Quote:
Originally Posted by X5SND
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Personally alignment is the only job I hand off to the dealer....in all the years of owning the X, all my alignments have been handled solely by the dealer and I have yet to have any alignment related wear issues.
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Big +1. The ONLY time my BMWs are back to the dealer is for alignments, EVERYTHING else is DIYed. In 10yrs (build date 8-1-03), and over 160k miles I've NEVER seen a broken fastener/part or frozen bolt. BMW has a "non-critical" classification on many fasteners that have torque specs, this allows the techs to use their own judgement when tightening them...
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Limited access jobs (like t'stat replacement) can be done without removing the waterpump to gain proper access to the t'stat housing fasteners with a torque wrench, techs use "feel" to tighten these and call it good enough. This practice reduces labor hrs on the job and adds the possibility of mis-torqued fasteners.... again
If a fasten has a torque spec I correctly torque it, even if it adds break down/assembly time to the job.