First Service undertaken at 22,000miles???

[lacroupade]

Mine did 26,000 before the first service, the dealer was not concerned at all

well thats astonishing for two reasons, one you must have driven it very slowly or had cruise on most of the time, and two, even though modern oils are better, 26k without an oil change in a performance car is a bit of a no-no in most peoples books. I just hope it doesn't come back to bite at sale time.

The speed that you drive is pretty irrelevant to how long the oil lasts when driving on public roads, more to do with rpm, operating temperature and friction and there are a number of factors that can help engine longevity. For instance, how you treat the engine whilst it's warming up, I don't push beyond 2500 rpm nor use full throttle until the engines at normal operating temperature.

As for biting me when sale time comes, it will depend on how rational the potential purchaser might is. My car uses a minimal amount of oil, about 1 litre in that 26000 miles, compare that to my last Zed, an ex demonstrator, which used 1 litre for every 6000 miles. As a Mechanical Engineer, designing mechanical equipment, I know perfectly well which engine is wearing and fairing better.

The OP was asking a genuinely important question and yet there are posts above which are based without any scientific reasoning, just irrational fear based on advise given when the Austin Princess was avant-garde. Yes my 26000 miles is exceptional but 22000 is not, just slightly above average for a modern petrol engine.

I wouldn't fault your logic but sadly you hit the nail on the head when you talking about 'rational' and 'purchaser' in the same breath LOL. You only have to look at the caterwhauling on here about dealer servicing etc.. as if its a bloody spaceship instead of a two-seater 3-series LOL

 

[Trut01]

By coincidence I've been lloking into this myself today. My Z4C's history is the same as the car the OP is looking at, ie, pre-delivery check then inspection 1 (incl. oil change) at 22k. Having done some internet research and read through BMW literature it's not something I'm concerned about.

One thing I'm still unsure of though is the running in service at 1,200 miles. I've seen it mentioned a few times on this forum. Does it only apply to M's, or should my 3.0si coupe also have had one?

 

[cooots]

Trut01 - how many years between the service?

 

[Trut01]

serviced at 22k after two years, which was in Oct09

 

[cooots]

so what are people's thoughts on the 3.5 years between servicing?

 

[the gill]

I recently decided to walk away from buying a Coupe that had not had a service for the 1st 29K miles of its life. I posted on here about it and one factor that I'd not considered was that many 3rd party warranty companies would not cover the car as it had not been serviced according to manufacturer. My present daily driver needs servicing every 6K miles but has done 165K miles and the engine and original turbo are still sweet and I've never had an issue in the 10 years I've owned it. For the cost of an oil change it seems daft to not have this done esp on a performance car that is likely to be driven hard.

 

[sars]

My initial reaction is that 40 months seems to be a long time for a first service, however my service countdown indicates miles and not miles and days. I am not sure where the 2 years between services comes from so check with the user manual, just remember that the service guys at your dealer are not the same guys who designed the engine, transmission and braking system and specified the fluids that go into them.

As it has been stated previously the engine management system determines the quality of oil by measuring and comparing its viscosity when the engine is at normal operating temperature, this is an immensely accurate determination of quality and used to predict the expected usable life of the oil hence the service interval.

Unfortunately time is not an accurate measure of oil quality, it does not take it account for instance the frequency or period of engine use.

For me, the rational Engineer says trust the viscosity, the engine will be fine.

 

[lacroupade]

I recently decided to walk away from buying a Coupe that had not had a service for the 1st 29K miles of its life. I posted on here about it and one factor that I'd not considered was that many 3rd party warranty companies would not cover the car as it had not been serviced according to manufacturer. My present daily driver needs servicing every 6K miles but has done 165K miles and the engine and original turbo are still sweet and I've never had an issue in the 10 years I've owned it. For the cost of an oil change it seems daft to not have this done esp on a performance car that is likely to be driven hard.

Short interval like that deadly common with turbo though, since the heat does baaaad things to the oil.