SIGforum
BMW patents new bolt head
December 23, 2025, 09:08 PM
GreymannBMW patents new bolt head
BMW has patented new bolts and tool.
Not sure why.
https://www.carscoops.com/2025...of-your-own-repairs/December 23, 2025, 09:48 PM
VgexFrom the company who debuted subscription fee heated seats. Another cash grab. Auto mechanics need to refuse service on these blatant anti-right to repair practices.
December 23, 2025, 10:20 PM
dan03833They don't want people servicing their own property. It's a hurdle designed to force consumers to get service from a dealer.
December 23, 2025, 10:26 PM
YooperSigsMy BMW motorcycles were covered in small Torx screws of varying sizes. Drove me insane trying to figure out which size wrench fit and which screw went where. From the fine folks who brought you WWII!
End of Earth: 2 Miles
Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles
December 24, 2025, 12:15 AM
64dodgeHarbor Freight will have socket sets for these fasteners on their shelves before BMW has cars with these fasteners in their showrooms.
December 24, 2025, 01:12 AM
ChowserSomeone out there already posted a 3D printed tool.
I left BMW after the grills started getting huge. I'm trying Italian now but I think I'm just going to go back to a Japanese made car next.
Not minority enough! December 24, 2025, 07:03 AM
dking271quote:
Originally posted by Chowser:
I left BMW after the grills started getting huge. I'm trying Italian now but I think I'm just going to go back to a Japanese made car next.
I did the same but ended up in an American vehicle. This Easter, my BIL that this is the first time in the 45 years he’s known me that my entire fleet is American (2 Fords, Jeep, & Ram). I replaced a HP fuel pump on the my turbo V8 BMW for roughly $350 and my time. The dealership wanted close to 3k plus they wanted to diagnose the problem that I already diagnosed correctly. I’m ok with checking my diagnostic work, but that shouldn’t take you 2 hours. I stop buying vehicles once subscriptions for feature becomes mainstreamed.
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"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last” - Winston Churchil
December 24, 2025, 07:19 AM
egregoreIt's not just the DIY-ers they are trying to discourage, but independent repair shops as well. On most vehicles, you could open up the brake hydraulic system to replace a part and simply bleed the brakes. A pressure bleeder greatly simplified this, but was not necessary; manual bleeding just took more time. The latest GM trucks - distinguished by four-piston fixed calipers, although this is not in itself the source of the problem - with a QR code on them won't let you do that. Special software is needed to program the new caliper(s) into the system. And who has it? The dealers, of course. This and other crap made me glad to retire when I did.
I would hope this new bolt of Big Money Waste's is not used in places where a lot of torque is needed on them.
"The Almighty, He put some livin' things on this earth so a man can eat." - Festus Haggen, Gunsmoke December 24, 2025, 07:52 AM
nhracecraftquote:
Originally posted by dking271:
quote:
Originally posted by Chowser:
I left BMW after the grills started getting huge. I'm trying Italian now but I think I'm just going to go back to a Japanese made car next.
I did the same but ended up in an American vehicle. This Easter, my BIL commented that this is the first time in the 45 years he’s known me that my entire fleet is American, which happened by accident (2 Fords, Jeep, & Ram). I replaced a HP fuel pump on the my turbo V8 BMW for roughly $350 and my time. The dealership wanted close to 3k plus they wanted to diagnose the problem that I already diagnosed correctly. I’m ok with checking my diagnostic work, but that shouldn’t take you 2 hours. I stop buying vehicles once subscriptions for feature becomes mainstreamed.
Dude...
Dude...
Dude...
Dude...
Dude...
Dude...
Dude...
DUDE!!!
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If Some is Good, and More is Better.....then Too Much, is Just Enough !!
Trump 47....Making America Great Again!
"May Almighty God bless the United States of America" - parabellum 7/26/20
Live Free or Die!
December 24, 2025, 08:12 AM
Rawnyquote:
Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Dude...
Dude...
Dude...
Dude...
Dude...
Dude...
Dude...
DUDE!!!
He just wanted to make sure we remember it.
December 24, 2025, 10:38 AM
BigSwedeI remember in 79 when GM put a fancy new screw on the headlight of their trucks, it was a Tor-X. The old dudes were pissed
December 24, 2025, 10:54 AM
229DAKNever fear, Temu will rescue us.
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“A man’s treatment of a dog is no indication of the man’s nature, but his treatment of a cat is. It is the crucial test. None but the humane treat a cat well.”
-- Mark Twain, 1902
December 24, 2025, 12:04 PM
92fstechquote:
Originally posted by egregore:
I would hope this new bolt of Big Money Waste's is not used in places where a lot of torque is needed on them.
Agreed. I see a lot of drills, vice grips, and welders in the future of that thing. This what happens when you let marketing make technical design decisions.
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December 25, 2025, 06:56 PM
PASigGE pulled this crap with me with the Cafe fridge we have.
The GE water filter has a chip in it which talks to the fridge and when it is time to change the filter, you are forced to buy the official GE chipped filter cartridge for $50 or the fridge will no longer dispense water. A $20 Amazon cartridge will fit but lacks the chip to speak to the fridge.
Had I known this beforehand I wouldn’t have bought it.
December 25, 2025, 07:25 PM
V-Tailquote:
Originally posted by PASig:
The GE water filter has a chip in it which talks to the fridge and when it is time to change the filter, you are forced to buy the official GE chipped filter cartridge for $50 or the fridge will no longer dispense water..
Same with the KitchenAid fridge that we got a year or so ago. $50 proprietary filter. WOOT! had the filters cheaper, I bought three of them for $89.85 (thirty bucks each).
Then, couple weeks ago, I received an email out of the blue from WOOT! telling me that the filters
might be counterfeit, and they were refunding my $89.85 -- no need to return the filters.
We were at the same appliance store couple weeks ago, to buy a dishwasher. I mentioned the refrigerator filter thing to the salesman, he said that if the filters worked in the refrigerator, either they were genuine, or the chips were cloned, but as long as they worked, go ahead and use them. One of the three has been in service for six months now, working just fine; the "Replace Filter" indicator just came on yesterday, so I'll try the second one this weekend. If it works, fine; if not, I'll just grab one from the appliance store for fiddy bucks. We got a good discount on the refrigerator (closeout model), so I'll live with the fifty dollar filters. I'm guessing that all brands have this "feature" now.
הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים December 25, 2025, 07:27 PM
nhracecraftHmmm, I wonder what shape the orifice(s) would be on the tool/head mating interface if Subaru were to design/patent a bolt head?
____________________________________________________________
If Some is Good, and More is Better.....then Too Much, is Just Enough !!
Trump 47....Making America Great Again!
"May Almighty God bless the United States of America" - parabellum 7/26/20
Live Free or Die!
January 22, 2026, 01:30 PM
kz1000German Simplicity.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Yidn, shreibt un fershreibt"
"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind."
-Bomber Harris
January 22, 2026, 02:05 PM
vthokyquote:
Originally posted by kz1000:
German Simplicity.
And efficiency!
Politicians seem to have forgotten that they work for us, not the other way around.
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God bless America. January 22, 2026, 02:19 PM
HRKquote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
The GE water filter has a chip in it which talks to the fridge and when it is time to change the filter, you are forced to buy the official GE chipped filter cartridge for $50 or the fridge will no longer dispense water..
Same with the KitchenAid fridge that we got a year or so ago. $50 proprietary filter. WOOT! had the filters cheaper, I bought three of them for $89.85 (thirty bucks each).
Then, couple weeks ago, I received an email out of the blue from WOOT! telling me that the filters
might be counterfeit, and they were refunding my $89.85 -- no need to return the filters.
We were at the same appliance store couple weeks ago, to buy a dishwasher. I mentioned the refrigerator filter thing to the salesman, he said that if the filters worked in the refrigerator, either they were genuine, or the chips were cloned, but as long as they worked, go ahead and use them. One of the three has been in service for six months now, working just fine; the "Replace Filter" indicator just came on yesterday, so I'll try the second one this weekend. If it works, fine; if not, I'll just grab one from the appliance store for fiddy bucks. We got a good discount on the refrigerator (closeout model), so I'll live with the fifty dollar filters. I'm guessing that all brands have this "feature" now.
We have an Electrolux/Frigidaire that I just got the filter for, $19.30 on Amazon, it's setup to auto replace on Amazon for every 6 months. Last July it was $15.59, before that $18.99.
It's not factory but a clone by Tier1 and fits, glad it's not chipped...
January 24, 2026, 10:28 PM
jimmy123xquote:
Originally posted by dan03833:
They don't want people servicing their own property. It's a hurdle designed to force consumers to get service from a dealer.
THIS.