Oil every 5k-7k depending on driving (urban/highway) Trans fluid every 40-60k miles Transfer case, front/rear diff, brake fluid, coolant every two years Otherwise check for pcv valve, watch the timing chain not to gets loose, coolant might leak sometimes,

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5k mile oil change intervals for me. Since I knew I was keeping my new E39 for many years I had the dealer change the transmission fluid at 50k miles, along with the differential oil. Brake fluid is hygroscopic, and absorbs moisture thru the air, so a brake fluid flush should be done every two years.

"especially with my vehicle and making sure I’m not overpaying."

I read this and immediately sense that a German vehicle is not your speed. Trying to figure out what maintenance is must do and what isn't is going to bite you in the long run. If you want to do it yourself get the Bentley manual. 140 is OK for a shop oil change, there are several extra steps beyond just slapping the filter and oil in there. Don't neglect brake fluid service, every 2 years. That is doable yourself with a brake bleeder kit, about 50-60$.

A lot of those dealership service items seem a bit much, I would get second opinion on all. Bearing service? You only replace them as they go out, there isn't a way to help them mid life cycle that I am aware of or have read about.Get the Bentley manual. Good luck, find a trusted indie mechanic going by heaps of online reviews, be prepared to pay 150 an hour for labor from a decent indie as well. Compared to dealership labor costs though lol.I know what they quoted me for one front strut. It was absurd. I had to wait a year for parts because of the pandemic, EDC shocks and struts have chips in them, but I still did the whole job for only a few hundred over what I was quoted for just one corner and I put Bilstein B6s in. Those were an upgrade over OEM, leaning performance, without getting into swapping springs out.

i would change the coolant 100% if it was my car. 5years 50k miles is a good time.

idk wtf a bearing service is tho.

i would also do break flush, but 225 is expensive. .. but thats normal prices for a bmw dealership.

Honestly see if you can get ISTA+. From there it will show you how to do all your repair/maint work for any bmw.

My recommendation is honestly to buy a 1/4 torque wrench and start doing oil changes and other service work yourself. You'll save so much money and you'll learn quite a bit as well. Also ive found most places don't follow oem torque specs for stuff like oil drain plugs and such. Better to do it yourself!

And if you do drive your car pretty hard i'd recommend a coolant flush pretty soon. Don't skip out of servicing oils like differential or transmission etc.

$140 sounds fair for an oil change if they use quality oil. Try and stick to a 7-10k mile change interval.

If you have ramps or know someone with a lift, oil changes will be a 30min diy job and will cost you around $80 for oil and filter. Its a bit of hassle though, because modern BMW engines don't have dip sticks anymore and you have to run the engine to check your oil level after filling with fresh oil.

Once you hit 100k miles you can expect some parts of your suspension to be worn out.

Don’t defer any maintenance. Do preventative maintenance. Change fluids more frequently than necessary.

Change all fluids on time.

a redline a day keeps the mechanics away

That’s it. Maintenance. And maybe not driving like an asshole every time you get in.

That’s it really, most of the “reliability” issues come from BMWs with multiple owners who neglect the car.

Here is my opinion a year into owning only my second BMW ever (1st is a 2016 X3 that has been a dream).

I trust this subreddit as much as you can trust a fairly reputable internet source but I would still take this with a grain of salt because you are going to get more people posting about issues (to get that good advice) about issues than people talking about how they love the car (which you still get of course).

Yes there is a lot of plastic components around the engine and plenty of pessimists are fair in their estimate that those will wear. And yes there is a lot of wiring harness and tubes with fasteners in the engine bay to work through to replace those parts that require special tools and a lot of patience to careful work through.

To me though this is any car built after 2010. I’ve worked in plenty of tight spaces in engine bays of cars with a lot less electronics. I couldn’t replace a a/c compressor in my 96 GMC sierra without removing a few other metals items and the engine bay is simple as crap. The truck doesn’t even have power windows.

All my maintainence work has required almost $5000 in tools (quick jack lifts) and parts to do it right. I would need the same lifts to deal with transmission and/or differential fluid replacement on any other car.

I replaced my serpentine belt recently and it was my first real jump into the b58 engine bay of my 2021 540i (spark plugs were easy since they are right on top and even the back plug required nothing extra to come off) and it was painful.

But a learned a lot especially when I noticed the tensioner was shaking after doing all the work (4 hours) and taking it to the dealer to fix ($800) which is about $200 for the part from the dealer.

Around me 2 independents have already costed me 3x that in more mundane fixes. Transmission fluid replacement on x3 when I was too scared to do it but after 4K charged decided to do it myself on the 540 and then 8k to replace suspension at 100k miles on the X3 (which I shouldn’t have bothered with to begin with but I let reddit people on here scare me into) at another independent.

I have ISTA on a laptop which is the big deal because no one and I mean no one has done any videos on the latest b58 and g30 maintenance to include spark plugs, tensioner etc. I’ve thought of buying a go-pro and creating a channel myself…

Both cars have been super solid. The belt tensioner has been my only real surprise in both cars for the 10 years we’ve had the X3 and the 1 year I’ve had the 540i. The reliability is noticeably better with these two cars than any I have ever owned (I only buy used cars).

So digest all that.

TLDR; Other than needing special tools for a European car and needing ISTA (no Hayes manuals here but those manuals kind of suck anyways) I think the journey is the same you’ll get with any other modern car but you get the reliability of BMW.

Only way to avoid some of this is going electric which reduces the need for some mechanical parts but then you’re taking it in the rear when battery stuff happens.

Are you looking at anything in particular? Sedan, coupe, roadster, SUV?

Generally speaking, BMW parts are more expensive than Toyota, however you can get a lot of parts and supplies much cheaper on sites like FCP Euro than from the dealership.

I've had both Toyotas and BMW's. While Toyota's are regarded are more reliable, IMO they are boring to drive and the interior is lackluster. Me personally, I would rather pay more to drive a BMW.

I’m a bmw specialist and I’d stay away from BMW unless you can afford an average of maybe 3-4k per year. Never mind the servicing each year, (you need them inspected thoroughly yearly not just an oil change), every other day I’m doing oil filter housings, waterpumps ( that can leak in a couple different places so it’s better to replace the complete component carrier which means alternator and compressor off), coolant lines, turbo coolant lines, now I’m seeing led modules burning headlights, transmissions starting to fail from 60k onwards. They are just so poorly built especially the newer models with B engines. I’d steer clear

Change the oil every 7,500 miles, keep up with the rest of the maintenance, and you’re unlikely to have much trouble for at least 100k. Just enjoy it.

Got two at home my x1 with a b47 and dad x5 b57 in India , relatively very good reliability, only one issue was a bad alignment which caused a number of lights to pop up which the dealer resolved in two hours And one egr issue which was a recall Sensors like abs go off say once in 3 years easy fix didn’t even need dealer any good mechanic can do it

Regular maintenance don’t be stingy when it’s time to get it done so it , transmission oil change it at 80K km interval , engine oil 12K km , timing belts 90k km ,

Opt for extended warranty and service packs BRI BSI if your a heavy use person

In your free time, watch 50s kid and ShoplifeTV on YouTube. They’re good channels mostly around the E46

Also take good care of your paint because it looks like bmw spray painted these mfs back in the 2000's.

Coolant system is the first thing , expansion tank water pump and radiator then go from there . Check to make sure the rear springs aren’t broken if they are original .

You did that backwards

Well, as the refrain goes, first, dependent upon miles or km, a cooling system overhaul, followed by all fluids. Engine oil, transmission fluid and filter if automatic if it is a manual, new gear lube. Rear axle lube and a brake fluid flush. As it is late I am headed for shut eye. I will think of more in the a.m.

Don't even have to remove the camshafts to adjust the clearance. Easiest engine to work on that I have owned this far!

Nice! Perhaps you caught a few of my videos? My channel is Arugola Workshop.

I’ll grant you valves and oil but air filter being easy isn’t the first adjective I’d use. Although I’ve got the tank removal down it’s still a pain.

The white board with all your vehicles oil change schedules is genius… stealing this idea for sure.

Man that’s a lot of dirt in that air filter ! Where do you live to have it that dirty ?!

Don't buy cheap tires. Learn as much as you can about the model. Become an enthusiast, enjoy the driving experience a bmw offers. Learn how to work on it, even if you don't. Learn what parts costs ( fcpeuro is a good starting point), and what is considered maintenance.

Keep up with the maintenance

Find a good BMW mechanic if you don't already have one. Older BMW's will spend money faster than your ex-wife.

For some reason after getting a bmw I care less about driver etiquette and it’s not good😂

Park with your tires on the line and don’t use turning signal

My BMWs are on 5k miles or 12 months (whichever comes first) oil change interval. Safe way to help make the engine last longer.

Also driving it easy until the engine reaches temp before driving cars in normal rev ranges, never close to redline.

Finally, once a week, having a spirited longer drive of at least an hour on a highway where I am revving up close to redline from to time and letting the car run.

My BMWs seem to be happy with this as they purr contently after their weekly rev happy romp 😊👍

I always do 5k interval. Tuned deleted m57 owner here. It matters. Definitely lengthens life of timing chain. That’s enough reason for me. Never stomp on your car before it reaches operating temps. I would add, especially with a turbocharged car, give it just a few minutes of very mild driving after running it hard before turning it off. Driving a car hard won’t hurt it. Treating it like crap while driving it hard certainly will.

It depends if you want to protect top end vs bottom end of the engine. Top end is best served at low rpm, but bottom end you actually put more load on rod and a main bearings at low rpm high load situations. Since BMW typically has bulletproof cams etc top end and bad rod bearing track record I would say keep the load moderate and don’t worry about the revs as much. Higher revs actually bring oil into the bearing and help maintain the hydrodynamic wedge.

Eh, doesn't hurt either way. You've got full lubrication. Unless it's an M car (and a real one, not a M240i or something), you *can* if need be. Don't race it obviously, but if you so happen to need to pull onto the freeway within the first 5 minutes (which is the time it takes to reach full temp per BMW), and you hit like 3.5k? It's fine

Actually doing coolant services will keep that from happening as fast.

Most folks only replace coolant once it all flows out somehow, and by then, your entire coolant system is already degraded from running broken down coolant for years.

Oem bmw coolant is meant to preserve the plastic in bmw engines. Letting it degrade gets rid of those "preservatives" and allows the antifreeze to start degrading the plastic as well.

My VC started to leak at 95k. Watched a couple of YouTube videos (good ones/bad ones). Went to Harbor Freight to buy some Tools and changed it. Saved a ton and gained enough confidence to do the OFHG, Plugs, Coils, cleaned the MAPs and MAF sensors, installed a new aluminum Micky Mouse flange, brakes (w/unwinding the electric brake) and cleaned my Vanos selinoids. Installed MHD Stage 2+ at 65k mi. I’m not a mechanic but now have become knowledgeable about my 535i XDr MS and the wireless MHD OBD is very useful diagnostic tool using it conjunction with the Super License. Making new flashes is lighting fast! No battery charger is needed. I don’t do pulls or use burbles. At 70yo, I drive like I’m 80yo! With nearly 400hp at the crank, my 6 drives like a V8! I’m never going back to stock! If ur thinking about mods, just do it!😎 oh, and get rid of those run on flats. My new shoes are Michelin’s Pilot Sport AS. Huge difference; so far. If you are going to going to keep your BMW you’ll need to learn how to make repairs and do your own maintenance. Otherwise, you will be at the mercy of the Stealership or your local Indy. $$$$$

Every BMW manual I've ever read, says to start your car and start driving right away. Something about preventing the building up of carbon. Not sure if this proves or disproves what you're saying

Waste of time. Get in it, start it, throw your seatbelt on, and go. It’ll warm up faster when it has a load on it (which it will want vs a slow idle warmup). By the time you’ve put your seatbelt on and adjusted yourself you’ll longggggg since had oil flowing to every single place it needs to be.

Thoughts on this?

2016 f32 428i MT @ 23k miles:

• Brake Fluid every 2 years
• Brakes every 30-50k miles depending on driving style
• Coolant drain and fill every 2 years
• Oil every 5k miles
• Transmission Service @ 25k miles
• MT fluid change
• Air filter inspection & replacement if needed at every oil change

I took these from /u/PussySmith and adjusted. A few questions:

• Anything else to look out for on the MT? Back when I DIY'd the work on my Civic I frequently changed the MT fluid because the car shifted so much better.
• Differential fluid change or service at 25k miles?
• Anything to consider for the suspension?

What year? IIRC when they went to the idrive nanny systems they stopped issuing them.

If it helps. This is mine. Who recommends in parentheses

Brake Fluid every 2 years (BMW)

Brakes every 30-50k miles depending on driving style (BMW/ME)

Coolant drain and fill every 2 years (ME)

Oil every 5k miles (ME)

Oil every 15k miles (BMW lol)

Transmission Service for ZF auto every 50k miles (ME)

Air filter inspection & replacement if needed at every oil change (ME)

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure others will have ideas too.

Sorry about that.
2018 440i Gran Coupe

I’ve slept on it a time or two but yeah I’ve changed it.

I try and do 2 years because moisture in the brake system will absolutely kill your calipers/booster/slave/master

WOW. 2018 440i Gran Coupe

Your Idrive should give you alot of suggested changes, I'd listen to all of them except for oil (do this much more often then listed, 2-3x as often tbh)

And personally I also like doing spark plugs every 30k, ignition coils every 80k, fuel pump/filter every 100k, and if your model has any known issues, I'd make sure the part is well maintained, say the transmission has issues often. Then try and do your tranny fluid every now and again, maybe the turbo takes a while to get fully oiled up, make sure you run it easy for a few minutes to allow it to get saturated.

If you also notice your car in specific has an issue, prepare to either get to the bottom of it or find good intervals to prevent it. Personally my car has a purge-valve-being-filled-with-white-gunk issue.

Not only have I never heard of it, but I've been running compressed air through it every 80k miles and it makes it run brand new. I'm sure I need to replace my charcoal valve or something but it retains a vacuum so I'm unsure of what it could be.