A comment on my spark plug replacement
 

Hi folks,

I haven't seen much on spark plug comments here. I see an occasional "100k" mile interval.....maybe later models came with better spark plugs? Mine is a 2006 and came with the Bosch quads.....I pulled a plug last Saturday at 65K miles and it was shot....center electrode worn away to almost nothing and the outer four electrodes were not in great shape. The rest were no better, on some the center electrode had worn away so deep into the porcelain insulator that they had split into pieces. Clearly, on my car they should have been replaced ~60k. I don't know what the BMW dealer I bought it from was thinking. They sold it to me with 62K miles.
Needless to say, the car runs nice and smooth now and hopefully mpg will benefit. Might as well do the transfer case fluid too since it doesn't look like "regular" maintenance was done on this car. I've only had it since February..

Maintenance schedules can't cover all eventualities of how vehicles were abused with short trips, etc.

If the plugs need replacing, then replace them. Mine are at 108,000 km and it runs fine, but I may do them next service simply because I won't still have the vehicle at 200,000 km, so I will need to buy one set (not two). I may as well replace them now and get the benefit from the new set of plugs as leave them to 150,000 km or so and change them only to sell the vehicle soon after.

The transfer case sets a code when it requires a fluid change. If you do it early, make sure you do the service tool reset required on the X3.

I do mine at like half intervals. I just replaced my iridiums after about 15K miles. and, you know what, the gaps were all blown out on the ones I pulled.

I probably can't do that with my actron unit.....:dunno: