I wanted to share with you my experience at a local indy shop in Kissimmee, FL. Some background information. Most of you know me by a slightly different name (without the 2)!. I am not being asked to do this review and I am not being compensated for it in any way. I am simply writing this to help fellow owners who are in need of a BMW repair shop and need someone trust worthy. I am a DIY guy all the way and have never brought my e90 325i or f30 335i to any shop (including stealership) for repairs, this was the first time.
My serpentine belt broke a few months ago. I thought nothing of it and just replaced the belt and the tensioner. The car ran terrible. RPMs would surge while idling and car would jolt when coming to a stop at a red light and ASS system stopped working. After trying everything I could possibly think of and diagnosing with ISTA, I was ready to give up. My buddy works for BMW parts department and I asked him to recommend a shop. He told me about a guy named Angel who was a BMW master mechanic for 15 years and just left BMW to open his own shop.
I looked him up on Facebook under "KingKoupe Auto Repair" and sent him a message. He told me he would charge $50 to perform a diagnostic and figure out wha the problem was. I brought him the car and within a few minutes he told me where my major oil leak was coming from, the front seal. He also mentioned that the valvetronic motor was bad since it was making a loud clicking noise after the car was turned off or when it was unlocked.
He gave me an estimate for the repair and I thought it was reasonable. Quoted me 10 hours to change valvetronics motor and to change front seal. I left the car on Wednesday and he told me it would be ready by Friday. Thursday I showed up just to check on the repair and angel was working on the car, he had already dismantled everything and showed me how parts of the belt were sucked into the motor. He spent an additional 8 hours working on the car literally fishing out huge chunks of the belt that were in the engine. I was scared that this was going to rack up the bill since it was not part of the estimate. He reassured me he would have the car ready by Friday (next day).
Friday I went to pickup the car and it was in the same condition I brought it in. There were no grease stains. There was no junk, parts or tools near the car. Yes the is very important to me. The car had no faults and ran like a champ. When it came time to pay Angel explained how he had to spend a lot more time than he quoted on the repair but he would not charge me any additional time since he felt it was not fair. I was very happy about this!
I have attached all the pictures that he took during the repair. I would highly recommend Angel to anyone needing service on their BMW. He has BMW tools, ISTA and ICOM and was a master mechanic for BMW. What more can you ask for?! lol.
I will end this by saying that I highly recommend that you change your belt and tensioner as a PREVENTIVE measure to avoid costly repairs. My 2013 F30 335i is no longer under warranty and only has 52k on clock.
