Which service do I need?

A

alexman

Member
I own a 07 plate Z4M roadster, currently on 29K miles.

Between 07-09 it covered 11,000 miles and I've covered 18,000 miles - a mixture of town/motorway (i.e. normal) driving.

Service history (all BMW) is:

750 miles - Run In Service (June 2007)
10,500 miles - Oil Service (Dec 2008)
21,000 miles - Oil Service (Jan 2010) - looks like it missed a year but it was 13 months from the above)

Now 29,000 miles Jun 2011.

BMW tell me it is now due an Inspection 1 (£820) but they tell me I ought to go with an Inspection II (1130) just to be safe which includes checking more items and changing spark plugs. Others have said Inspection II is due more around 45,000/50,000 mile mark.

What is the real story with this and what do you suggest?
 
Inspection I is all that's required, and the only difference is the spark plugs, diff & gearbox oil replacement (for which they want another £300 for).

They simply want more money out of you - and 30,000 miles is about the top limit on the schedule for an Inspection I anyway. Even on the bottom end of about 12,000 miles between services you'd still be well away from an Inspection II.

If they're being that cheeky, take the car elsewhere.

BTW, don't forget to ring around for prices (including any discounts they may wish to offer). Prices for my Inspection I ranged from £610 (Listers in Norfolk - was £800 but had discounts for FourPlus and BMWCC) to £890 a Williams Liverpool (with their 'loyalty' discount). Ended up going to another Williams branch (Rochdale) and am paying £725 (with a free courtesy car, i.e. don't have to pay the £20/day insurance charge that some were asking for) - despite all the garages in the Williams group assuring me that their prices were fixed throughout the network.

Wherever you end up taking it, make sure they ask for it to be dropped off the previous afternoon/evening. If they don't then it's highly likely they'll simply listen to the engine and not bother doing the valve clearance measurement job but still charge you for it (which is about half the cost of the service). Taking it in the night before doesn't mean they'll do the job any differently of course, but at least it shows they know what they're supposed to be doing. Mine may have some tell-tales installed to ensure the jobs have been done (e.g. UV pen mark on the bolt heads aligned to marks on the casing; UV signature on air/micro-filter; blob of epoxy on cam chest to see if seal has been broken; etc.). I'll also be asking for a copy of the valve clearances measurement sheet to be available when I pick it up.
 
Well I have a 2006 Z4m and I've done 42,000 miles. My Inspection II is not due for another 8,000

My inspection I was done around 27,000 miles then I had an Oil Service at 35,000


Cheers
 
What does having 2 oil services in a row do to the warranty? Can you still get the extended BMW one?
 
My car in digi display on dash says oil service & quotes milage, if it was ready for insp 1 or 2 would it tell me?
 
daz05 said:
What does having 2 oil services in a row do to the warranty? Can you still get the extended BMW one?
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It doesn't do anything to the warranty, as the terms only specify a minimum service schedule - anything else is a bonus.

I know a lot of people on here (including me) don't even leave it to 14k to get the oil services done, but rather do interim ones at 7k or so.
 
How many times does this get covered on here!!!

You run the car by whatever service the dash tells you but either way at a maximum of two years it must have new oil and brake fluid.

Assume car has had running in service and first oil service but then only does 1000 miles per year, the counter would take around 12 years dropping from the reset of 15400 to zero for inspect 1 but in that period, every two years max it needs oil and brake fluid. The same situation would then occur again until zero where it needs counter based oil service.

It gets difficult where two year oil change and inspections fall fairly close, it makes sense to bring forward inspection as otherwise the oil change is a waste of money, it still needs brake fluid at 2 years.

As a result it is not uncommon with low mileage to see the service history read 1200 mile / oil&brake / oil& brake / oil&brake / inspec1&brake / oil&b / oil&b / oil&b / oil&b / insp2etc etc. Not the z4m's are old enough yet for that many services!!!

Inspections are either 1 or 2 and run 1,2,1,2,1 with oils in between and extra oil and brake at max two year intervals from last service.

Hope that helps.

29k without an inspection does not sound right at all, the last service in my opinion should have been insp1 sounds like a corner was cut to me to avoid the £700 bill. A 3.0 might last until late 20's but just can't see how an M can as it is not based on miles but litres of fuel used.
 
Thanks for the replies. In repsonse to the last, you It didn't need inspection 1 at 20,000 miles so this was an oil service - this is what BMW recommended and did at the time. In any case I've gone for a Insp 1 as recommended.
 
VvrooomM said:
29k without an inspection does not sound right at all, the last service in my opinion should have been insp1 sounds like a corner was cut to me to avoid the £700 bill. A 3.0 might last until late 20's but just can't see how an M can as it is not based on miles but litres of fuel used.
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+1, doesn't make sense that surely that then also voids the warranty as it hasn't been serviced in line with the recommended procedure.

From what was said above I can see now why oil services are done twice in a row but not in your case.

If I'm correct you would be aswell using an Independent now as your SH is not right.
 
My M had it's insp1 at around 21k at four years old, can't see how you get to 29k without an inspection?? Theoretically two resets of 15400 miles would bring you in around the 30k mark, but in the two M's I have owned, in practice you get nowhere near that at 11-12k thus bringing in insp1 at max 25k when you allow for the running in 1200 miles. The first service looks a tad early on miles and was well off the two year interval, probably done by dealer at sale time was it if you were second owner. The second service was only 13 months and probably almost on the service mileage counter, not sure how you have now done 8k since then as this is getting on for another counter based service interval.

Your car, follow the dash or every two years, all the conditions are clearly stated in service book.

When you have an interim time based 2 year service they should not reset the service indicator if for example it still shows 8k to an inspection. You keep running at two year oil and fluid until the inspec service is due.
 
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