First owner is normally under the BMW Free Maintenance Program AKA no maintenance since the ATF is life time and the oil change is every 15,000 miles.

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

sounds like you're on the wrong forum.

BMW does recommend the 15k specs because they have to be able to offer a "no cost maintenance" plan for the life of the warranty. As opposed to Toyota who did a "toyota care" with 10k intervals for life of the warranty. It's all about competition.

I recommend 5-7k max OCI or once a year whatever comes first. Main reason why I won't be buying new bimmers used, the maintenance schedule is terrible. You think a brake fluid drain/flush is included on the 4 year 50k maintenance plan, even though its recommended every 2? Absolutely not.

Sure these Bimmers require more maintenance than a Honda CRV but if you actually drove one of those you would understand what falling asleep behind the wheel means....

Not saying it is not, but I am not convinced the problem is, valve stem seals. One reason is that you are not seeing oil smoke that often and even then it doesn't sound like it is severe. Another is that only one cylinder is problematic. I would be sure that valve seals need to be replaced, at least get a second opinion from a well recommended BMW Indy mechanic.

I think it is better to stay with the engine you have rather than purchase an engine without any history. Almost always better to deal with the devil you know rather than the one you don't know.

First I would have the engine checked for any error codes. Depending on the findings, I would have a compression, leak down and smoke test done and go from there.

I have a pretty wonderful BMW experience, I have the I6. With a manual transmission. And its been well maintained by me since I picked up ownership at 59k miles, I have no complaints.

Most of my repairs are more age related than anything.

The I6 BMW's are historically pretty solid, although they have weak points. The V8's are the ones with gaskets, timing chains, etc problems, and obviously the auto trans could be great or have a shorter life, although I can't comment on it.


Bottom line is most of these threads nowadays are people who are 3rd, 4th, 5th owners of these vehicles and its sad but when you go through that many owners without much maintenance history more often than not you have these kinds of issues.

People that buys a new car normally do not keep the car beyond the warranty period. The free maintenance program is just a marketing ploy by all the car makers to attract car buyers. If you change the oil every 3,000 miles or 7500 mile you would have change the oil 5 times or twice before the free 15,000 miles maintenance kicks in. BMW is just hoping the car last beyond their warranty period with their free maintenance. After that they don't give a rat ass about the car since it will be "Out of warranty". Try asking a BMW dealer to do a transmission fluid change and they will tell you the ATF is "Life Time". You couldn't even pay them to do a ATF change.

It's call plan obsolescence. BMW make their money from selling new cars. If cars last as long as refrigerators all the car maker will only be building cars to replace cars that are no longer operational. Do you buy a new refrig every 5 years? We have a Sub Zero for the last 15 years and if it broke down we will get it fix since they offer a 10 years warranty on their frig.

Not exactly comparing apples to apples. There is reason why Honda doesn't make V8s in passenger cars. Honda's main objective is to make reliable and economical cars while BMW is performance and luxury. Honda I4 in CRV only makes 130 to 150 HP and requires timing belt change at 80k miles using old school technology but reliable. BMW V8s are bit more complex and is built for performance and efficiency. And as component become more complex, there are more parts and more parts to fail.

Honda hasn't used a timing belt for the CRV since 2001. With the model 2002 year CRV Honda went with a timing chain.