Pre-emptive Maintenance

T

Tr1ckster

Member
Well the Z is in for new gearbox oil, diff oil and brake fluid this morning :)

Noticed a couple of advisories for front wishbone bushes and ball joints so asked them to look at those to see if they need replacing yet. How much will a reasonable price for those be if he has to replace them please?
 
You'll be looking at a new set of wishbones. Meyle hd can be had on ebay for £200, if you're paying someone then get them yourself and pay an hour and a half for fitting. Might as well to the arb bushes and drop links while you're there, tie rods too maybe.
 
Drain them and you'll disagree when you see what comes out! Life only means 100k apparently anyway.
Think logically, how can something with moving parts seriously not need the lubrication changing? How much will the oil have degraded after almost 10 years!
If you want to keep your car past 100k then oil every 5-8k/annually, gearbox/diff every 30k/3 years. Google BMW lifetime maintenance schedule which goes into a bit more detail.
 
Gearbox and differential oil were both fine and didn't need changing.

Engine oil did though 500 miles after it had supposedly been done.....

My garage advised the bushes and ball joints are well within tolerance and would not have even been an advisory there.

On a plus note they said the car is in excellent condition mechanically so looks like I got a good one!

Slight amount of water in the brake fluid so it's in for it changing on Friday ☺
 
How was the conclusion reached that diff and gearbox oils were fine?
Change the transmission yourself and you'll feel the difference, my gearbox is noticeably smoother. For £45 worth of oil why would you risk it, at 70k my oils were black.

I'd expect it to cost the cost of oil plus 30 mins labour but I'm sure most places will charge an hour which is a bit rich.
 
I have used the garage for years, he syringed some out of both and as a mechanic with 30 years experience I rightly or wrongly trust his judgement.

It was in his interests to change it but he advised it didn't need changing.

A rare thing these days but he is a good honest mechanic.

My only gripe is he stamped the book up as a none Bmw specialist lol.
 
Good to see he actually sampled some and yes, as it is in his interest then a fair assumption. I'd still say try changing the box oil, if you have 50k+ miles - I certainly felt the difference once I'd done mine. Diff wasn't as bad but for £15 of oil and 2 new plugs I gave it a go :)
 
Have to agree with Steve as we were discussing in my thread regarding this too.

If you're above 50k miles then it's a great idea to start thinking about it, makes a noticeable difference. For less than £100 it's silly not to :thumbsup:
 
Do it, seriously :) think about doing all your bushes too. The difference with poly RTABs is night and day. If you want to keep the cost down get your hands dirty ;)
Google "BMW lifetime maintenance schedule" - very good guide with some pretty sensible advice if you ask me.
 
Tr1ckster said:
Mines got 110k on it unfortunately lol
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At that mileage I would certainly do the diff an gearbox, had mine done 3mths ago 90, 000 mls diff wernt too bad but the gearbox came out black like treacle, autobox is def better since it was done, also polflexed the Rtab, an noticed the difference immediately, especially ont twisty bits,
Moz
 
Exactly what I found, though with a manual, and what has confirmed my thinking that the book schedule is BS. RTAB has felt so much better on the road, looking forward to trying on the track, well worth the £40 for the RTABs and £30 for the tool.
 
Scooba_Steve said:
Exactly what I found, though with a manual, and what has confirmed my thinking that the book schedule is BS. RTAB has felt so much better on the road, looking forward to trying on the track, well worth the £40 for the RTABs and £30 for the tool.
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Not being mechanically minded how much for all the bushes n stuff sorting at a specialist?
 
Depends what you want doing, there are a lot of bushes on the car!
Rear ARB and drop links - buy on ebay for £20 - fitting 1 hour.
RTABs - Poly from CarParts4Less £40 - fitting 1.5 hours.
If you want OE bushes they are usually double the ebay price (poly are usually 50-100% more than OE) so always worth getting your own bits. Just add your local hourly rates to the above but expect them to quote longer book times.
 
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