I know we have a lot of BMW fans here. Again this is a thing which has evaded me completely.
Anyway, a colleague of mine had a 330d. It wasn't mega miles and had full dealer service history. One day the swirl flap things in the inlet tract failed. Because he had the full history, he got a discount on a new engine, and I think he got away with £6,000.
Three years ago he had an X3 on about 90,000 miles, and the steering rack failed. The dealer 'could not locate' a reconditioned rack, and so a new rack cast him £3,500. So he traded that for another 330D, this time a Touring. Again about 90,000 miles and the steering rack failed a few weeks ago. This time the dealer located a reconditioned rack, and it cost £1,500.
After a quick search, it appears to be the usual pressure pad failure on the rack/pinion mesh, and repair kits are available, as a reasonably simple repair.
Now he runs a Honda.
It's not that unusual, because some may remember that my SiL had the rack fail on his Phaeton. It was a total pig of a job getting that out, because of the weird engineering, but we did it. The cost of the reconditioned rack and a few bits was £2,000, and no labour on that one. Just sweat and toil.
Thank goodness Trad Morgans have simple racks.
