This repair work for the BMW is really starting to get to me.

Today I found a certified, experienced BMW technician and he is going to repair the caliper for almost $150.00 less than the dealership.  He also told me that there is a possibility that the reading for a bad ABS pump might go away once the repair is complete. 

I called around town for import mechanics and decided on this one.  All six of the places I talked to told that it is only a very slight chance that the dealership screwed my car up when they did the brake fluid flush but not likely as the repair work is mostly automatic (I have replaced the clutch fluid in my Miata and from what I understand the techniques are the same so unless they made a stupid mistake in operation of the repair work, it should have been easily done).  I still have a belief that the dealership was and is trying to milk me for more work.  Never the less, now that the caliper is going bad it must be fixed and soon before more damage is done.  The good news is, is that the mechanic, who has been working on BMW's and high performance vehicles from Europe since 1975, told me that even if the ABS pump is not working it will not cause futher damage to the vehicle.  A new pump costs $1700.00.  A used pump costs around $300.00.  Since I know now I can do without for a while, I will.  And of course, none of this is covered on my extended warranty which is another reason to take my business to some place other than the dealership.

I also learned some other things about my car.  The tires are bad.  They have plenty of tread left and can still be driven for maybe two years or so, so long as I want to put up with the road noise.  They are bowing and are flaring and that is what is causing the road noise.  The tires are a high performance, "Z" rated tires from Michelin and cost around $200.00 a tire.  The owner told me had the same tires on his M3 two years ago and they did the same thing.  He now uses Continentals and are much better tires and will cost less.  So when I get done blogging I am going to look online for actual costs.  I will not get them anytime soon but I want to at least be informed.

So Saturday I am bringing the car to this import dealership, repair facility to have the car fixed.  I cannot wait to drive it again without the shimmying.

Now I have some hope that once I get this "caliper brake locking" issue repaired, life will go back to normal.  Some of the repairs that I have had done were nothing more than regular maintenance.  Most were not.  I just want to enjoy driving my high performance car again.  Thats all I want.