Facing a big dilemma trying to sell my modified F80

[NOLATom]

I decided to part ways with my 2017 LSB M3 as we will be moving overseas in May. I thought selling it would be fairly simple, but shame on me for thinking as such.

It’s a 2017 M3 with just about every option except for the carbon ceramic brakes and is completely wrapped with XPEL Ultra and has a couple of cosmetic Carbon Fiber pieces. At about 5K miles on it, I had M Performance Coil Overs put on it along with Dinan suspension mods, DINAN Stage 3 tune, and M Performance Exhaust. A week or two after the mods, I started hearing rattling and we found the sway bar making contact with the control arm when we lifted the car. We wrongly assumed that this had something to do with it, but no one could figure out why it was hitting at all, except to say that the end links were too long. So, after many trips to shops, the end links were replaced with shorter custom end links thinking the rattling would go away. It didn’t.

I then brought it to a different BMW dealership and said please figure this out. Of course no one had a concrete answer on why the sway bar interfered with the control arm at three different settings. When someone uses danger words like “we think”, then I know they have not solved the riddle. The dealership that did the work originally has stopped returning my calls and will not respond to my emails and they are 5.5 hours away, so I’ve given up on them resolving it. The dealership that “thinks” they know what the problem is says it/s $5K in parts to replace everything with stock parts, but they still can’t say for certain why the sway bar interferes and who knows if the rattle will go away.

Then to make matters worse, I saw Racer20 had the exact same description as mine when it came to rattling and he has replaced everything and has raised the white flag as the rattle is still there.

With that said, I had 2 different offers at $59K, but when I realized the rattle was not resolved, I didn’t go through with the deal. I’ve always sold my own cars and have always sold something I had complete faith in knowing it was the best vehicle on the market for the best price, but I don’t feel that way with this anymore.

So what should I expect to get with for a car with 11K, mint interior, excellent exterior, and $120K I put into it two years ago?

[allinon72]

Put the car back to stock if you want the best chance of selling it for maximum price. Sell the mods to recoup some of the initial investment. It also solves your suspension issues.

[ntg44]

Originally Posted by allinon72

Put the car back to stock if you want the best chance of selling it for maximum price. Sell the mods to recoup some of the initial investment. It also solves your suspension issues.

I agree.

A friend of mine was a tech at BMW for a while - they follow the manufacturer's procedure for troubleshooting ambiguous issues such as this, unlike an independent mechanic. Also unlike an independent shop, it is not really their interest to solve an issue that may or may not be related to aftermarket parts, Dinan or otherwise. I'm sure some dealerships are better than others with more experienced staff, but the fact that Dinan parts are installed really makes no difference, since they aren't OEM parts.

Not saying a BMW service dept wouldn't be able to resolve it, just that they're playing a different game than an indie shop would. They have a procedure and process to turnaround cars as fast as possible, which usually involves replacing with factory parts, whereas an indie's interest is getting your car fixed or adjusted correctly.