Bmw servicing

tacpot12

For a while I had a car serviced at the dealer, but used a local garage (or DIY) to do any work that was identified in the service. This seemed a good compromise; you get a main dealer stamp in the service history, but all repairs were done at a much lower price. I generally bought genuine parts for repairs that needed a lot of labour to fit them, and aftermarket parts where the labour charges were low (or zero); e.g. brake disks/pads that I could fit myself.

motorguy

Tarambor wrote: »

Does that include the guy who runs a Youtube channel who has a masters in mechanical engineering and does proper testing? Is he just a clueless expert as well? So I guess the tests Mobil did running an engine on a test cycle for 500,000 miles, doing 20,000 mile changes with their long life oil which was sampled and tested every 5000 miles, with the test ending up stripping the engine at the end of the 500,000 miles where they saw next to no wear was all rubbish too?

Mercedes trucks I used to drive years ago were on 100,000km/60,000 mile oil changes. They had a built in centrifugal oil cleaner. No reports of them dying prematurely and many ended up being shipped to Africa having done several hundred thousand km here first.

This isn't the 1970s any more and your opinion is about as worthless as you claim those on the internet are. If it isn't then perhaps you can back up your claims with research and test papers from the last 2/3/4 years?

No, its about internet "experts" like you who would say otherwise, not real experts. Note the double quotes.

Those particular BMW engines use oil and on top of that diesel secretes down the bores and pollutes the oil and thins it down. By the time its coming out of the car at 18,000 miles whats left in there is like water, if its reaching the bottom of the dipstick at all.

Then factor in a design flawed engine into the mix and you've got a real problem.

The wildly held belief for the prevention of the failure of these BMW engines is changes every 9K and check and top up if necessary every week or two weeks.

Now, with regards to the trucks you drove - does this BMW engine have a centrifugal oil cleaner? No? Thought not.

And was Mobil's advice to not bother checking oil levels and not bother worrying about the engine putting contaminants in the oil? No? Thought not.

And do big old fashioned diesel lorry engines rev (relatively) highly and have high pressure turbos? No.

And finally, by all means being the internet "expert" you clearly are on these engines, advise the O/P not to do what i'm suggesting, but my views are based on research and discussion and actual experience of running the engine, not on running some old truck - run these engines for 18,000 miles on the same oil and it'll come out like water and be hardly touching the bottom of the dipstick - hardly ideal when trying to preserve the tensioner and chain in a flawed engine.

motorguy

tacpot12 wrote: »

For a while I had a car serviced at the dealer, but used a local garage (or DIY) to do any work that was identified in the service. This seemed a good compromise; you get a main dealer stamp in the service history, but all repairs were done at a much lower price. I generally bought genuine parts for repairs that needed a lot of labour to fit them, and aftermarket parts where the labour charges were low (or zero); e.g. brake disks/pads that I could fit myself.

+1

If its under manufacturers warranty, get it serviced by the franchised dealer. Even up to a year or two after the warranty ends as a minimum as you may be able to get a good will gesture for any sort of failure outside of warranty.

Outside of that, i'd be getting any car serviced by a reputable indy.

Our A45 required an oil service every 9,000 miles but our MINI is every 18,000 or so. I will get it done in line with the servicing requirements which is approx 16-18,000 miles however being a chain driven 2.0 litre BMW engine (albeit a petrol one), i'll get my local indy to do an oil and filter change at 8-9,000 miles.

loskie

motorguy wrote: »

No, its about internet "experts" like you who would say otherwise, not real experts. Note the double quotes.

Those particular BMW engines use oil and on top of that diesel secretes down the bores and pollutes the oil and thins it down. By the time its coming out of the car at 18,000 miles whats left in there is like water, if its reaching the bottom of the dipstick at all.

Then factor in a design flawed engine into the mix and you've got a real problem.

The wildly held belief for the prevention of the failure of these BMW engines is changes every 9K and check and top up if necessary every week or two weeks.

Now, with regards to the trucks you drove - does this BMW engine have a centrifugal oil cleaner? No? Thought not.

And was Mobil's advice to not bother checking oil levels and not bother worrying about the engine putting contaminants in the oil? No? Thought not.

And do big old fashioned diesel lorry engines rev (relatively) highly and have high pressure turbos? No.

And finally, by all means being the internet "expert" you clearly are on these engines, advise the O/P not to do what i'm suggesting, but my views are based on research and discussion and actual experience of running the engine, not on running some old truck - run these engines for 18,000 miles on the same oil and it'll come out like water and be hardly touching the bottom of the dipstick - hardly ideal when trying to preserve the tensioner and chain in a flawed engine.

How do we know that you are not one of these "internet experts" that you are so critical of? Just because you call yourself "Motorguy" you may be an 11 year old girl in her bedroom for all we know.

motorguy

loskie wrote: »

How do we know that you are not one of these "internet experts" that you are so critical of? Just because you call yourself "Motorguy" you may be an 11 year old girl in her bedroom for all we know.

Mum, is that you?

motorguy

loskie wrote: »

How do we know that you are not one of these "internet experts" that you are so critical of? Just because you call yourself "Motorguy" you may be an 11 year old girl in her bedroom for all we know.

I've been selling cars in various guises since i was 19 and i'm 49 now. Though i havent traded in a couple of years i still have friends in the motor trade and i'm still subscribed to several trade auction sites which sadly i follow daily. You get to see whats been traded in and with what faults which is always interesting.

I've been posting on here for 15 years, posted over 18,000 times and been thank over 11,000 times.

I'm also active on Pistonheads as Deep Thought.

On these specific engines, I've owned maybe half a dozen BMWs with this engine variant ranging from brand new to 10+ years old and thus i can speak from personal experience having covered probably 100,000+ miles with one of them under the bonnet. I also resold ad warranted maybe 20 odd of them when trading.

Probably the most relevant experience was my sons 2009 120d M Sport which he bought with something like 55K miles on it and a full BMWSH. I was shocked when i checked the dipstick a month after he bought it and found it was down at the min and the oil was frankly like water. We got an oil change done and I topped it up and checked it fortnightly while my son lived at home and then got him to (and i checked when i could) when he moved out. As per advice on babybmw.net, pistonheads etc we serviced it every 9K miles and got it done by BMW themselves on schedule every 18K miles or so.

Though driven hard by my 19-22 year old son, he sold it with eventually 80K odd miles on it with no timing chain issues and the chain itself as quiet as a mouse. I put that wholly down to our servicing and checking regime - and is in line with owner forum experience.

For the sake of buying a bottle of oil and an extra service, i think its well worth the prevention of a failure, rather than trying to resolve the aftermath of a failure....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5712934/bmw-timing-chain-snapped

AdrianC

loskie wrote: »

Just because you call yourself "Motorguy" you may be an 11 year old girl in her bedroom for all we know.

That's quite an achievement for somebody with the little icon to show they've been posting here for more than ten years...

motorguy wrote: »

Probably the most relevant experience was my sons 2009 120d M Sport ... I was shocked when i checked the dipstick a month after he bought it and found it was down at the min

I blame the parents.

parking_question_chap

I wouldnt go near a large chain like halfords or kwik fit.

Try and find a good indi from word of mouth.

motorguy

AdrianC wrote: »

I blame the parents.

:T Very good.

chuffniut

Any decent reputable garage will do, just ensure they are going to use the correct grade of oil (check the handbook or ring a main dealer and ask)