Bloody marvelous

[moggyboy]

I used the local garage to MoT my X5 35d on friday and it failed on a broken front spring so I agreed for them to replace it today as long as it was an oem part. (I always use an indie that i've used for over 14 years but is 25m away)
I thought replacing a spring must be quite straight forward no?
Anyway I collected the car today and the spring looks fine and drove the car 200 yards to home and parked it. So far so good.
Went to use the car a couple of hours later and shock horror, travelled 20 yards and the steering was virtually immovable . I wrestled the car to a halt and had to abandon it at the end of the road where I live. The dash is giving a warning of "dynamic drive failure. Vehicle leans further when cornering. Avoid high speed cornering. Have the fault checked by BMW service."
Can anyone tell me what the MoT garage have done to create this problem?
The car is undriveable never mind worrying about cornering to fast!
Any ideas would be appreciated.

[X5Sport]

Could be the wrong spring. BMW offer a number of springs with the choice dependant upon the vehicle option list. There is a special tool used to identify the correct spring hence not being able just to select one on Realoem.

I did link to the tool a few weeks back but can’t find it on this new forum format

[moggyboy]

Oh right. Well my guess is that this local garage won't have the special tool.
I'll ring my regular Indie and see if they can give me the part number before I go ballistic at the MoT garage.
They are only 200 yards away, is it safe for me to drive the car with no power to the steering. Only two right turns to deal with.

[marti]

Yes safe to drive ....but will be hard to steer.

[Alan Gunn]

Make them collect it then if they do any more damage then they can sort it out.

[moggyboy]

Update
I've had a poke around under the bonnet and the reason that the power steering is no more is that one of the pulley belt wheels has sheared off.
It is also why the battery is showing no charge on the dash.
However I don't understand why the Damper control warning message (see pic) comes up although logically the steering is the fundamental part of the active drive so that's probably it.
I also think a piece of trim or wheel arch lining is missing because when I look at the left side bulkhead (offside) under the bonnet I can see a cavity space that I'm sure wasn't there before. (see pic)
I'm trying not to assume these two matters are linked and that this is no more than a coincidence but I'm struggling.
So as the car now needs to have the front end removed and the sheared bolt drilled out I have sent it on a breakdown truck to my regular Indie and not back to the garage that replaced the spring. I've never used them for anything on my car other than MoT's and they don't specialise in quality marques.
I've also asked the Indie to check that the spring is the right spring, has been fitted correctly, the quality of the work and is or isn't connected to the pulley bolt shearing etc.
If it turns out that the Mot garages work is suspect then I will deal with that separately. I see no point in putting more work their way when I have a problem that may have been of their doing and it therefore makes sense to use my regular garage to check the work and get me back on the road again.

[DavetheBlade]

Re: the trim, mine's the same as in your pic.

[moggyboy]

Yeah I think I imagined the trim lol!

[H4MP]

Hi any update on this matter? I also have a 35d which just hit 160k miles thinking now should I do an oil service for the transmission.

[moggyboy]

Just to update.
The failed bolt was a sod to get out but eventually was removed. My Indy replaced all associated pulley's and belts etc and checked out the spring installation by the MoT garage.
There was no reason to associated the spring replacement work with the pulley bolt failure.
The parts to get my power steering, alternator and water pump working again was £172 plus vat. The bolt was £3.35 of that.
My car has an outstanding recall for a bolt replacement somewhere around the alternator area which is being done on the 28th march.
I'll be rather miffed if it turns out that the recall bolt is the one I've just paid the neck end of £500 to have replaced.
Anyway I'm rolling again.

[marti]

Just to update.
The failed bolt was a sod to get out but eventually was removed. My Indy replaced all associated pulley's and belts etc and checked out the spring installation by the MoT garage.
There was no reason to associated the spring replacement work with the pulley bolt failure.
The parts to get my power steering, alternator and water pump working again was £172 plus vat. The bolt was £3.35 of that.
My car has an outstanding recall for a bolt replacement somewhere around the alternator area which is being done on the 28th march.
I'll be rather miffed if it turns out that the recall bolt is the one I've just paid the neck end of £500 to have replaced.
Anyway I'm rolling again.

Mine broke off too...replaced it myself..luckily I was in my drive just driving out when it went, had to weld a hex bolt on the end to get the rest of the shaft out of the alloy...total sod to do...no recall letter received by myself but recall on the Gov site which I only saw after the event...reckon previous owner got the letter and didn't bother... .