Recs on warranty/maintenance work before warranty expires?

[ploo]

My warranty expires on 1/2013 and I wanted to ask the forum's collective knowledge to see if there are any common warranty or maintenance issues to get corrected before then. I currently have 20K miles, loving every minute I drive the car, and I plan on keeping it forever even as I buy more cars.

Issues to date:
differential clunk during cold low-speed turns - resolved with diff fluid change at approx 10K miles
dead battery at approx 3 years of age - replaced for $400 out of pocket due to warranty not covering from insufficient mileage/driving habits
rear brake lights changed under warranty

I've had the oil changed annually at approx 5K miles/year of usage, thus far have not had to add a single liter in between. I can't remember off the top of my head when I last had the brake fluids flushed.

Current issues I'm going to try to get fixed this coming Friday at my service appointment:
-premature wear on driver's seat upper outer bolster with one loose stitch - I'm extremely careful getting in and out of the car, I only wear soft clothing (mostly hospital scrubs), I clean and condition my leather every 6 months and wipe it down regularly with leather wipes in between, my E46 had only minor wear after 8 years. I'm not sure if they'll cover this but if anyone has any experience pushing for this, I'd appreciate it. Given my OCD and care (and the condition of all other cars I've ever owned), I really think this is premature wear. Also, it seems like a loose stitch would give a poor prognosis to the longetivity of the leather and concerns me given I plan on keeping the car a long time.
-1-2 grind on my 6MT - I have serious concerns about the longetivity of the 2nd gear synchro. Aside from the intermittently "crunchy" feel when selecting 2nd from 1st, I have had about 5-6 pretty bad episodes of grinding during the life of this car, with the first episode at approx 4K miles and most recently a couple days ago. I've reported it before during service, but they always say they could not duplicate, and it is impossible to predict. Most of the episodes were during 5-8k rpm range at 80-100% throttle, but the one this week was a lazy 2800rpm gentle upshift during city driving, and I had to go back into neutral and reselect 2nd without releasing the clutch. I am 100% my clutch was fully in to the floor each of these episodes. Is there anything I can do to try to avoid an expensive synchro failure or worse repair in the future? I always double-clutch downshift into 2nd and actually limit downshifting past 3rd to only when I actually need to accelerate (I modified my driving style because of the bad feel of 2nd very soon after I got the car, whereas in my other cars I always rev-matched single-clutch downshift down to 2nd as a matter of safe driving practice without issue). This is the single most worrisome issue I have right now so I would appreciate any advice. Should I push for a transmission fluid change at the very least?
-peeling steering wheel trim needs to be replaced
-driver's door keyhole has significant rust and needs to be replaced. bought a keyhole delete cover when I first got the car and lost it, will try to find and install it after the lock is replaced
-rattle from instrument cluster that presents mostly when it's cold (maybe ambient air temp <40F) and resolves when I apply gentle pressure down on the top of the dash over the instrument cluster. Should I bring this up, or am I asking for trouble by making them take apart the dash looking for a rattle? I could probably live with it, though I'd rather it be taken care of, but the last thing I want is for new rattles to appear from the disassembly/reassembly process.
-engine software update - I'd like the 240E software, although I understand if they don't have any indication to spend the time updating it. Any way to convince the dealership to do this for free? Otherwise I'll just have Mike Benvo do it along with some planned coding soon.
-is there anything else I should have replaced or looked at while I can?

Does anybody have details on what maintenance to expect over the next 50-100K miles? I know about spark plugs at 37K and I'm probably on target to replace rotors and pads at 40-50K, but just want to get an idea of what else to expect (and to see if I should invest in the extended maintenance plan). Right now, I just don't see the cost of the extended plan to be worth it at my planned 5-7000 miles/year, and I expect to move to my next car in about 3-4 years max. I plan on changing engine oil annually or every 7500 miles max. Not sure what to plan for in terms of my own transmission/brake/differential fluid flushes.

I've really loved this car from day 1 and think the S65B40 is truly special and the single biggest reason I'm keeping it forever. I'm perfectly happy replacing fluids, etc on a shorter schedule in the interest of longetivity. Thanks for your help and all advice is appreciated!

[m3an]

this is a situation where it pays to drive the car as the dealer will only do the scheduled maintenance only that is needed. I just brought my car in 1 month prior to expriation and had wipers done, oil, AC evap changed (huge job!!) and they wouldn't touch the brakes saying they were fine. (car has 42k).. the brakes are fine, but it would be nice to get BMW to foot at least a set of pads. Plugs will be on you @ the 37k, other than that the car is pretty reliable and doesn't require much maintenance (even less than the e46 chassis).
Good luck on the driver's seat as they will most likely tell you it's wear and tear; this may vary from dealer to dealer.

I don't think you're seeing rust around the key cylinder as it is covered in some sort of grease and appears brown on a number of cars I have seen. Again, rub it with your finger to find out, as it may be some corrosion, who knows?
The only good I see from the dealer w/warranty replacements comes with the shitty BMW coated trim panels. My steering wheel cover has been replaced like 3x.


Other than that enjoy the car!

[bimdo]

i would push on the transmission.mine was replaced under warranty a couple months ago at 37k miles.i mentioned the rough shift from 1-2 and the mechanic said it shouldn't be that way.the shop foreman confirmed it,they started a puma (warranty) case,and within a couple days it was ordered.i paid myself for a break-in trans fluid change when the new one had about 1200 miles on it just to be on the safe side.it's still not as good as the trans on my nsx and other acuras i've had before,but is substantially better than before the fix.

i would also ask about the brakes,especially the fronts.if they're worn enough,you might get pads and rotors.

i had a rattle which turned out to be ac fan related,and got a new fan.debris can get in there and rattle.see if the rattle changes when you change the fan speed for this one.

[ploo]

Originally Posted by m3an

this is a situation where it pays to drive the car as the dealer will only do the scheduled maintenance only that is needed. I just brought my car in 1 month prior to expriation and had wipers done, oil, AC evap changed (huge job!!) and they wouldn't touch the brakes saying they were fine. (car has 42k).. the brakes are fine, but it would be nice to get BMW to foot at least a set of pads. Plugs will be on you @ the 37k, other than that the car is pretty reliable and doesn't require much maintenance (even less than the e46 chassis).
Good luck on the driver's seat as they will most likely tell you it's wear and tear; this may vary from dealer to dealer.

I don't think you're seeing rust around the key cylinder as it is covered in some sort of grease and appears brown on a number of cars I have seen. Again, rub it with your finger to find out, as it may be some corrosion, who knows?
The only good I see from the dealer w/warranty replacements comes with the shitty BMW coated trim panels. My steering wheel cover has been replaced like 3x.


Other than that enjoy the car!

Thanks for the reply. Honestly, I'd drive the car more if I wasn't working all the damn time. Out of my roughly 6K/year I'd say almost 50% are for pure aimless driving pleasure. What were you symptoms with the AC evaporator? I've heard of the issue a little bit but so far I haven't had any issues that I've noticed, and I made it through another Texas summer with no signs of trouble. And the reason I haven't rubbed any of the rust off of the keyhole is so I can show the dealer how bad it looks, haha. I will ask them to measure the pads and rotors just in case, but with downshifting to every stop, I doubt there will be any indication to cover under warranty. Worth a shot! Thanks for the good points.

Originally Posted by robbiedawg

i would push on the transmission.mine was replaced under warranty a couple months ago at 37k miles.i mentioned the rough shift from 1-2 and the mechanic said it shouldn't be that way.the shop foreman confirmed it,they started a puma (warranty) case,and within a couple days it was ordered.i paid myself for a break-in trans fluid change when the new one had about 1200 miles on it just to be on the safe side.it's still not as good as the trans on my nsx and other acuras i've had before,but is substantially better than before the fix.

i would also ask about the brakes,especially the fronts.if they're worn enough,you might get pads and rotors.

i had a rattle which turned out to be ac fan related,and got a new fan.debris can get in there and rattle.see if the rattle changes when you change the fan speed for this one.

Thanks for the reply. Maybe I'll see if I can go for a ride with the master tech or someone with experience. If they replaced the transmission, that would be the ideal solution for me. I've driven a '99 or 2000 NSX (pre-fixed light facelift) and do remember the transmission being a joy. The S2000 and 987.1 Cayman S also left an impression on me. One of the biggest letdowns I ever had was an '08 Elise that I drove in 2009 before I eventually decided on the E92. Extremely hard to get into gear, but I think it may have been due to track abuse. Have driven an Exige since then, but I don't have a clear memory of anything especially good or bad about that transmission as I was too busy shitting my pants, haha! I will ask about the brakes and probably will go ahead and mention the rattle. Thanks again.

[m3an]

I just suspected the AC was operating weaker than it should and they hooked it up to a machine and checked the levels and checked the temp and found in was out of range and replaced the evap and lines and seals; pretty big job and seems to be pretty common in hot/humid climates; nice peace of mind to have done before warranty is up too