Hi Guys- I took my 2002 R53 to the dealer to have the airbag light checked out thinking it would be covered under the extended warranty. Turns out the cause of the light is the BST Cable... which has started to melt at the battery terminal.

Anyway- they wanted almost $1000 to replace it, but the cable only cost $350... ONLY $350!!! That leaves $650 for labor so that translates to about 5 hours of work for the tech. When I get the car home I start to investigate and that cable runs from the battery box along the bottom of the car along the drivers side and up into the engine compartment to the jumper box. It all looks very straight forward and dare I say simple to change.

Where are they getting $650 worth of labor on this??? Am I missing something?

-Johnny

 

Yea sounds about right.... depending on their labor rate. You have to drop exhaust system and the rear heat shields, drivers front wheel, air filter assembly. for some it may seem easy but its still time consuming and getting the new cable routed and clipped in properly can be a PIA sometimes.

 

Why do you have to drop the exhaust and heat shield? Can't you just fish it through the hole and out the bottom without taking that stuff off? I'm not doubting you, just asking questions here. I can definitely understand taking the filter assembly off for access to clip the new cable into the body. It looks like you might want to take the left front inner fender panel off too.

I'm sure it WILL take me 5-6 hours to get it done, but I would think a pro tech would knock it out in 2-3 hours. I guess that's how they make their money and I honestly have no problem with that. I'm just surprised they get that much time to do it.

 

Try a mini centric 3rd party shop...labour rates are usually much lower, and they sometimes know a few tricks to save a bit of time....

 

well if you want to get technical about it, labor should really only be 3.9hrs customer pay from a dealer to do just the cable and if they added in the 1hr diagnosis then yes they could charger 5hr. normally that 1hr of diag time can be charged as part of the 3.9. so really only 4hr is what some might charge. as for the labor rate.... thats another story, we charge $90hr for older MINIs (anything pre 5yrs)... obviously that year changes anually.