Oil changes in your service book

shuey

Member
Hey everyone

So I’m currently looking to buy an e86 coupe and been asking to see the service book for a number of cars.

I’ve notIced a common thing on the majority of service books (like 90% of them) - the second service around 30,000 miles seems to be missing the tick from the oil change option or ticked as no, with the next oil change happening at 45k ish miles or higher on some. Is there a reason why BMW seem to not be doin an oil change on the second service - or is it part of the inspection 1 and they just don’t bother ticking the oil service check box?

Or am I picking cars with unusual history?

A few examples:
Car 1.
Service 1 - 18k miles with oil change
Service 2 - 37k miles inspection 1 (oil change ticked as No)
Service 3 - 64k miles inspection 2 (oil change ticked)

Car 2.
Service 1 - 43k miles with oil change
Service 2 - 62k miles inspection 1 (oil change ticked as no)
Service 3 - 75k (oil change only)

Car 3. (PDI check missing - is this important?)
Service 1 - 16k miles (oil change ticked)
Service 2 - 34k miles inspection 1 (oil change ticked as no)
Service 3 - 50k miles (oil change ticked)

I have a few other cars but they don’t specify whether oil was changed or not.

Thoughts appreciated
 
An inspection service will always include an oil change. I guess some garages may just out an 'x' next to the oil change part to say it's had the more intensive service, rather than a basic one.

The service history should go as follows:

Oil change
Inspection 1
Oil change
Inspection 2
Oil change
Inspection 1
Oil change
Inspection 2

Etc etc.
 
ben g said:
An inspection service will always include an oil change. I guess some garages may just out an 'x' next to the oil change part to say it's had the more intensive service, rather than a basic one.

The service history should go as follows:

Oil change
Inspection 1
Oil change
Inspection 2
Oil change
Inspection 1
Oil change
Inspection 2

Etc etc.

Don’t forget inspection services are done on mileage, so it’s possible to have multiple oil services between inspections.

Oil services every two years as a minimum if mileage not reached.
 
Find yourself a nice example with a few more miles and some owner TLC! All of my own interim changes go in the book.

Oil Service 24/09/2007 17433
Inspection 1 16/04/2010 32918
Oil Service 02/12/2011 40994
Inspection 2 17/03/2014 60407
Oil Service 22/11/2014 70999
Oil Service 31/05/2015 78724
Oil Service 10/10/2015 84593
Oil Service 02/01/2016 88288
Inspection 1 08/04/2016 89380
Oil Service 07/01/2017 95487
Oil Service 16/12/2017 101384
 
If it’s had an inspection 1 or 2 the oil should have been changed but it’s not recorded as an oil service

The only way to be really sure is to ring the dealer if the service receipt is missing or unclear

These cars should be serviced every two years regardless of mileage ... but most are just serviced on mileage rather than time, which can see some cars going three or four years without a service

I think that evidence of “care” particularly in later years is more important than the early history however
 
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