Maintenance intervals

[VailM3]

SO car his 28,000 KM the manual I have is in German (as purchased in Zurich) I was wondering if anyone has a link to the regular scheduled maintenance for our Zs. I was under the impression that its at 28k or 30k.

[CedarZ4]

I'm looking in my manual, and it doesn't have a maintenance schedule. I was always under the impression it was based on the car's CBS Maintenance System. As a general rule though, I think it's every 1 year or 10,000 miles, but since BMW offers Free Maintenance their standard is 15,000 miles (or 24,000 KM)

[jparnes1]

Intervals depend on what maintenance you're referring to. Do you have an iDrive in your car? There are maintenance intervals in the Service menu. Other stuff is not listed because it's either considered a "lifetime service" (like coolant) or you get told when you bring your car in. Like there's no schedule for changing the air filter, but they'll do it with every other oil change at 30K. It's kind of weird that way. If you're keeping your car, you might consider upping the maintenance intervals and changing fluids that otherwise would never be changed (diff, tranny, coolant)

[mbetoni]

Just a note on the tranny oil.

Normally, at 1,200 miles (break in period) I would have the engine oil, transmission fluid and differential oil all changed. I tend to keep my cars past warranty and so take 'old school' care of them. If you're not going to be doing that, this is all probably moot.

At any rate, the unknown component here is the DCT. There isn't any evidence of long-term benefit for or against changing it's oil at 1,200 miles, due to it's recent age. However, it requires nine liters of Pentosin DCTF-1, which is only available from BMW or Pentosin FF-L, available elsewhere. Most likely, I'll be foregoing changing this at 1,200 miles and leave it until 30k - which I may never reach. I only got to 17k in my last car after 5 years.

[jparnes1]

Originally Posted by mbetoni

Just a note on the tranny oil.

Normally, at 1,200 miles (break in period) I would have the engine oil, transmission fluid and differential oil all changed. I tend to keep my cars past warranty and so take 'old school' care of them. If you're not going to be doing that, this is all probably moot.

At any rate, the unknown component here is the DCT. There isn't any evidence of long-term benefit for or against changing it's oil at 1,200 miles, due to it's recent age. However, it requires nine liters of Pentosin DCTF-1, which is only available from BMW or Pentosin FF-L, available elsewhere. Most likely, I'll be foregoing changing this at 1,200 miles and leave it until 30k - which I may never reach. I only got to 17k in my last car after 5 years.

I would agree on the break in oil change for the DCT and I think 30K on auto trans is early anyway, so you're probably all set. And boy, is that Pentosin $$$!

[nicknaz]

Have you guys read up on the DCT gear oil change procedure?

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=457178

Looks non trivial!

This isn't like old school cars (i.e. my old WRX) where it is just drain, fill and done.

The US cars have 1 year or 15k miles or CBS for oil change, and 30k miles between major service.

In a 3 year period, I expect to bring the car in for 3 oil changes, 1 major service, 1 or 2 brake fluid flush , 2-3 (??) brake pad changes and 2-3 tire changes

[VailM3]

Did not realise all that info is stored in the Idrive. All systems go and no scheduled oil change till 7/14 or 27k km, so have a long way to go.

[Lurcher]

On the e38, we were using a 100k mile change period for the "lifetime" fluid, or when anyone started having shifting problems - as this would often help. It was a standard drain, drop, replace, refill (but using the fill plug on the side of the tranny).

Fluid is ~$25 quart and we could only get out ~ 5 quarts out of the 12 total

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by Lurcher

On the e38, we were using a 100k mile change period for the "lifetime" fluid, or when anyone started having shifting problems - as this would often help. It was a standard drain, drop, replace, refill (but using the fill plug on the side of the tranny).

Fluid is ~$25 quart and we could only get out ~ 5 quarts out of the 12 total

Does that mean you change both tranny and diff fluids at 100K miles?

[jparnes1]

Originally Posted by tranquility

Does that mean you change both tranny and diff fluids at 100K miles?

I change the diff and MT every 30K, coolant every 2 years, brake fluid every year, engine oil every 7500. I'm keeping the car for a long while, so I look at it as an ounce of prevention. BTW, I don't think BMW tells you in any documentation, but they will change your plugs under warranty at 45K.

[nicknaz]

If you are a 'keeper' should consider used oil analysis to validate the intervals. Could save yourself a bunch of money and possibly get out in front of issues from changes in the trace wear metals.

I used blackstone labs a great deal a few years ago for this purpose. you get back good info on change in oil viscosity, additive package remaining in addition to wear metal analysis

[Lurcher]

Originally Posted by tranquility

Does that mean you change both tranny and diff fluids at 100K miles?

Yep, xactly. 80-100k seemed to be the sweet spot for doing this work, based on tranny problems that were occurring across the board - and I'll be doing the same on this one