Service indicator meaning, and noise on unlock.

Mr Whippy

Veteran
 Harrogate
Just trying to figure out what the service indicator means as the manual seems hard to fathom.

There is service/oil!? at the left, inspection at the right, and mileage to the service underneath.

How do you know if it is inspection 1/2?

If a car says inspection and then 2600, I'm guessing it's 2600 miles until an inspection 1 service (not insp 2?)

Also, upon unlocking a car for the first time does the fuel pump prime? One I saw today made quite a loud whiney beepy noise from the bonnet area for about 5 seconds as soon as the key was plipped to unlock the car. Just wondering as usually the pumps groan from the fuel tank, not beep under the bonnet. It was an SMG car if that makes any difference (hydraulic unit priming?)

Thanks for any advice.

Dave
 
If it says service, it's mileage to oil change, basically.

If it says inspection, it's mileage to inspection whatever...30K miles is Inspection 1, 60K miles is inpection 2, etc.

Basically, you go in to your dealer every 15K miles (or indicated) and they'll deal with it. They read the memory stored on the key.

Sometimes my car sounds like the fuel pump continues to operate after I get out of the car. Stops soon enough and she starts every time so I don't worry about it. It also helps I have a really good service adviser at my dealership (older guy, has a primo 90's M3).
 
My car makes that same transformer noise when I unlock the doors. sometimes after I even open the trunk too
 
Ah, so insp1/2 are determined by the knowledge of the previous inspection number alone (and mileage through logical extrapolation of the ~ 15k intervals)

Also good on the transformer noise. I'm assuming it's probably SMG related as it preps the system for activity well before you turn the ignition and want to start moving off etc... as I haven't heard it on others so far (or maybe I just noticed it more in a very quiet environment and it's something common)

Thanks

Dave
 
Hmmm, a little more confused now.

Without looking in the service book, at 5 years old (early 03 car before they were called SE's) and 23,000 miles, with 2600 to go until the Inspection, I have a feeling that will be Inspection 2

Oil changes must be every 2 years max (despite mileage), so it's had one at 2 years, and one at 4 years with Insp1 at least, and if it's not saying oil now then it could be Insp2?

That could be a painful cost after just buying a car privately for book value!


Dave
 
Should be inspection 1. The engine management computer compensates for how you drive on telling you when you need to go in. I just got the cabin airfilter change per computer at 20K miles! I did have the oil changed at one year, though.

Oil every 15K miles or yearly (with my Coupe) so it's oil change, inspection 1 (includes oil change), oil change, inspection 2(includes oil change), etc


according to what you've printed, you'll have 25,600 on the clock
 
The noise should be the SMG pump priming, so you can select gears when car is off.

Which is what mine isn't doing at the moment, and is going in for a replacement on Monday. No big issue, as it's under warranty, but just means I leave the car in neutral when off - not in gear like normal.
 
Smokin said:
Should be inspection 1. The engine management computer compensates for how you drive on telling you when you need to go in. I just got the cabin airfilter change per computer at 20K miles! I did have the oil changed at one year, though.

So if it's insp 1 at ~ 26,000 miles, then since it was new in early 2003, it's only had one oil change at about 2.5yrs/15,000 miles?

If I do 1000 steady miles a year it might be 15 years before I even get the first oil change on a new car?
 
No, 15K miles is "standard" but if the year (for my coupe) comes first, do the change. You can always have the oil changed more frequently, just don't let them reset the miles to service indicator.
 
Mr Whippy said:
Smokin said:
Should be inspection 1. The engine management computer compensates for how you drive on telling you when you need to go in. I just got the cabin airfilter change per computer at 20K miles! I did have the oil changed at one year, though.

So if it's insp 1 at ~ 26,000 miles, then since it was new in early 2003, it's only had one oil change at about 2.5yrs/15,000 miles?

If I do 1000 steady miles a year it might be 15 years before I even get the first oil change on a new car?

You're supposed to get an oil change done 1 year from your last oil change, regardless of the mileage.
 
Oil change must be done every 15K OR 2 years, whichever is first. This is for UK servicing but not sure if it's the same for the US?
 
*AL* said:
Oil change must be done every 15K OR 2 years, whichever is first. This is for UK servicing but not sure if it's the same for the US?

So if this car is an early 03, and assuming it's got 2000 miles till this inspection @ 24,000 miles, it has done 4000 miles a year.

yr0 0 miles
yr1 4000 miles
yr2 8000 miles OIL
yr3 12000 miles
yr4 16000 miles INSP1
yr5 20000 miles
yr6 24000 miles OIL

BUT, the car says inspection.

Am I still missing something? Can you have two OIL services forced by age between inspections? Ie:

yr0 0 miles
yr1 4000 miles
yr2 8000 miles OIL
yr3 12000 miles
yr4 16000 miles OIL
yr5 20000 miles
yr6 24000 miles INSP1

Very confused :D
 
Servicing dealer could have forgotten to reset service indicator? My next service should be oil but car says inspection :o
 
Ah, it's due an Insp1 and brake fluid about now - 6 months basically (I think)

Registered Jan 04 with pre-delivery.

Brake fluid at 8500 miles Dec 05
Oil at 10,500 miles at May 06

Car is on 23k and thats all that is in the book.



So it's been over two years for both there, but the service indicator is happy waiting another 2500 miles to INSPECTION.

Unless it DID have it's INSP1 last summer (08) when it had a new battery and alternator, and they forgot to reset it!? I guess BMW need to be asked about this... they might have done it with that work while they had it in (a day or so)

I'm not hugely concerned about the brake fluid, but if it's been going nearly 2.5 years on the same oil and it should have been done at 2 years irrespective of miles I'd be concerned.

Surely if it was every 2 years NO MATTER WHAT, then the service interval display would just shift straight to the next one on (oil/insp1/whatever) as soon as the timer ticked over?

Dave
 
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