Quote:
Originally Posted by Bdavi011
To be perfectly honest, I would only focus on the parts that need immediate repair. The would be the valve cover (buy genuine BMW), which already comes with a gasket in it and the oil filter housing gasket. The oil pan gasket may or may not be leaking. Hard to tell when oil leaks from the top of the engine make it to the bottom and your oil pan looks oily. Regardless, an oil pan leak is common on these engines, regardless of the year of the BMW.
The brakes and rotors should get checked out from an indie around your area. I am willing to bet that they are fine and the dealer is just trying to make $$$.
The air filter is literally ~$20 and takes less than 5 minutes for someone to replace. If you must take it to the indie, then do so, but even you can do this with a torx tool and a flat head screwdriver.
Any reason the dealership gave for needing a new battery? These cars usually store a code if there is voltage issues from a bad battery (mine did and I replaced my battery just a few days ago) code is now gone. But I would not replace a battery unless it has been starting to give issues or I get a code for it.
Spark plugs are easy enough to do on your engine but you do need a special tool to remove/install spark plugs. Plugs are about $10 each and you only need 4 if you have the N20 engine.
Don't worry about not getting a PPI done. It happens. You learn. Not sure how much an indie would charge but if only replacing the valve cover, oil filter housing gaskets, spark plugs and air filter. I would say a fair estimate to be $1k- $1.5k for labor alone and even then I would think that is a bit expensive.
Also, did you buy your car from a private seller or a dealership?
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Thank you so, so much, for such a detailed explanation. I really appreciate it. I have decided that I will be doing the following things based on your and other people advice that I've got from Reddit:
Replace Valve cover along with spark plugs.
Replace oil filter housing gasket.
Replace air filter.
Do battery testing (Autozone does it for free).
Check front and rear brake pads with rotors.
Check for any oil change.
Maybe a quick check for any leak around oil pan.
I have a strong feeling that the dealership just wanted to squeeze as much money as possible from my pocket. But with that said, I will definitely take it to an independent shop and I hope everything is done within $1K. I have spent around $858.36 already….