Suggestions on maintenance

Hi Everyone,

My car has around 76K miles, I bought it used a while ago but since it's my weekend car I have not put many miles on it at all. Aside from oil changes I have not done any preventative maintenance on the car but the car runs amazing and the previous owner SEEMS to have cared for it.

I plan to get my rod bearings done when my next oil change is due but my question is if there is any other preventative maintenance that I should get taken care of at this millage (spark plugs, transmission fluid? etc..)

any advice is appreciated!

Thanks

I would get the "lifetime" fluids changed, such as power steering, coolant, and DCT. By 76k, they are probably starting to be exhausted.

Otherwise, stuff like rear diff, manual trans, plugs, etc. have change intervals that should be fine. If you don't drive much, stick to the "low usage" intervals that BMW published (basically oil change once a year regardless of mileage).

If you have the service records, verify that the owner had the major/minor services done at the dealer which are effectively visual inspections. If they paid for those, it's a good sign they cared for the car and stuck to the BMW maintenance intervals.

dparm wrote

I would get the "lifetime" fluids changed, such as power steering, coolant, and DCT. By 76k, they are probably starting to be exhausted.

Otherwise, stuff like rear diff, manual trans, plugs, etc. have change intervals that should be fine. If you don't drive much, stick to the "low usage" intervals that BMW published (basically oil change once a year regardless of mileage).

If you have the service records, verify that the owner had the major/minor services done at the dealer which are effectively visual inspections. If they paid for those, it's a good sign they cared for the car and stuck to the BMW maintenance intervals.

thanks! I was thinking the DCT fluids as well, so glad to hear that's on your list of suggestions

Don't forget the filters. You might also look at the motor mounts at this mileage.

70k miles is a good amount of mileage. What mileage did you buy the car? What was done to it before you go it? If nothing, you're WAY overdue for the spark plugs to get changed. I would change the fluids as well, but that's me. At 30k miles, I've gotten all of the fluids changed little by little because I suspect the previous owner(s) tracked the car and you never know how people take care of their cars. Now at 41k miles, I just have to get the power steering fluid changed next year. Car runs like a top.

New2Roundel wrote

70k miles is a good amount of mileage. What mileage did you buy the car? What was done to it before you go it? If nothing, you're WAY overdue for the spark plugs to get changed. I would change the fluids as well, but that's me. At 30k miles, I've gotten all of the fluids changed little by little because I suspect the previous owner(s) tracked the car and you never know how people take care of their cars. Now at 41k miles, I just have to get the power steering fluid changed next year. Car runs like a top.

The power steering fluid was the easiest, I used the turkey master method and used it a whole can to cycle all the old fluid out, looks green still after a month.

Add motor mounts to the fluids and filters and rod bearings.

Sephiroth wrote

Don't forget the filters. You might also look at the motor mounts at this mileage.

checked the air filters, looked pretty good, i still may swap though. thanks for the suggestion

New2Roundel wrote

70k miles is a good amount of mileage. What mileage did you buy the car? What was done to it before you go it? If nothing, you're WAY overdue for the spark plugs to get changed. I would change the fluids as well, but that's me. At 30k miles, I've gotten all of the fluids changed little by little because I suspect the previous owner(s) tracked the car and you never know how people take care of their cars. Now at 41k miles, I just have to get the power steering fluid changed next year. Car runs like a top.

The previous owner was one of those take the car to a shop and believe everything say guy and the car was bone stock (which was a huge selling point to me) but with that he also didn't document any of the maintenance so I pretty much just want to be safe and assume he didn't do too much in terms of maintenance. I bought the car at around 65K and it's been running perfect since day 1. thanks for the suggestions!

Munichm3 wrote

The power steering fluid was the easiest, I used the turkey master method and used it a whole can to cycle all the old fluid out, looks green still after a month.

i'll add that to the list, thank you!

pbonsalb wrote

Add motor mounts to the fluids and filters and rod bearings.

thanks! will do

Found this on the forum a while ago and found it useful, hope it helps:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=778602

eyanez1230 wrote

Found this on the forum a while ago and found it useful, hope it helps:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=778602

wow this is great, thank you

I would do spark plugs, differential fluid, brake fluid if I had no info on when these were previously done on the car.

If you plan to keep the car a long time, think about flushing and changing the engine coolant. They SAY it is lifetime, but I did mine around 75k for peace of mind.

As for the DCT, you may want to think twice. It seems a popular maintenance item, but read what I wrote here before deciding.
http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1386507&highlight=DCT

Also, I would say that the DCT's are built like tanks and are generally WAY over-designed. It is a bit complicated, more expensive than other fluid changes, and I believe it gets you very little benefit. Just my $0.02.

I am not a rod bearing "believer" so I will not comment.

just a tip from my personal experience, if you are paying someone to do the motor mounts, consider having the RBs done at the same time unless you're adamantly against it. I was quoted something like $600-800 to have the mounts done, most of which is labor cost. RB job is typically in the range of $2500. Had both done at the same time and no labor charged on the mounts, so I figure saved at least $500 on labor by doing both at once