Lemfoerder Engine Mounts Failed or Not?? See Post 25 for New Pictures

[Icecream]

With upcharge on parts so the shop isn't losing money, each mount is probably at least $200. Then the labor is like 3 hours for both. $800 isn't a bad quote. It's mediocre.

They can do the job in 45 min and probably don't use BMW branded mounts, so $100 labor and $100 in parts = $200, $800 is nuts. Yeah, book rate sure 2.2 hours (and that is what they tell an unsuspecting customer - they will also tell the customer how they need a special flux capacitor, a magnatron extrapolator and that "really, its gonna take us longer than the book says but we gonna treat ya'll nice you hear and only charge what the book says"), plus parts markup of 200% or whatever on some mythical BMW branded mount and $5 of fresh juicy coffee and you can stretch it to $800 and try to justify it but $800 is a ripoff and is not an honest quote.

[Casa de Mesa]

You're asking a shop to stop paying their employees. Fixing cars is expensive. I did a $450 oil change/brake flush today and understand why. They aren't just getting an oil change, they get freshly ground coffee, quality water, milk, vitamin water, Panera, a video explaining the inspection on the vehicle, a detail job, and sometimes a loaner. It's more than just dropping the car off and leaving.

We fix our own cars and that's why a lot of us are here. It costs ALOT to keep a nice shop open. They need to make a profit. Techs get paid on a set amount of whatever job it is. If the system says the job pays 2 hours, that's what the tech gets paid. It could take 30 minutes or 30 days. It's called flat rate. Most techs aren't hourly but flat rate. Every dealership and most shops are like this.

If you don't want to pay, do it yourself but understand why places charge what they do. Somewhere less reputable might charge half but not care about your car all that much. You get what you pay for 90% of the time.

Well said.

[jbfrancis3]

Here are 2 pix of the left engine mount that's 2 years old, and about 7K mile on them. I'm not sure this counts as collapsed, but it looks thinner than I recall when new. My comments about this whole episode are: the mounts should have lasted longer than they appear; this is a respected shop ( I thought) in the Phoenix area, and they should know that the stock SMG reservoir alone on S54 engines isn't replaceable, but that was their recommendation; I asked for an engine oil sample and got trans. fluid instead; I clearly asked for the brakes to be flushed and refreshed, had to catch that at payment time. I don't mind paying the cost for good work or decent parts. Sometime I use OE, sometimes not, and I can do most wrench jobs myself. I'm just giving the results of my experience with this shop.
Since I'm whining, I'll confirm Pelican Parts' response to my complaint to them: the order invoice is dated 8-8-2018, and I called on 10-28-2020. two months out of warranty goes into the TS file. FWIW

NEW PHOTOS ATTACHED:

I think you've already come to the right conclusion about this shop. Add to your list of gripes: are the mounts collapsed and need immediate attention? No.

At 7k, Lemf or other OE brand mounts aren't going to fail. I would have no problem deferring this item until I had another reason to be some work in the same vicinity.