BMW Service Intervals

[Northernchimp]

I have a 118D complete with ridiculous 20,000 mile service intervals. I have a service pack that covers routine servicing for 50k miles and I'm about halfway to the interval, so about 10k in. If it were your car and you were planning on keeping it for a few years, would you pay for an interim service? I'm told the timing chain won't st itself on anything post 2012 but surely these intervals are taking their toll on other bits of the engine?

[Hainey]

I have a 520 on the same daft intervals. I had the oil sampled at 20k miles. Easy enough for me to do as I'm in that line of work.

I now change the oil and filter at 10k.

[rallycross]

I would change the oil every 12 months or 10,000 miles.
Use the correct oil.

Oil filter - £8.
Oil from motor factor low saps' 5/30 LL4 £20 for 5 L.

[Northernchimp]

Good advice. Thanks. Will get a local garage to do it, won't be recorded anywhere, not that you get a fking service book, but at least I'll know it's been done.

Edit: rolling eyes smiley for some reason, nowt to do with me

[nickfrog]

You could buy a pump a DYI, really easy - not sure how accessible the filter is - probably OK to leave the filter anyway, albeit not optimised.

[xxChrisxx]

Northernchimp said:

I have a 118D complete with ridiculous 20,000 mile service intervals. I have a service pack that covers routine servicing for 50k miles and I'm about halfway to the interval, so about 10k in. If it were your car and you were planning on keeping it for a few years, would you pay for an interim service? I'm told the timing chain won't st itself on anything post 2012 but surely these intervals are taking their toll on other bits of the engine?

By what justification to do you define a 20,000 mile service interval as 'ridiculous' other than it being longer than vehicles in the past from history. 'It's just seems a long time innit' isn't really an acceptable answer as you could easily define this as 'progress'.

Much in the same way that you don't manually adjust tappets, or clutches, or have to change throttle cables, or adjust idle jets anymore. Things now have a 20,000 mile service interval, because they are designed to do so.

BMW do kind of know what they are doing you know.

Is a 10k service interval better... maybe, maybe not. Nothing to stop you doing it anyway. Just don't be a Luddite.

[Northernchimp]

I've got a vacuum pump for removing oil, just reluctant to touch this car at all. Only DIY on st because it's low risk.

[Northernchimp]

xxChrisxx said:

Northernchimp said:

I have a 118D complete with ridiculous 20,000 mile service intervals. I have a service pack that covers routine servicing for 50k miles and I'm about halfway to the interval, so about 10k in. If it were your car and you were planning on keeping it for a few years, would you pay for an interim service? I'm told the timing chain won't st itself on anything post 2012 but surely these intervals are taking their toll on other bits of the engine?

By what justification to do you define a 20,000 mile service interval as 'ridiculous' other than it being longer than vehicles in the past from history. 'It's just seems a long time innit' isn't really an acceptable answer as you could easily define this as 'progress'.

Much in the same way that you don't manually adjust tappets, or clutches, or have to change throttle cables, or adjust idle jets anymore. Things now have a 20,000 mile service interval, because they are designed to do so.

BMW do kind of know what they are doing you know.

Is a 10k service interval better... maybe, maybe not. Nothing to stop you doing it anyway. Just don't be a Luddite.

Settle down you .

[xxChrisxx]

Northernchimp said:

Settle down you .

[Northernchimp]

xxChrisxx said:

Northernchimp said:

Settle down you .

You're boring mate, go have a wk or something.

[xxChrisxx]

Northernchimp said:

You're boring mate, go have a wk or something.

[daemon]

Northernchimp said:

Good advice. Thanks. Will get a local garage to do it, won't be recorded anywhere, not that you get a fking service book, but at least I'll know it's been done.

Edit: rolling eyes smiley for some reason, nowt to do with me

My son bought a 2009 120D M Sport 3 years ago. We quickly found it was fond of a little drink of oil, so i would suggest you check yours weekly and top up if necessary.

Like has been advised above, we got the scheduled service done by BMW every 20,000 miles and we got our local mechanic to do an interim service every 10,000 miles. That way we were able to continue the FBMWSH but had the assurance that the oil was topped up if / when needed by us, and the oil was changed every 10,000 miles.

I believe (IMHO) a lot of the timing chain / tensioner issues could be traced back to these long service intervals and owners not checking the oil level periodically and topping up.

[Northernchimp]

daemon said:

Northernchimp said:

Good advice. Thanks. Will get a local garage to do it, won't be recorded anywhere, not that you get a fking service book, but at least I'll know it's been done.

Edit: rolling eyes smiley for some reason, nowt to do with me

My son bought a 2009 120D M Sport 3 years ago. We quickly found it was fond of a little drink of oil, so i would suggest you check yours weekly and top up if necessary.

Like has been advised above, we got the scheduled service done by BMW every 20,000 miles and we got our local mechanic to do an interim service every 10,000 miles. That way we were able to continue the FBMWSH but had the assurance that the oil was topped up if / when needed by us, and the oil was changed every 10,000 miles.

I believe (IMHO) a lot of the timing chain / tensioner issues could be traced back to these long service intervals and owners not checking the oil level periodically and topping up.

That's what I had in mind, nice to know it's not just paranoia on my part.

[Oilchange]

BMW definitely know what they are doing as they sure as hell want your engine to wear out sooner rather than later and it's old oil that will likely cause a mechanical failure right after the warranty has expired...

Cynical? Me?

[Roger Irrelevant]

xxChrisxx said:

By what justification to do you define a 20,000 mile service interval as 'ridiculous' other than it being longer than vehicles in the past from history. 'It's just seems a long time innit' isn't really an acceptable answer as you could easily define this as 'progress'.

Well there's a fella on this very thread with the same engine who has ready access to oil testing equipment who seems to suggest that the oil wasn't looking too clever after 20k miles. That would be good enough for me to spend an extra £100 or so a year getting it done at 10k too. Unless of course it was leased/on PCP, then I wouldn't give a st.

[daemon]

xxChrisxx said:

By what justification to do you define a 20,000 mile service interval as 'ridiculous' other than it being longer than vehicles in the past from history. 'It's just seems a long time innit' isn't really an acceptable answer as you could easily define this as 'progress'.

Much in the same way that you don't manually adjust tappets, or clutches, or have to change throttle cables, or adjust idle jets anymore. Things now have a 20,000 mile service interval, because they are designed to do so.

BMW do kind of know what they are doing you know.

Is a 10k service interval better... maybe, maybe not. Nothing to stop you doing it anyway. Just don't be a Luddite.

No. They dont.

They have produced that 2.0 diesel engine thats quite fond of eating timing chain tensioners and snapping chains. Thats well documented and BMW have even done a recall on it.

I would almost certainly put that down to excessively long oil service intervals resulting in weakened oil and not checking levels regularly.

If you want to be gung ho about it and stick religiously to BMWs "recommended" interval, then go right ahead..

[daemon]

Northernchimp said:

That's what I had in mind, nice to know it's not just paranoia on my part.

Sadly, its not paranoia. Its a well documented problem engine for timing chain / tensioner issues.

I was gunking myself the whole time my son had his in case it developed a problem but fortunately - i believe because of the frequent oil changes / level checks and top ups - it didnt.

He changed it recently to a Clio RS200 and i genuinely breathed a sigh of relief. Then he drove that into the back of an Audi.....

[nickfrog]

I change the Megane's oil at 6k (interval is 12k). Really not a luxury considering the state of the oil. Helix Ultra costs £18 for 5L.

[roofer]

xxChrisxx said:

By what justification to do you define a 20,000 mile service interval as 'ridiculous' other than it being longer than vehicles in the past from history. 'It's just seems a long time innit' isn't really an acceptable answer as you could easily define this as 'progress'.

Much in the same way that you don't manually adjust tappets, or clutches, or have to change throttle cables, or adjust idle jets anymore. Things now have a 20,000 mile service interval, because they are designed to do so.

BMW do kind of know what they are doing you know.

Is a 10k service interval better... maybe, maybe not. Nothing to stop you doing it anyway. Just don't be a Luddite.

bks, no oil is doing its job at 20k, and BMW won't give a flying after 100k.

[MiggyA]

xxChrisxx said:

By what justification to do you define a 20,000 mile service interval as 'ridiculous' other than it being longer than vehicles in the past from history. 'It's just seems a long time innit' isn't really an acceptable answer as you could easily define this as 'progress'.

Much in the same way that you don't manually adjust tappets, or clutches, or have to change throttle cables, or adjust idle jets anymore. Things now have a 20,000 mile service interval, because they are designed to do so.

BMW do kind of know what they are doing you know.

Is a 10k service interval better... maybe, maybe not. Nothing to stop you doing it anyway. Just don't be a Luddite.

TBH BMW have a very marked history of building in plenty of slightly dodgy cost saving measures that start to manifest themselves around 100k miles... I wouldn't expect 20k oil changes to have any major detrimental effect until around that point and it still wouldn't be catastrophic, just not ideal. So to BMW it's not so much a case of technical progress but more efficiency in their business model, trimming excess quality where it isn't needed in return for competitive advantage.