this issue? I picked up my 2015 M3 with CCB's last year and took the car to the dealer yesterday for a CEL (simple O2 sensor replacement) and they SA's were all talking up the CCB's and how crazy expensive the rotors are. I knew this of course. They then told me that my car is the ONLY one they have seen with CCB's since they came out. Kind of hard for me to believe, but I am in a very small region.

Then they drop the bombshell on me that they can't do ANY work on my car that requires removing the wheels, because they don't have some special BMW hydraulic wheel lifting / installation "device". Uh, what?

I prodded for details and they couldn't give me much. As I said, none of the SA's, nor the senior 9 year veteran tech claimed to have ever seen a car with CCB's in their dealership. But from their limited understanding, they were explaining that the wheels have to be placed perfectly horizontal to the rotor and installed just perfectly to keep from damaging the CCB's. This made no sense to me. The more I tried to ask for technical details, the more they seemed to be grasping in thin air.

They told me that any work requiring the wheels to be removed/installed, even something as mundane as changing tires, would have to be performed by the Little Rock dealership nearly 3 hours away. They called Kansas City and Tulsa and were told neither of those dealerships had this magical wheel changing device either.

So the last few hours I have been searching Google and the forum here for answers. All I have found is concern about accidentally knocking the edges of the CCB rotors with the wheel during mount/dismount causing them to chip. I'm not finding anything about having to lug down the wheels in some special perfect symmetry, or whatever the guys at the dealership were trying to explain, let alone anything about some special wheel mounting tool.

I'm hoping the entire "issue" is literally that BMW is just afraid of a careless tech chipping a $4K rotor with a wheel, and nothing more. It's just hard for me to imagine that BMW would really design some special hydraulic lift to install wheels on cars with CCB's, and that every dealership wouldn't have one. I mean, can't you just be careful, or have another tech assist you?

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this. My mind is blown.

[allinon72]

It's simple - they don't want to work on your car and they think you're stupid. I would report to BMWNA immediately.

[aBMWfan]

Originally Posted by allinon72

It's simple - they don't want to work on your car and they think you're stupid. I would report to BMWNA immediately.

+1. I would get that same explanation in writing (email) as well, to give BMWNA a stronger case.

[r1214]

One of my friends at a tire shop said this is what they are referring to. Literally just to assist you getting the wheel on and off and not dinging the rotors, nothing to do with some perfect alignment or anything like that.



I agree, need to get their explanation in writing.

[dubsesd]

I remove and install my wheels all the time in the garage. Its no different than a m3 with steel rotors. And to be honest the barrel of the wheel will hit the caliper before it hits the rotor if you really are not being careful. This delaership sounds like a joke to me

[LOW4LYF]

It's the clearance between the wheel and caliper. There's just scarred to scratches something once putting the wheels back on without the machine in the picture.

I would change the dealership asap...lol

[RowanBuds]

At the most, I'd walk in with a set of wheel pins and tell them to take the damn tires off - especially for a warranty job you shouldn't be dealing with any of that shit.

[Poiseuille]

Originally Posted by allinon72

It's simple - they don't want to work on your car and they think you're stupid. I would report to BMWNA immediately.

Absolutely agree with that: the folks at NA will get a real kick out of that story. smh.....

[JibSTir13]

Sounds like they don't want to work on your car due to potential liability.

[Agent - ///M]

Originally Posted by Poiseuille

Absolutely agree with that: the folks at NA will get a real kick out of that story. smh.....

I work for BMW....

Please report this dealer to BMW NA.

They cannot refuse to work on your car. Ask to speak to the GM and Service Director together.

That's bullshit brother!

I don't think you will have an issue after that. If you do, let me know, I'll get you the right person to talk to....

[GOLFFRR]

A dealer actually can refuse any customer they want, its just like any other business. however I am not sure why they would refuse to work on your cars certain part due to a lack of a machine. The only thing I can think of is that BMWNA has certain requirements for service on certain parts of a car for warranty issues and the dealer is just following the strict rules of NA. Its hard to really know everything without looking into that info. I am interested in this so I think ill call over to the store this morning and ask our service dir the same question and see what info I can find out.

I know we have a few of those machines in our service area not sure if we have those as a requirement per BMW standards or not.

If you have access to another dealer I would start there, if not, I would talk to your service advisor and see what they suggest, if its your only dealer around they will have to have some sort of solution you would think right?

you can also shoot Charlie@McKennaBMWService a PM he is a service advisor who would know the answer to your question for sure. I know his region deals with a ton of CCB m cars.

[GOLFFRR]

As I stated I was interested to know the answer so I called Our service director and he is looking into it but he said he never heard of anything like that. But to be sure he is looking into bulletins etc.. should be back to me here shortly.
is there any other info to the story that you could think of that maybe you left out? if it does come back that there isn't a specific machine that has to be used but may be recommended I dont know why or understand why a dealer would say they can't remove wheels without the machine, find that very random

[r1214]

Originally Posted by GOLFFRR

As I stated I was interested to know the answer so I called Our service director and he is looking into it but he said he never heard of anything like that. But to be sure he is looking into bulletins etc.. should be back to me here shortly.
is there any other info to the story that you could think of that maybe you left out? if it does come back that there isn't a specific machine that has to be used but may be recommended I dont know why or understand why a dealer would say they can't remove wheels without the machine, find that very random

Thanks for doing some digging. As far as any other details- the reason it came up as a topic is I mentioned how irritating it was that tiny little rocks seem to get lodged up in the brake dust shields making a horrible noise. On a couple occasions I've stopped the car, got out, and tapped on the dust shields to get tiny little rock particles to come loose (no, not between front wheel and caliper, thankfully that has never happened).

I mentioned that to the SA while I was there and the head service manager sitting nearby chimed in that there was a bulletin about that issue and there might be an updated dust shield that can help with it. Said they would check it out and let me know while they were replacing the O2 sensor. They called me back later and said what I posted above. They wouldn't take the wheels off to even inspect the current dust shields and brakes because they didn't have the tool.

There was clearly a lot of confusion on their part as to just what the wheel mount/tool was for. They all seemed to think it had more to do with getting the wheel lugged down in some perfect symmetry, not about dinging the rotors. I'm pretty certain after everything I have read that is all there is to it. As someone else mentioned, why not just use wheel pins and the concern pretty much goes away. Or, hey, just be careful?? I mean, aren't there LOTS of scenarios when working on any component of a car that if you're not careful you could damage something? Just really odd.

All that being said- I kind of hate to push the issue if it involves them spending money on equipment, simply because I switch cars so often, there is a chance I will be in a different car in the next few months anyway (possibly even an M2, or maybe a P-car). Though I say that trying to be nice, but not even a year ago I dropped $5K completely out of pocket with them getting an E39 M5 all current on service, so they've made plenty off me, lol.

Anyway. Sorry for rambling. I am going to talk about it with my SA again later this week, as I have to go back since another O2 sensor has apparently bit the dust . Just not sure I will push real hard. Going to just see if they would at least considering using wheel pins. I'd really like the dust shields and brakes in general inspected.

[GOLFFRR]

Ok. SOOOO the install guide from BMWNA states that you are to use that specific machine in order to remove the wheels so you dont damage the various pieces etc.. So that specific dealer is just following the guidelines exactly so they are not liable for any issues if they were to arise. Now can you get two techs to carefully remove the wheel with no issues? yes, however that dealer doesn't want to take the chance and it is that dealers right to do so. Not all dealers will have that machine and of course not all dealers will refuse to do service bc they dont. They most likely will just be careful and use other techniques. Those techniques however are not the BMWNA prescribed way and technically I guess could be an issues if something happened for the dealer

[r1214]

Thanks for confirming that info, Golffrr!

[Woodengun]

If the dealer doesn't have confidence their techs can remove a wheel......probably about the last place I'd want servicing my car.

[cwhands]

You guys do realize how tight the clearance between the caliper and barrel is on a 2015 right? Assuming the wheels are stock they would have to be 437Ms. The damage rocks can do (aesthetically) by getting lodged between the caliper and barrel can get very ugly. Can't say I blame them for wanting to have that machine/cover their asses because of the way some BMW owners can be...

[SanchoDivine]

I personally would appreciate any shop who is honest enough to not make my car their learning experience or experiment if it could end up leaving my car in a state where it may not be fixed properly.

[r1214]

I see both sides of it, particularly since I'm the customer. The bottom line though, why would you tell the customer they have to drive 6 hours round trip to another dealer instead of finding a solution that meets everyone's needs?

[SanchoDivine]

Originally Posted by r1214

I see both sides of it, particularly since I'm the customer. The bottom line though, why would you tell the customer they have to drive 6 hours round trip to another dealer instead of finding a solution that meets everyone's needs?

I was looking for an alignment at a shop and they said they couldn't perform one on low cars because they had clearance concerns with their machine (Machine had a steep ramp or something). They could get some wood boards or something to make a less steep ramp and try to have my business but they either didn't think of such work around or don't do work arounds.

Coincidentally, I had a car that needed an alignment many years ago and the shop used wooden boards. They must have used these boards for a very long time because after the alignment, one of the boards broke as they were backing my car off the machine. It did quite some damage to the front of the car.

I am not interested in work-arounds and would expect things are done the right way because of that experience. Trust me, you don't want them trying to come up with temporarily solutions.

You can also tell them that you'll accept the risk of them performing the work without the recommended tool but I'm sure you don't really want that.

Maybe they can purchase or borrow one of those tools in the future for schedule service appointments but maybe the cost doesn't make sense to them. It's a sucky situation but hopefully you get taken care of.

[e90-4aj]

Originally Posted by Agent - ///M

I work for BMW....

Please report this dealer to BMW NA.

They cannot refuse to work on your car. Ask to speak to the GM and Service Director together.

That's bullshit brother!

I don't think you will have an issue after that. If you do, let me know, I'll get you the right person to talk to....

good stuff

[Taunto]

as a Licensed BMW tech myself.. Sounds like the techs at that shop are a bunch of pussies. We dont have that expensive machine either, but ive taken countless wheels off of vehicles with CCB with no issues. Yes it is a tight fit.. Yes you half to be careful.
Yes hitting the caliper is a problem but the biggest problem is if the Wheel drops off the hub and is not being supported by the tech or some sort of device properly and the inside of the wheel hits the Rotor - That rotor needs to be replaced no questions asked.

Honestly removing the wheels on a car with CCB is be no different than a vehicle without CCB. both require care and attention not to damage the caliper,rotor or the wheel. If they dont have a tech who is confident enough in themselves to remove wheels without damaging a rotor or caliper... i dont think i would trust them to be doing any work on the vehicle.