M Service Intervals - how long?

H

Hark

Active member
Is it every 10k/12 months?

And then inspection one at 25k ins 2 at 50k?

Just phoned about a car but service intervals seem big.

27900 - oil filter

then 50400 Inspection 1 (surely this should be inspection 2?)

Shouldn't the 27k one have been Insp 1 then and oil filter at 40k and 50k insp 2?
 
Follow the OBC figures to tell you when next service is required.

However oil should be changed every 2 years for low mileage per annum owners.
 
12000 - 15000 miles - Oil Service
24000 - 30000 miles - Inspection I
36000 - 45000 miles - Oil Service
48000 - 60000 miles - Inspection II

:thumbsup:
 
Although the service intervals are not time based,with the exception that oil & brake fluid should be changed every 2 years.

I personally think you can't go too much on JUST approximate mileage either.

My point is above.....Insp 2 (48-60,000). If you only do 4,000 miles per year.

Do you really want to wait until the car is 12-15 years old before you have the insp 2??

As said above oil would be changed every 2 years but the OBC with low annual mileage, this would allow these huge time gaps for insp 1 and insp 2.
 
shiney28 said:
Although the service intervals are not time based,with the exception that oil & brake fluid should be changed every 2 years.

I personally think you can't go too much on JUST approximate mileage either.

My point is above.....Insp 2 (48-60,000). If you only do 4,000 miles per year.

Do you really want to wait until the car is 12-15 years old before you have the insp 2??

As said above oil would be changed every 2 years but the OBC with low annual mileage, this would allow these huge time gaps for insp 1 and insp 2.
Click to expand...

I agree with that, but that doesn't apply to this car.

Looked deeper and decided there are several things to put me off, but appreciate the affirmation of my ideas on services.
 
But this in the 'unanswered question' that I personally don't know or haven't been told.

If you are a 8k a year driver. You will have your 2 year oil service, the OBC will be reset (saying 16,000 to insp). 2 years later you have your Insp 1. And so on.....so yes for the 8k a year drivers, insp 2 is likely to be when the car is 8 years old.

Now the way I look at it is, if BMW say oil is ok for 2 years then logic says they are happy for cars to go 8 years before insp 2.

Now if you do more than 8k a year then obviously, you will be having the service mileage indicator reducing faster and you will have services more frequent. For example a 16k year driver will have there insp 2 when the car is only 4 years old.

My dilemma is, at 4k miles a year if I follow the OBC my service history would look like this..

2 years old....approx 8k miles. Oil service
4 years old Interim oil service, as OBC would say 8k miles to insp.
6 years old insp 1 (OBC reset saying 16,000 to oil service)
8 years old interim oil service (OBC saying 8k miles to oil service)
10 years old Oil service (OBC reset 16,000 miles to insp 2)
12 years old Interim oil service (OBC saying 8k to insp 2)
14 years old The car finally gets it's Insp 2.


I just can't see how this can be right, some owners could get there insp 2 at 4 years old, other might have to wait 14 years.

Surely BMW can't be happy that the lifters/shims are only being checked at 6 years and 14 years old?

Please someone give me a definitive answer what low mileage users should do?

No wise cracks...like do more mileage please!!
 
shiney28, not sure, but I don't see it being a problem, any deterioration in the adjustment of the tappets would only happen with use and mileage, so shouldn't be a problem. Not sure if there are any other filters or anything with the Inspection services, but again most things only deterioriate or wear with use, so mileage based servicing is better for them.
 
So when you have the interim oil service due to 2 years elapsing, and the OBC is saying still plenty of mileage remaining to the official next OBC service.

It would be acceptable to not reset the OBC and basically treat the interim oil changes as an extra to comply with the oil degrading after 2 years situation.

I see what you are saying Wondermike about useage.

The car would be 14 years old before it gets its insp 2, but the mileage/use would be approx 56k miles on the clock, which is within the mileage band for users who do more miles ( except they just get there quicker)

Any other low mileage users out there...what are you planning to do?
 
There are two systems don't forget, so the two year one can be reset without effecting the mileage based one.

My car will be 4 years ol in Dec so will have brake fluid change and could have just oil as there is 8K showing till Inspection 1 is required.

However I will be getting my inspection one done at the same time just to keep everything neat and tidy.

When I get my ///M though I will do milage based servicing on the mileage as I will only be doing 2-4k per year and as wondermike said little point checking them when the engine hasn't done the mileage as there wont be any wear.
 
Just to add more to the confusion, the brake fluid change should be done every 2 years no matter how much/little the car is used and I *think* coolant should be changed every 4 years in the M no matter how much/little the car is used. This seems to fall outside of the service schedule manual but I believe still needs to be done.

Who actually waits for their milage to hit 0 before getting a service done? I usually get mine done at least with 1000 miles left, usually around 1500
 
Darren M said:
Just to add more to the confusion, the brake fluid change should be done every 2 years no matter how much/little the car is used and I *think* coolant should be changed every 4 years in the M no matter how much/little the car is used. This seems to fall outside of the service schedule manual but I believe still needs to be done.

Who actually waits for their milage to hit 0 before getting a service done? I usually get mine done at least with 1000 miles left, usually around 1500
Click to expand...
I asked a similar question my local service department when I was trying for 2 weeks to get them to answer my calls regarding booking mine in. Their answer was they'd accept a car with up to 3,000 miles over the schedule service interval - and they'd happily stamp the book and reset the indicator. So in theory, and if you're doing interim services yourself, you don't have to worry about going over a little if you can't get the car booked in to a dealer quick enough.

In practice you'd probably not notice which cars had done this via the service booklet as most of our cars don't get the full 15,000 miles between services anyway and another 50-500 miles on the stamped section won't be noticed. And in saying that, mine came back showing 15,500 miles to next service.
 
If it's mileage or time then surely you would disregard low miles and just service on time..
If I keep mine long enough it will be
2 years. Oil service
4 years. Insp 1
6 years. Oil service
8 years. Insp 2

Ok so the mileage will be a lot less than the maximum allowed,but so what?
It's better to be on the safe side and no one can accuse me of under-servicing.
 
milu said:
If it's mileage or time then surely you would disregard low miles and just service on time..
If I keep mine long enough it will be
2 years. Oil service
4 years. Insp 1
6 years. Oil service
8 years. Insp 2

Ok so the mileage will be a lot less than the maximum allowed,but so what?
It's better to be on the safe side and no one can accuse me of under-servicing.
Click to expand...

That's true, but you would be spending money unnecessarily. I believe BMW have confirmed that the inspections are not time based, so by doing the inspections by the above schedule you would be spending more money on servicing than necessary over the life of the car.

But if you want peace of mind when coming to sell then you're right, that's probably the safest bet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom