BMW Maintenance

[Gr8ful]

Hello everyone

Just have a couple of questions about maintenance for my car. I drive my car a lot, probably about 90 miles every day and I want to make sure it's always running in top condition.

What type of things can I check regularly besides oil level and tire pressure? I've been changing my own oil and filter about every 4,000 miles and that seems to be going well -- I'm excited that I can do this myself and would like to do more maintenance procedures myself as well.

I went to my bmw dealer and asked about my spark plugs, and they said they didn't need to be replaced until 100,000 miles (to me that seems like a long time), how often should these be replaced and what about the distributor cap and rotor..plug wires etc.. ?

Also, I do a ton of driving in stop-and-go traffic and I'm sure that puts excess wear on my clutch since I drive a 5-speed..

Any tips or recommendations for maintenance will be much appreciated, thanks in advance!!

 

[Zchild]

Here is a site that every BMW owner should have book mareked, it gives you the schedule for the what comes next portion of ownership of your BMW especially in the out years of no more warranty. http://www.baydiagnostic.com/inspection.htm I hope this helps you with your quandry. I got my plugs done at 100,000 miles, I get oil changes every 5K-6K along with tire rotation. Just make sure you get your scheduled maintenance done when your car asks for it. I currently have 135,000 miles on my 2000 323i. Happy Motoring [driving2]

 

[MrElussive]

Oh man, stick shift + traffic doesn't make for a good combination. I know because during the college year, I have to deal with a ton of traffic as well. The best you can do for clutch wear in traffic is to just make sure you're doing 800-1,200rpm starts.
100,000 miles sounds about right for spark plug replacement.

 

[aNoodle]

The new synthetic oils really do go to 15,000 miles without a problem. Many have a hard time believing this. The problem is, if anything, the filters have a hard time making it that long. That's why some people just put in a new filter inbetween the 15,000 oil change intervals. Personally, I'm more conservative and fresh oil can never hurt a car, so I've always swapped out the oil at 7,500...only a few times longer than that. But to change sythetic oil every 4,000 IMO is really going overboard.

I did my own spark plugs at about 96,000 miles. Wow were they clean. I had a hard time telling the new ones from the old. You have to take off the microfilter essembly. Get a bently manual. Spark plugs are real easy. They're all in a line right there on top. (I was too hastey and didn't use the anti-ceizing spray....I hope i didn't doom future changes.)

I pop in a new air filter for the engine every summer. I don't buy any ultra epensive ones...just change them frequently.

You need to flush your radiator every 3 years I think. GM has had real problems with their Dex-Cool getting all dried out in there cuz they recommended an extremely long interval. I used prestone sythetic in the replacement. No problems there...just don't over tighten the bleed screw, it's all plastic and can crack. Air pockets are almost given no matter how slow you pour it, so run the engine a bit, then top off.

Belts are 100,000 miles too, but I got my cousin to do those for me, so I don't know how hard they are to replace...throw the old ones in hole with the spair tire in case of emergency.

No sure what else you can do yourself. Some people do not believe in the lifetime fluids in the differencial and the transmission, so they drain and replace those around 100,000 miles. I haven't done that yet at 110,000 here.

Hope that helps.

 

[Gr8ful]

Thanks everyone, much help, and much appreciated! That link was also very helpful Zchild. I guess I don't have too much to maintain on my car inbetween the inspections Good to know..these cars are high quality and performance machines..not to mention fun to drive. Driving in traffic with a clutch sucks, but I wouldn't go for automatic in these cars.. except maybe SMG.. they're just too much fun. Thanks again.

I happened to stumble across a really good step-by-step tutorial on how to change your spark plugs (but it is for an E36) not sure of the differences for newer makes.. but here is the URL:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/techarticles/E36-Spark-Plugs/E36-Spark-Plugs.htm

 

[aNoodle]

Thanks everyone, much help, and much appreciated! That link was also very helpful Zchild. I guess I don't have too much to maintain on my car inbetween the inspections Good to know..these cars are high quality and performance machines..not to mention fun to drive. Driving in traffic with a clutch sucks, but I wouldn't go for automatic in these cars.. except maybe SMG.. they're just too much fun. Thanks again.

I happened to stumble across a really good step-by-step tutorial on how to change your spark plugs (but it is for an E36) not sure of the differences for newer makes.. but here is the URL:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/techarticles/E36-Spark-Plugs/E36-Spark-Plugs.htm

"Install each plug into the cylinder heads without using any anti-seize compound. Torque the spark plugs to 25 Nm (18.4 ft-lbs). While writing "How to Rebuild and Modify Porsche 911 Engines", I discovered that Porsche doesn’t recommend the use of anti-seize compound, as detailed in Porsche Technical Bulletin 9102, Group 2, identifier 2870. The bulletin applies retroactively to all Porsche models and the theory is that the anti-seize tends to act as an electrical insulator between the plug and the cylinder head. This could have detrimental effect on the firing of the spark due to the loss of a good, consistent ground connection. Keeping those findings in mind, I would make the same recommendations for the BMW cars."

Well damn.....maybe I meant to not use anti-seize afterall!!!!! I thought I messed up and went too fast. Now maybe that's the way to go? Good luck to the guy who gets my spark plugs at 200,000 miles!