Hi there, I'm really sorry that I've disappeared off the planet for a while, but I kind of haven?t left my office for much of the past 3-4 weeks. Three of us are trying to do four people?s jobs ??etc. etc. In particular I?m sorry to John H and the other M5ers in the UK that I did not turn up to the meet on 23rd February. The reason for my absence was that my car is STILL off the road??.
Here?s the latest update
You remember that the current problem is two oil leaks in the engine when I got it back from Nowack ? spotted by my local BMW dealer when I took my car in the get a number of software glitches put in by Nowack removed. Well the first leak was a hose connecting the block to the radiator and that got fixed pretty easily. The second only became apparent when the engine was steam cleaned after the first leak was fixed. This looks to be a gasket problem and so they have to strip the engine down to the cylinder heads. This is taking time because the tech guy at my dealer is going slowly to learn what Nowack did (to make sure that he/they can put it back together again). Anyway, my dealer called me to say they worked out all the stuff that Nowack have down with the Vanos and the cams and they've stripped it down -- I think that they've actually got down to the cylinder heads now. They called on Friday to let me know what they've found. I missed the call and will find out tomorrow.
Anyway, that?s the car ? it?s a story of long, painful progress, but I think I?ll get it back in some shape or form in a week or two. When I posted last, I described how Nowack had called me and asked the board?s advice. The overwhelming view was that I should call Nowack back and explain my problems, and so I did. The BMW tech. at my local dealer also called them too???..
My conversation was very unsatisfactory. I spoke to the marketing guy and outlined my thoughts about the low quality of finish and workmanship, the oil leaks, my overall unhappiness, etc. etc. His overall attitude was not one of concern or "right, we'll fix it now" or worry that his company's work was just so poor. He focussed on the oil leaks and basically tried to suggest that these weren't such a big deal and that I should bring the car back to Germany and they'd fix it. Somehow I felt as though he was suggesting that it was in some way my fault. He just didn?t react to my other criticisms and just didn't seem very bothered by my bad experiences -- I mean: a heat shield held back off the block by what looks like fishing wire, and he just didn?t have anything to say! I put the phone down convinced that I would never speak to them again and I most certainly was never taking my car back there.
This attitude was confirmed when my tech (a qualified BMW Master Technician -- there's only 25-30 in the UK, for example) spoke to Oliver Nowack. Nowack's attitude was that under no circumstances should my guy try to fix the car of the engine. He claimed that the modifications were so large that BMW just wouldn?t have the kit to repair it. He said that my tech should tell me to take my car back to Nowack ASAP. Interestingly, however, much of what he told my tech was just plain wrong. He started talking about knocking sensors in individual cylinders, but in fact there are four sensors in the engine and so each one services a pair of cylinders. Various other things he was talking about were equally inaccurate -- it showed a surface knowledge but not a real knowledge of the fine details of the car. My tech said he just let Oliver talk, but that much of what he was saying was trying the blind my guy with science -- kind of a stupid thing to do to a BMW tech, but anyway, it shows the arrogance of the guy.
So, my tech and myself thought we'd just ignore the windbag and he'd go ahead and strip the engine. Interestingly we found that very few things have been changed and so far nothing that major that my tech couldn?t deal with. In particular, my tech found that the car still had standard cams in -- they had the BMW logo and parts number stamped in them !! So, the claim of "worked cams" by Nowack is looking to be as false and hollow as so much else with this company. Increasingly in my car it looks that all they did was improve the airflow and change the programming in the ECU (and muck (there is an ?m? there) everything else up on the way !!). I really should sue them, but it'll be just too expensive and time consuming.
So that's my story so far. Still no car and its getting on for 6 months since I delivered it to Nowack. Nowack called me every now and then, but since I don?t return their calls they've given up. I'm just not interested in hearing more lies and they just don't seem concerned -- sure they say bring the car back to Germany and we'll fix it for free, but the implications about quality of work, reputation, customer service after $50,000 of cash, etc. just doesn't seem to be very important to them.
As a quick aside, I really hope I?m not banned from this site for saying this, but Gustav ? why are you defending Nowack all the time? Given my experiences and those of Apples, we have two of us that have enough evidence to suggest that in fact these guys have actually set out to rip us off. I won?t speak for Apples, but let?s consider my experiences
· 3 months to do the conversion
· electrical faults left in the dashboard when car returned to me
· engine undertray reattached with cheap plastic rivets, not proper clips
· two major oil leaks in the engine when it is returned ? previously no oil problems for 2+ years before conversion
· heat shield held of block by what looks like fishing wire
· cams in engine discovered to be standard BMW, not uprated
· a lack of interest in my problems, other than suggestion of returning car to Germany
What other evidence do I need to show that Oliver Nowack is not a maligned enthusiast but someone whose business should be shut down as quickly as possible. My recommendation to everyone on this board: Do not use Nowack, EVER
As a side issue, I?ve been reading about Apples? problem of a lack of BHP. Given that I?ve only had my car on the road for 3+ weeks since I got it back from Nowack, I have never had any time to take it to a dyno. When I was at Nowack they put it on the dyno in front of me and dialled up 452 BHP on the road, but given that they seem to have lied to me so much, quite frankly it could be that they have a standard computer readout that they show to punters when they're at the dyno that shows 452 BHP ? at that time (before driving it) I'd never know whether it really had 452, 400 or 350 BHP otr. That said, even Nowack have told me that 75% of the power hike they get is from the changed programming -- all that mechanical work (or lack of it) only increases power by 25-30 BHP (they told me). If Apples isn?t getting the power uplift, I suspect it's because the ECU they sent to him is in fact standard. The stock M5 delivers c350 BHP on the road, so with the mechanical changes (mainly air flow improvements), adding say 30 BHP, we get to 380 BHP on the road. His 384 BHP sounds like a stock ECU on a modified engine.
Charles