Cost of inspection 2

[abar121]

It's a shame that they dropped the BMW UK www.bmw-service.co.uk website. That was a great way to get competitive quotes.

My last inspection 2 at Sytners was £799. 2015 though!

 

[nickw6666]

No, I don't have correspondence from Germany.

What I did was talk with BMW UK in Farnborough after first discussing with the dealer BMW Hungerford. BMW Hungerford as a dealer of course erred on the side of caution and said 'the service book says every Inspection I & II'. To be fair they understood my query as my car was doing 1000-2000 miles between Inspection I and II services, so doing valve clearance checks every Inspection service was a waste of time and money as previously when I had done this no adjustment was needed.

So, I had a contact in BMW UK in Farnborough who was previously BMW Service Manager at BMW Hungerford, and moved to a customer service role in BMW UK.

I asked him to research it and the UK technical team agreed with my thinking, and then also checked with the techs in Germany who confirmed the thinking I've outlined.

Valve clearances go out of tolerance after engine mileage/use and 1-2000 miles is not enough to warrant having to check the valve clearances. But of course if you feel the need, spend the money!

I always still do the required oil changes etc regardless of mileage as of course the oil ages..

Inspection 2 at £1900 is crazy money. I think there is scope for 'negotiation' as a big chunk is labour for the valve clearance check.
The gearbox oil and diff oil make up part of the high cost as well, but the labour is the big amount.
I've had my Z4MC for close to 15 years now, and I've had my car serviced throughout that time at BMW main dealer. As my car is a 2nd car, it gets quite low mileage each year, so when it comes to Inspection 1 or Inspection 2, I review with the dealer whether the valve clearance actually needs doing as this is more mileage led than say the oil changes which need doing regardless of mileage as oil ages etc.
So I checked this with BMW AG in Germany and they advised that the Inspection 1 & 2 listing of valve clearance is because the 'expected' mileage between services is approx 15-16k miles, so that would be sat 32K miles of driving between Inspection services etc.
Of course many cars don't cover that mileage between services, so BMW AG confirmed that the valve clearance check which is mainly mileage driven (and use etc if you do every gear change at 7900rom) could be dropped from an Inspection 1 & 2 if the car had covered low mileage.
So this is a very long winded way of saying that if your car is low mileage between Inspection intervals, you don't necessarily have to do the valve clearance check even though the service booklet says this. The dealers will generally just say 'do what's listed in the book' but they just quote parrot fashion generally. I forced the dialogue to BMW UK and in the end BMW AG and that was the answer...
That would drop an Inspection 2 price quite significantly etc..

Do you have a copy of this correspondence from BMW AG in writing?

If so, would you mind sharing?

 

[nickw6666]

I agree with you that the Inspection services are based on OBC reading, and theoretically you don't need the inspection service until the OBC prompts based on the mileage. And the service book also says that oil changes should be done every 2 years max even on low mileage per year cars.

If you look at what is included in the Inspection services, it's the valve clearance check and the brake fluid change, and for the Inspection II also requires Gearbox oil and Diff Oil change.

As oil ages I think it's a good idea still to change the oil in the Gearbox and Diff and I do this every 'Inspection II'. But I drop the valve clearance check if my car has done really low mileage since the last one, e.g. a couple of thousand miles.

I think this is a good balance. I always do brake fluid every 2 years and engine oil every year unless my car has done less than 2000 miles in that year.

My car has done only 36,000 miles from new and I've had the valve clearances check 4 times in that period of me owning the car for 15 years. Each time required no adjustment and theoretically I only needed to have the valve clearances checked once based on the mileage and OBC readout.

So in reality the Inspection services I have done are an oil service plus brake fluid every 2 years and gearbox and diff every 4 years, and if I do more than 2000 miles in a year I have an annual oil change.

Inspection 2 at £1900 is crazy money. I think there is scope for 'negotiation' as a big chunk is labour for the valve clearance check.
The gearbox oil and diff oil make up part of the high cost as well, but the labour is the big amount.
I've had my Z4MC for close to 15 years now, and I've had my car serviced throughout that time at BMW main dealer. As my car is a 2nd car, it gets quite low mileage each year, so when it comes to Inspection 1 or Inspection 2, I review with the dealer whether the valve clearance actually needs doing as this is more mileage led than say the oil changes which need doing regardless of mileage as oil ages etc.
So I checked this with BMW AG in Germany and they advised that the Inspection 1 & 2 listing of valve clearance is because the 'expected' mileage between services is approx 15-16k miles, so that would be sat 32K miles of driving between Inspection services etc.
Of course many cars don't cover that mileage between services, so BMW AG confirmed that the valve clearance check which is mainly mileage driven (and use etc if you do every gear change at 7900rom) could be dropped from an Inspection 1 & 2 if the car had covered low mileage.
So this is a very long winded way of saying that if your car is low mileage between Inspection intervals, you don't necessarily have to do the valve clearance check even though the service booklet says this. The dealers will generally just say 'do what's listed in the book' but they just quote parrot fashion generally. I forced the dialogue to BMW UK and in the end BMW AG and that was the answer...
That would drop an Inspection 2 price quite significantly etc..

I think you’ve got a bit confused somewhere…

Inspection 1 & 2 are purely mileage based, so you could have a 16 year old Z4M with only 20,000 miles on it that had never needed an Inspection. There’s nothing to review or negotiate with the dealer…as it would only need doing when the mileage/OBC tells you that you need an Inspection. If it pops up on the OBC then you get whichever Inspection it tells you it needs…and the only people telling you that the valve clearances don’t need doing, are the lazy feckers who can’t be arsed to do a proper job.

It’s only the oil services which are mileage OR time based.

If I were you, I’d stop using that dealer immediately, as they’re simply taking you for a mug.

 

[mmm-five]

I'm not one to tell people to skimp on servicing, as mine had at least one Inspection I/II (including spark plugs) every year when it was doing big mileages & trackdays, along with an oil change every couple of months

However, I think you've been talking at cross purposes with the dealer/BMW/here...as it sounds like you've been asking "Do I need the valve clearances at these Inspections?". Their answer is correct in that it is a waste of time/money, because YOU DON'T EVEN NEED AN INSPECTION, just an oil service!

The car isn't even doing the mileage for Inspection I or II...and INSPECTIONS ARE ONLY MILEAGE BASED, so why are you even asking for a 'mini' InspI/II when it doesn't warrant it!

Even driven hard, you'd only need a mileage-based service/inspection every 10,000 miles - and to make it simple (and ignoring brake fluid)...

• if you'd done 40,000 miles over 2 years your required servicing would probably be: oil service > Inspection I > oil service > Inspection II
• if you'd done 40,000 miles over 12 years your required servicing would probably be: oil service > oil service > oil service > Inspection I > oil service > oil service > oil service > Inspection II

You're not getting a discount on an Inspection, you're paying for an expensive oil service...but ultimately it's your car and your money!

 

[Mr Tidy]

Some helpful input on here so thanks to anyone who contributed.

My car had an Inspection 2 in April 2020 and an oil service last month just 6,500 miles on. If I don't do much more mileage in the next 2 years then in 2024 I might just have an Oil Service then an Inspection 1 for the next one.

While oil and brake fluid deteriorate over time valve clearances won't change, other than with mileage/use. :scratchhead:

 

[mr wilks]

@nickw6666 :happyclap: :happyclap: couldn't agree more with your take on servicing & care of a S54
After owning 3 myself & spending considerable time around plenty of others you can definitely tell a good one from a bad one simply by hearing it start / tickover cold / tickover warm .
Ive only had 1 that actually "needed" a valve clearance service & when it came back to me it sounded a totally different car , that was down as needing ins2 which is what it got but i bought another in similar sequence as to being due valve clearance yet it was obvious that the car started / revved / ticked over exactly as it should .
I actually think that every owner who has this done is putting a lot of faith in the tech knowing what he's doing ( & plenty don't ) therefore risking it being worse after than it was before .
Buy a decent one , treat it well , change the oil yearly , always keep it topped correctly & never tharsh it cold , , no reason to worry ( apart from the VED )

 

[flimper]

I've always done Insp 1 - Oil - Insp 2 - Oil but will change from next year to more oil services in between on the low mileage I do

 

[Adam D]

I've leant on the side of overservicing the car and have had the valvetrain adjustments done on time rather than miles elapsed, I agree with MMMFive's logic above. I would say though that its worth taking that as a hybrid approach and getting the gearbox oil, diff oil, power steering fluid, coolant, and drive belts renewed if they haven't been done in a while (which are devoid from any schedule but are rubber and do age and are not particularly expensive to change).

I will however say that I no longer go to main dealers, I'm not convinced they hold the experience on these engines these days and much rather use a local specialist who works on the S54 most weeks and can tell me more about the engine than I know... I'll forgo the coffee and waiting room Oily bits of paperwork showing inlet and exhaust clearances before/after and shim changes very much appreciated!