The 10-15k intervals aren't all that unrealistic considering the fluid capacity of the oil pans, using a quality oil and BMW filters. I've read countless posts of people sending their oil to Blackstone Labs to have it analyzed and still have life left in the oil. I personally follow the lights on the dash but I do it sooner than later, meaning like 2 or 1 green left instead of waiting till it's yellow or red.

My highest mileage vehicle is a 90 S10 Blazer with 270k...transmission serviced every 75k, oil changes every 5k at the local Jiffy Lube for a measily $10-$15, which is cheaper and quicker than me doing it myself. The M5 has 198k, 740iL has 136k and X5 has 109k...Mobil 1 oils and BMW filters everytime.

I completely agree about the trans fluid, that was a bad call on BMW's part...50k on average for me.

If at all? I hope you were kidding. There are links for Inspection I and Inspection II on these forums, you should follow them and then some. You own the wrong car if your the type to wait till it breaks, because BMW's tend to snowball into obscene repair bills when neglected and not maintained properly.

It is finally great to see someone else that does take pride in their car maint. Well done on the m5 with 198k, that is outstanding. I wish every car owner would be like this. It is amazing how far vehicles will last when you stay on top of taking care of them. :thumbup: If everyone took care of the maint. like this, you probably wouldn't have to worry about getting a PPI done when buying(although I do recommend for piece of mind). Keep up the great work.

I get what you are saying as far as fluid capacity. I was blown away when I bought the 540 and seen it holds 8qts and the X at 8.5qts. Wasn't used to buying so much oil at once.

I'm HARD on all my vehicle, so I'm more proactive when it comes to maintenance vs most who are reactive. I replace things before they break, so then I can PLAN on having a vehicle down instead of the stresses of having it leave me on the side of the highway, middle of a road trip, etc when I count on it the most. I'm still blown away when customers bring me their cars and I start going down a grocery list with them of things that are wrong, far overdue, etc as they're wonder why it's wobbly, bad gas mileage, has that oily/burning smell, whatever. The cost of being proactive is cheaper than the stress, towing costs, headaches and inevitable downtime of just waiting till it breaks. Just my .02.

I don't remember how thorough the inspections were, but I remember feeling a little better about purchasing used cars when I lived in VA. To me it was basically a state mandated "get off your ass" way of making people maintain their vehicles at least a little better...or pay out the ass to get a inspection sticker from a shady shop.

Completely agree. Wife and I are the same. Drive on average of 20-30K a year on all cars. We drive hard and fast. Got tickets to prove it. lol. We drive around 300-500 miles a week and the cars get a ton of use. Which reminds me, I need to change rear control arms and ball joints on the 540i.

On a side note, took a huge hit replacing the ENTIRE cooling system on the 540. went the zionsville route, change all hoses, belt drive, intake gaskets, vac lines, and valley pan. I was amazed how easy they are to work on. Just time consuming. It's really funny when I tell people that I do all the work on the X and 540i. They are completely shocked that I have the nuts to touch a bmw. Never went to tech school, just bought the bentley manual and became a member here & bimmerforums. Tons of useful info.

I did some side work for the wife's coworker 96 grand cherokee. This lady overheated the engine for long periods of time and was shocked when she ended up blowing a head gasket. I was like :pullhair:.

Kudos for replacing the ENTIRE cooling system, I've been preaching that for years...and for going the Zionsville route. I mentioned this on another thread, but I plan on doing the same thing with my 7 when I FI it. I've already done an electric fan conversion, but that all aluminum radiator and shroud are just damn sexy looking in there!

Funny you say that, I fixed a car for a customers, GF's, daughers car (did I say that right?) and she had been driving this car around with no coolant for god only knows how long. They told me they just drove it till it'd get warm and the car would eventually shut itself off...I was like WTF?!?! Put in some tap water (I know, no no) to see if the waterpump was functioning (nastiest brown mud came out when I revved the engine, I could only shake my head no), drained and filled the water with tap again, ran some cooling system cleaner, replaced thermostat and radiator cap, drain and fill with coolant and distilled water...car finally ran like a champ, no shut downs like they had experienced, A/C blew ice cold while I drove it around for about an hour or so. I only charged them $100, thankfully it wasn't a headgasket. How hard is it to add water?! I'm still beside myself sometimes when I see people driving around with HUGE problems like this, ignoring it as if it's going to go away if they never address it.

K, stepping down from soapbox now :)

Aluminum rad. was the only way to go, did the electric fan too. Freakin love it.

Yeah the lady said it just kept getting hot and then shutting down. I told her, you know what them gauges are? we mechanics call them idiot gauges, they are vital to the operation of the car. I swear I wanted to beat this girl.

Again great seeing someone else with my issue, OCD on car maint. LOL

I have about 320,000 miles on my e36 and besides regular oil and filter changes, I have just replaced things when they break.

I need to make time to do the plugs on our 02 X5 4.4i. I am about 20,000 over the 100,000 mile recommended interval. :D

The I6 is an awesome motor, my mother has a 97 328ci. But as I noted, her radiator neck snapped at 60k also, which even I thought was odd. Thankfully it was a 15 minutes job for me to do the swap and for some reason the bleeding procedure on that engine is 10x easier than the M62, as well as less messy. Before I bought the 740iL, I almost got into a really nice X5 3.0 manual that I was going to turn into an FI project. I still wish I would have done that sometimes as I've learned the I6 vs V8 are two completely different beast maintenance wise.

Maybe this is just me, but the V8's, especially the M60 (not as much since their smaller displacement), M62, N62 and S62's are terribly prone to overheating due to the amount of heat inside the engine bay. Considering the low resale value of the average E38, E39, mostly early E53's, E60/61 and E65/66 all sell for really cheap, and mostly from the ones that have the V8 since they carry the same issue...and you can find proof of that all over Bimmerforums, Bimmerfest, DTMPower, 5Driver, m5board, etc when there is thread after thread of these issues with newbies and teenagers buying up these cars for the same price as a new Civic. I've even seen pics of fan clutches that became so brittle due to the engine bay heat in the V8's, enough to the point where they broke from centrifugal force, taking out hoses and even breaking through the skin of the hood.

IMHO, what is good/working maintenance wise for the I6 isn't the same as the V8. When a customer calls me with issues in a 3 series vs a 5 or 7, I just go into a completely different mindset, but as I said before, maybe that's just me.

On a side note - I'm just waiting for the day to take that 328 off her hands and turn it into my personal boost monster. Everytime something does happen to her car, the replacements parts are usually replaced with upgraded parts for my future benefit :) Her clutch went out, and now low and behold she has an M3 single mass flywheel and clutch kit. Brake pads needed replacing, guess who's rolling on drilled rotors and PBR/Axxis MM pads. I think her next mod is some clear corners to fix that pesky bulb error message that comes and goes in her rear taillight, which naturally means the front will have to be converted to clears as well, and maybe some angel eyes while I'm at it ;)

BMW radiators are notorious for the plastic neck cracking. The radiators in my e36 and well as my e53 broke at that particular spot. It is very common.

As far as overheating goes, Zionsville actually sells an aluminum thermostat housing with mechanical thermostat becuase they have found that the m54 straight six has failed due to overheating more than any other BMW engine in recent history. They sell this kit for the straight six in the e36, e46, e53, e39, e60 and others. They don't carry any kit like this for the V8 e53. So, it would seem like the sixes actually run hotter. That is what they say anyway.

I think basic maintenance is basic maintenance, regardless of whether it is a V8 or straight six. Sure some things will be different, but simple things like oil, filters, plugs, etc are the same across the board unless you are talking about an M car.

I think people are snapping up used 5, 7 and X models cheap across the baord. Not just V8 versions of these cars. The V8 5 series and X models are still more expensive than the straight six equipped ones. It is not like you can get more for a straight six 530i than you could for a 540i if all else is equal. The reason these cars are depreciating is that everything on them is expensive to fix and in many cases, the car falls apart around the engine.

I have no problem with people going overboard with maintenance what ever the reason is, but I don't think that changing spark plugs 3 times as often as the manufacturer recommends and even twice as much as Mike Miller's old school maintenance schedule recommends is necessary or even beneficial. He states that the OE BMW plugs are probably good for 100,000 miles assuming no other problems such as oil leaking down into the plug recess from a leaky valve cover gasket. So, to be safe he recommends checking the plug recesses for oil at 60,000 and because you are already in there, changing the plugs at that time. So, if you or X5SilverBeast feel that changing the plugs 3+ times more often than BMW recommends and twice as much as Mike Miller suggests, then by all means do so, but don't do so under the guise of precentative maintenance. Just go ahead and say you are obsessed with tinkering on your cars and do it for fun and enjoyment. Changing OE spark plugs every 30,000 miles and OE oil and filters every 5,000 (in normal operating conditions) is like replacing all the light bulbs in your house BEFORE they burn out. Do you guys change the air in your tires every 6 months as well? :stickpoke