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      09-04-2019, 07:46 PM   #1
GasBurnlife(landapanda)
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M Servotronics Unit Leak?

Hey ya'll - recently took off the protective cover to take a look at the servotronic unit and saw that there was some oil residue on the M Servotronics unit. Car is '18 with 11k miles on it. Is this something I should be worried about? I was going to clean it and keep and eye on it.

Thanks for looking!

Peter
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      09-04-2019, 10:39 PM   #2
GerardzM
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Looks like cosmoline to me.

Harmless...just gets very messy after a few years.

Was it sticky?
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      09-05-2019, 06:16 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by GerardzM View Post
Looks like cosmoline to me.

Harmless...just gets very messy after a few years.

Was it sticky?
Need to check. Will get back to you when I get under the car this weekend.
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      09-05-2019, 02:19 PM   #4
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That is not a leak.
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      09-07-2019, 07:10 AM   #5
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That is not a leak.
Ok. Thanks everyone bill clean it up and monitor it...
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      09-09-2019, 05:12 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by landapanda View Post
Ok. Thanks everyone bill clean it up and monitor it...
Mine started off like your picture and I just kept an eye on it. Now it is actually leaking onto my garage floor when parked for more than a week. I will be bringing it in under warranty very soon. I have been told BMW is notorious for these leaking.
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      09-10-2019, 07:09 AM   #7
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I'm sorry but I fail to see how the EPS is leaking?
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      09-10-2019, 07:56 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GerardzM View Post
I'm sorry but I fail to see how the EPS is leaking?



It's like saying your electric car ran out of gas... :
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      09-10-2019, 10:13 AM   #9
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Originally Posted by GerardzM View Post
I'm sorry but I fail to see how the EPS is leaking?
I have an appointment scheduled Thursday to find out what is going on. Visually it looks like the leak is coming from the unit, but will update once BMW inspects it.
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      09-12-2019, 09:33 AM   #10
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Brought the car into the dealership this morning to try and find the leak. Looks like the gunked grease and grime on the M Servotronics unit is a cosmoline like substance that is used to protect it from the elements. The M Servotronics unit is fine, but unfortunately I still had a leak on my garage floor that was coming from somewhere. Looks like both front shocks are leaking fluid.

This particular dealer installed a Dinan coilover kit for me last year. I will find out this afternoon what games they are planning to play with the blame, but either way it will get fixed. This is a BMW part that has failed and not the Dinan part they want to say caused it, but we will see. Never heard of anyone else having these go bad because of the coilover kit, I think they were just a defective part(s) from the factory. Both rear shocks were inspected are fine.
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      09-13-2019, 12:49 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spartan King View Post
Brought the car into the dealership this morning to try and find the leak. Looks like the gunked grease and grime on the M Servotronics unit is a cosmoline like substance that is used to protect it from the elements. The M Servotronics unit is fine, but unfortunately I still had a leak on my garage floor that was coming from somewhere. Looks like both front shocks are leaking fluid.

This particular dealer installed a Dinan coilover kit for me last year. I will find out this afternoon what games they are planning to play with the blame, but either way it will get fixed. This is a BMW part that has failed and not the Dinan part they want to say caused it, but we will see. Never heard of anyone else having these go bad because of the coilover kit, I think they were just a defective part(s) from the factory. Both rear shocks were inspected are fine.
Excellent, just cosmoline as I had mentioned earlier!

But at least you found the source of the actual leak.


Now do the coilover kits come with struts?

If not, BMW may very well blame the drop that the springs provide, which could have attributed to the premature wear.

Hopefully it all works out....if not I'd file a claim with Dinan.

Keep us posted!
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      09-13-2019, 12:06 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GerardzM View Post
Excellent, just cosmoline as I had mentioned earlier!

But at least you found the source of the actual leak.


Now do the coilover kits come with struts?

If not, BMW may very well blame the drop that the springs provide, which could have attributed to the premature wear.

Hopefully it all works out....if not I'd file a claim with Dinan.

Keep us posted!
The Dinan coilover kit does not come with struts, its basically a spring kit. I spoke to Dinan before hearing back from the dealer. They told me they have never heard of this happening on an M2 from the coilover kit. They also said while it could reduce strut life by 5k-10k miles, they haven't seen one fail before 75k miles of constant use. My car had these installed about 2k miles ago and my total mileage is 3800. He laughed when I told him this.

Got a call later from the dealership and long story short they are going to replace the shocks, but specified that if they break again they will not be covered under warranty. This is the same dealer that installed the Dinan coilover for me. I was told they don't provide the Dinan installation service anymore. These were installed too Dinan recommended ride height settings by the dealer. I have never messed with them nor do I drive the car on the track.

This dealer isn't known for their customer service. Everything is always a fight, but they are the only one close to me. Car is going in next week, one weird thing is they said they need to keep it overnight. I love how most youtubers can swap struts in a couple hours around the whole car, but the professionals need 36 hours to get the job done.
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      09-20-2019, 04:06 PM   #13
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Got the car back from the dealer this afternoon and they swapped both front struts and the car seems fine. They were adamant the Dinan coilover kit created this problem, but other than their opinion they could produce no proof of such. I have a hard time believing that a car with less than 4000 miles on it and about half that with the Dinan kit installed, that the front shocks were overworked by weekend road driving.

I've never heard of anyone on here ever say they have had this problem with Dinan coilovers or any spring kit for that matter. According to them my car is now flagged in the BMW system as a repair caused by Dinan parts and the struts cannot be replaced again under warranty.
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      09-20-2019, 04:46 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spartan King View Post
Got the car back from the dealer this afternoon and they swapped both front struts and the car seems fine. They were adamant the Dinan coilover kit created this problem, but other than their opinion they could produce no proof of such. I have a hard time believing that a car with less than 4000 miles on it and about half that with the Dinan kit installed, that the front shocks were overworked by weekend road driving.

I've never heard of anyone on here ever say they have had this problem with Dinan coilovers or any spring kit for that matter. According to them my car is now flagged in the BMW system as a repair caused by Dinan parts and the struts cannot be replaced again under warranty.
I hope you flagged them in your own system as being big fat jerks.
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      09-20-2019, 06:53 PM   #15
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I hope you flagged them in your own system as being big fat jerks.
Yeah they are the worst BMW dealership I have ever dealt with. They told me that they recently stopped installing Dinan parts because of the failure rate they were experiencing on customer vehicles, but then tells me I was only the 2nd person to ever have them install Dinan parts since he's worked there. These guys have been in business since 1976. Hard to believe only 2 people in Palm Beach County were interested in Dinan parts over the past few years. The level of BS that comes out of these people is amazing.
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      09-24-2019, 12:42 AM   #16
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Well, FWIW "Dinan" the company no longer has anything to do with Steve Dinan, the original founder.

Dinan is owned by the same parent company as APR these days ("Driven Performance Brands"), and that parent company is then owned by a big "capital holdings company" (Sentinel Capital Partners) whose main purpose is to purchase companies, lay off a bunch of people and "optimize."

They seem to exist just to "pump and dump" whatever they buy. They presumably give zero fucks about enthusiasts who buy the parts, and the ultimate corporate owner is only in it for money. I personally would avoid any brand in this portfolio out of principle.
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      09-24-2019, 07:20 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ZPrime View Post
Well, FWIW "Dinan" the company no longer has anything to do with Steve Dinan, the original founder.

Dinan is owned by the same parent company as APR these days ("Driven Performance Brands"), and that parent company is then owned by a big "capital holdings company" (Sentinel Capital Partners) whose main purpose is to purchase companies, lay off a bunch of people and "optimize."

They seem to exist just to "pump and dump" whatever they buy. They presumably give zero fucks about enthusiasts who buy the parts, and the ultimate corporate owner is only in it for money. I personally would avoid any brand in this portfolio out of principle.
That's a sad state of events, I used to be a huge Dinan fan, since they work closely with BMW dealerships. Not so much after reading this and also I've also notice that my dealer no longer sell Dinan products.

It's all adds up now
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      09-24-2019, 09:19 AM   #18
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Originally Posted by Poochie View Post
That's a sad state of events, I used to be a huge Dinan fan, since they work closely with BMW dealerships. Not so much after reading this and also I've also notice that my dealer no longer sell Dinan products.

It's all adds up now
Yup, starting to make sense.
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      09-24-2019, 09:36 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ZPrime View Post
Well, FWIW "Dinan" the company no longer has anything to do with Steve Dinan, the original founder.

Dinan is owned by the same parent company as APR these days ("Driven Performance Brands"), and that parent company is then owned by a big "capital holdings company" (Sentinel Capital Partners) whose main purpose is to purchase companies, lay off a bunch of people and "optimize."

They seem to exist just to "pump and dump" whatever they buy. They presumably give zero fucks about enthusiasts who buy the parts, and the ultimate corporate owner is only in it for money. I personally would avoid any brand in this portfolio out of principle.
This is a shame to hear. I had heard about Steve Dinan's departure, but didn't realize the company has shifted so far from its roots.

What pisses me off though is regardless of Dinan's current state of affairs, the dealership and on a larger scale BMW USA sold(sell) and installed these products for many years. It's not a smart idea on their part to abandon the customers that bought those products from them when all was well in the BMW/Dinan world.

One of the biggest selling points of using dealer installed Dinan parts was the peace of mind that either Dinan or BMW had your back for warranty issues. Now the current policy at my dealer is when a BMW part breaks its the fault of the Dinan product they installed. If I would of known I was going to be abandon, I would have just installed one of the many other high quality brand coilovers on the market from the get go.
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