Inspection 1

[Anonymous]

The rest is checks
Sorry at £619+ at bmw I'm not paying £300 for someone to visually check my car

Indeed, it only took Bryan and I 5 mins to spot your speedo was full of dust and your door cards were dirty

Did you charge less than the quoted £300 though?
Rob

Haha that was free, it was the taking pee of my marked buttons on the wheel that I was forced to buy a sexy set of refurbed ones
No regrets as makes wheel.look as new

 

[Beemingallover]

How critical then is it to check valve clearances, in my case they were last done at 48k on inspec 2, fully documented by dealer. The car has now done 69k. How frequently should they be checked?

 

[Bing]

How critical then is it to check valve clearances, in my case they were last done at 48k on inspec 2, fully documented by dealer. The car has now done 69k. How frequently should they be checked?

If the clearances aren't right your engine can break - is my complete layman understanding. It appears that if the clearances are too high the lifters/valves can wear out, and if they are too tight the valves can end up burnt... But that's just some random googling that's given me that explanation - I'm sure someone with proper tech knowledge can correct me. Anyway, the service schedule says it should be done and received wisdom on here is it should be done, so I would make sure it's done. The schedule says every Insp 1 & 2, so that would work out at roughly every 24-30k miles with an oil service in the middle, depending on how the car is driven.

 

[99ron]

This is why I no longer use main dealers for servicing. Half of them don't have a clue about the S54 engine anymore. Good specialist is the way forward. I got a valve clearance report on inspection 1 and didn't have to ask for it.

 

[Mangozac]

If the clearances aren't right your engine can break - is my complete layman understanding. It appears that if the clearances are too high the lifters/valves can wear out, and if they are too tight the valves can end up burnt... But that's just some random googling that's given me that explanation - I'm sure someone with proper tech knowledge can correct me. Anyway, the service schedule says it should be done and received wisdom on here is it should be done, so I would make sure it's done. The schedule says every Insp 1 & 2, so that would work out at roughly every 24-30k miles with an oil service in the middle, depending on how the car is driven.

The clearances have to be WAY out for any of those things to happen, and wear to that degree can only happen if something is very wrong with the engine. The valve adjustments are usually just ensuring that the engine is operating as efficiently as possible in order to provide the power/performance expected. I would suggest that an owner who never pushes his S54 hard could get away with only having the clearances done at an inspection 2 (or longer).

 

[Bing]

Thanks for clarifying - as I said, I have a layman / Google understanding of the reasons for doing it, and tbh just want to follow the service book. Should provide some comfort to most.

That said, mine was one owner / 40k ish miles not abused when I had an insp2 done and it needed 14 shims. Probably because they weren't checked (by BMW !) at its first insp1. So I guess if it hadn't been done then the clearances *could* have started to get to the point where they did damage.

 

[indeep75]

Just booked mine in for it's inspection 1 at my local indy, CPC Performance in Amersham. Before I even asked they said it includes the valve clearance check with full print out of adjustments. £395 in total, quite happy with that!

 

[TomK]

That's a very good price. I'd check they are not planning on reusing the valve cover gasket amongst other things (should be a new one), as some other indy's (e.g Redish) go down this road to cut prices. Parts for the job make up a fair proportion of £395, and it's not one to be rushed imo.

 

[indeep75]

Yep, that's a good point TomK. Fairly confident with CPC though, they have a good rep on here and on other M3 forums. They said it would be a two day job (cold engine for clearance check) without prompting, I've heard of others who neglect this entirely.

 

[Anonymous]

Yep, that's a good point TomK. Fairly confident with CPC though, they have a good rep on here and on other M3 forums. They said it would be a two day job (cold engine for clearance check) without prompting, I've heard of others who neglect this entirely.

Have to see your car first hahah
As not seen it in a while keep my eyes out in beaconsfield

 

[indeep75]

Yep, that's a good point TomK. Fairly confident with CPC though, they have a good rep on here and on other M3 forums. They said it would be a two day job (cold engine for clearance check) without prompting, I've heard of others who neglect this entirely.

Have to see your car first hahah
As not seen it in a while keep my eyes out in beaconsfield