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Thread: $775 Oxygen sensor in NC

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
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    PA
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    Default $775 Oxygen sensor in NC

    Ok I am beyond enraged right now. My sister is in Winston-Salem, NC @ Wake Forest and she called upset late last week saying her car (which she has down there) makes a thunking noise that she can feel in the shifter and steering wheel (?). Shes very difficult to talk to - she doesn't know where it's coming from, the circumstances that cause it - nothing. She just said it makes a bad noise and shakes. Then she popped the hood and said the motor is shaking. It's a 1995 530i - the V8 always sort of moves a little bit. So, I have no idea what to do. The car is a LONG WAY from here (PA). So my mom has her drive it to the dealer (Flow BMW of Winston-Salem) which is only 4 miles from her school.

    I get an e-mail today from my mother saying that they diagnosed the car as needing an oxygen sensor. What-the-hell. I did oxygen sensors on the car < 2 years ago (both). How the hell could they diagnose a thunking/noise to an oxygen sensor. I am extremely irritated right now because I am not near the car and they're pulling strings. My mother followed that e-mail up with a price estimate of $775 for an oxygen sensor. First, NO, this mechanical issue is not an oxygen sensor - I am thinking guibo (which I replaced 2 years ago) or a CSB (which I did not). Second, who the hell in their right mind keeps a straight face when they tell someone over the phone that a car needs an oxygen sensor for a V8 that can be accessed without lifting the car, for $775.

    I feel that they are jeopardizing my sisters safety - if this car is making thunking noises and shes 19 in NC by herself at school and I cannot look at it, she's going to drive it based on their diagnosis of a failed oxygen sensor?!

    At first I was frustrated that they said O2 sensor - then I almost punched my desk when I saw how badly they are trying to rip my mother and sister. Its a 530, it has TWO oxygen sensors. Even at two, nearly $1000? I am making a phone call, and it may not be pretty.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Chicago, Il. U.S.A.
    Posts
    4,243

    Default

    Find a local BMW club chapter and get a recommendation from a member for a shop.
    Have her get her car the F out of that dealership.
    Even if the guibo fails there is way to much stuff in the way for it to fall. Besides didn't mythbusters blow the crap out of the pole vaulting story?
    Maybe a member here will help her.
    Boils my blood to hear this stuff!
    Post the name of the dealer so everyone knows.
    "The gas pedal wouldn't go to the floor if it weren't meant to be there"

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    PA
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    Ross believe me as soon as I get my mother on the phone it's out of there. My mom is no fool either ('87 325e) it's just sickening to hear them try and tell a 19 year old girl she needs to spend $1,000 on an electrical sensor that is NOT causing a thunking noise. I posted the dealer name - it's Flow BMW of Winston-Salem, NC.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
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    Montreal
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    Default

    $775 sounds like a normal price for bmw dealer parts in Canada.

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    PA
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by repenttokyo
    $775 sounds like a normal price for bmw dealer parts in Canada.
    The part is $98. Moreover, an O2 sensor (why one, on a V8?) does not make a thunking noise.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Kentucky
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    648

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    Why the hell did she go to the dealer anyway ... look up a decent independednt shop online and tell her to go there if you can't make it.

    But in all honesty, if I had a sister in a similar situation, I'd manage to take 2 days off from work/school, load up my tools and go see WTF is up.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
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    71

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    Wow, that is ridiculous. I'm in Raleigh, about an hour and a half east of W.S. and from Charlotte, just a little over an hour south of W.S. Let me know if you need the name of a shop, I'm 100% positive I could find one on the local forums or if you'd rather sign up for them and ask yourself: nceuro.org and carolinaeuros.com

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Montreal
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon K
    The part is $98. Moreover, an O2 sensor (why one, on a V8?) does not make a thunking noise.

    i'm not debating the clunking noise, but if you lived where I live, you would be outraged by prices like that on a regular basis. A brake caliper here, without the mounting bracket, is $300 - and that's despite our currency being worth 4% more than yours. It's ridiculous.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Indiana
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    I'd beat ass. Thats really low of a "supposedly" credited BMW facility.
    InDEuroz | e34 540i/6 '94 w/ bore/stroked m62 | e30 325iS '87 | Ducati 748R '00

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    Behind the wheel of My Car
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    1,097

    Default

    With my limited mechanical knowledge-maybe the preload settings on the center bearing? My car has a leaky injector and every once in a while too much if it sits the car will smoke and rattle and shake until all the excess fuel is burned off. that's the best I can come up with with the little info given. I can only imagine how pissed you guys must be
    -Mike

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