E39 Service Interval

[Animal]

Hi All,

Apologies if this has been answered already (I did search - honest!): I'm looking at an '02-plate 540i and I don't know if I should be worried about the service history or not.

The car is apparently one owner with 52k miles but has only 3 stamps in the book - surely it should have one a year?

[E30M3SE]

The car informs 'you' of its service requirements through service indicators on the dash, so a lower mileage car will have had less servicing than a higher mileage car. Only 3 stamps is a little low for a 9 year old car, as IIRC, it should have had oil changes at least every 2 years, so should have at least 4 stamps in the book, that would not put me off if the car is honest and in good condition.

[Denis O]

I would guess the owner has stuck religiously to the traffic light system. Mine used to go about 17k miles between services so that equates to 51k via the lights.

I'm not sure what BMW recommend but I would change engine oil and filter each year regardless; small cost and peace of mind.

Next service will be an Insp 2 so the most expensive!!

[Fox-]

I posted about this in the Smoker barge thread.

It has 3 stamps because it's a 50k mile car and the owner has serviced it according to the distance countdown only.

If it had been serviced say every 2.5 years, then it would have been new in 2002, first serviced in late 2004, serviced again in 2007, serviced again in 2009ish and be due another service at some point in the near future.

The problem is that the BMW service schedule provided with the car makes no mention of a time requirement for the regular servicing regeime. It doesn't say if you have an Oil Service and then 2 years later you've covered only 10k miles so its time for an Inspection 2 because of time instead of mileage.

I have a service book here and it explains how the servicing system works. It makes absolutely no mention of time except to say:

Service Guide said:

Calculation of the Service Interval covers almost all operating situations. If you drive only very low annual mileages (Well under 6000 miles a year) you should have the engine oil changed every 2 years

This implies that there is no fixed time requirement unless, as it says, you do 'well under 6k a year'. Given that depending on driving style the intervals can be as high as 20k between services it is entirely possible to go more than 2 years between services but not fall into the 'very low mileage' category where BMW recommend an interim oil change. They even say 'change the oil' not 'perform an oil service/inspection 1/inspection 2/whatever is due next' so you could argue there is no space in the service history to record these interim oil changes either.

Therefore I come to the conclusion that on a vehicle thats covered more than 6k a year it is acceptable from an FSH point of view, though obviously not desireable from an enthusiast point of view, for there to have been more than 2 years between service stamps provided the distances do not exceed those that the service system normally calculates.

Somebody who covers 8k miles a year of mostly long trips would be above the 'well under 6k' suggestion but would take almost 2.5 years before they reached the 18-20k the service indicator will take to count down if your driving style is made up of mostly longer trips. A quite legitimate 2.5 year interval between stamps, then.

I would never personally leave my own car more than 2 years, but from what I can see it isn't against the BMW servicing schedule to do so.

In addition to those 3 stamps check the 'Evidence of Time Based maintenance' section. It should also have stamps here. Brake Fluid in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010 and Coolant in 2006 and 2010.

[sparks_E39]

I do 7000 miles per year now and have the oil changed every two years, as after one year and 7k it's still fine. Everything else is serviced accordingly in my 528 going by the green lights. I use an indie or a trusted garage. The book is stamped well but at the age it is now and the mileage I do I don't think it's important to religiously stick with the reccomended BMW service plan. It didn't have full BMWSH when I got it, but the stacks of paper work and the fact all parts on the bills were genuine BMW parts gave me confidence it was a good purchase.