Rant! why BMW are you doing this?

Why are you using 16mm or 18mm Hex heads on screws?

W H Y ????

no standard tool kit contains a 16 or 18mm socket.

I know I should have anticipated it, but why would one think that there is an 18mm hex bolt holding the brake calipers to the strut?

Do I need to read a manual for EVERYTHING before I can carry out a simple job on a BMW?

What usually takes me 2 hours ( changing front disks and pads) has again turned out to be a whole Saturday morning because I have to take my motorhome (all I got this morning) to drive to Halfrods to buy a 18mm socket!

Not enough that other "simple" bolts are all torx (thanks BMW, I have bought sets of these.....), now I have to buy all other odd sizes of sockets as well.

What's next? 18.5mm??

NO BMW, you will NOT stop me to work on my car MYSELF! I am not going to pay £80-90 per hour to get some screws undone.

rant over.

sorry.






Edited by UweM3 - 03-November-2012 at 12:22

^ although that doesn't figure for 16 mm hex heads.  I remember doing the rear anti roll bar links on my E39 and having to use two 16 mm open ended spanners to do the job.  I had never used a 16 mm spanner before and I think it was 16 and 18 mm spanners needed to move the drive belt tensioners again on the E39....

Well new standars on ordinary bolts come fore a couple of years ago. 19>18  17>16 and so on.

BMW now manufactures car components in China. Does that tell you anything?

UweM3 wrote: I work with Companies that manufacture in China and the chinese will supply what you ask them for......   Be it dimensional or material.

Howard wrote: BMW have at least 2 car plants in China and have been purchasing parts from China for many years. Form your own conclusions.

I repeat, they make what you ASK them for.

If the penny pinchers at BMW don't want to spend more money for better material, it's hardly the fault of the cinese.

Do you really believe that a company like BMW would be conned by cheap chinese material substituted for the expensive one they asked (and paid) for??? And just watch how their reputation as a quality car manufacturer goes down the drain?
BMW knows exactly what they are doing. It's called value engineering. In plain english, produce as cheap as you can with juuuuust meeting the level of performance of an item required. Sometimes they push this too far...

Look around you, there is a LOT of stuff made in China around you which performs absolutely flawless.

You should work in a garage, I have around 20 large red tool boxes to choose from with every tool you could possibly imagine. Sorry, I know you were ranting but somewhere there is always some smug git you want to slap so I thought on this occasion it would be me lol.
On a more serious note though, my wife bought me a Halfrauds tool kit a few years back and that goes from 6mm up to 19mm so cant understand why all of them don't go that high. Look on the bright side, at least you now have a socket not many other people have ;-)

Mike

Edited by 540 V8 - 12-January-2013 at 21:47