[Richbot]

97000 miles the other day. I have been holding back from posting in this thread until I hit 100k but I'm bored today and just can't help it.

3/30/08 build E90 6MT, original owner

Mods include STR40 front brakes, Dinan swaybar and fixed camber plates, ZCP springs, an air filter of some sort, MPE, Apex 17x10's, Evolve tune

Repairs excluding regular maintenance like brakes/batteries/tires/fluids/filters/plugs:
- #5 coil (warranty)
- Cracked washer fluid bottle (warranty)
- Steering angle sensor dirty (around 55k or so) - $1 in materials (rag and acetone), 1.5 hours of my time
- Wore out DSC off button - ~$160 for a new switch assembly, half an hour of my time
- T-stat sensor failed around 87,000 miles, $75, would have been an hour if I didn't do a bunch of other stuff while I was in there
- New motor mounts at 90k, $300 and half a day of my time in my stupid no-lift-having poverty garage, it was time they were not in good shape, but not terrible
- New belts, idlers and tensioners, ~$300 and a couple hours of my time, they were still working but it was definitely time at 90k
- Low pressure fuel sensor failed at 92k ish- $80, 15 minutes

So round it up to what, $1000 in parts? The mounts and belts/tensioners were probably necessary to keep the car running its best and stave off failures, but they were not strictly "must-do". the Tstat and fuel pressure codes were intermittent and never caused a limp mode or what have you. Not such a bad record.

Now the part that might obscure whether or not the car would have been on a flatbed; Preventive/elective maintenance-type stuff:
- TPMS sensors are not original anymore, replaced them with my many wheel/tire changes, but still have never had one die on me
- Thermostat, radiator, rad hoses, expansion tank hoses when I did the t-stat sensor, because I was afraid
- Switched to a LiFePo battery when my 2nd OEM battery lived exactly as long as the first (about 3 years).
- Suspension is not original, ZCP springs, OEM non-EDC shocks/struts, Dinan front bar and camber plates, it had MCS stuff on it for a while so the dampers don't have near as many miles as the rest of the car
- Replaced all 8 coil packs at around 75k during a spark plug change, because I don't trust coil packs to not screw up, there were no codes or anything, I'm just a fiddler
- trans mounts while I was in there for the engine mounts, they seemed fine but whatever
- uh...I'm struggling to think what else I have done other than sticking to regular maintenance intervals. I know there's more but I'm away from my spreadsheet

Carnage has included me needing to have a hole in the rear bumper cover filled and resprayed because I didn't have the parking brake set after a fluid change and it hit the garage door, some hail damage repaired with PDR, and a set of front undertrays.

I have been changing oil every 7k or less and just got my first above-average lead reading but I think it might have been gas from a trackside Sunoco pump I used, otherwise wear metals have all been low on this engine. Might be doing rod bearings soon for peace of mind if the next analysis doesn't look better.

Perhaps notably, I have nearly 80k on my MPE with no cracking problems, Evolve tune has been on the car most of its life too.

This car has been my most reliable BMW by a factor of 2 (E36, E46, E9x's, F34), and just as reliable as any car I have ever owned past 80k including my Civic. So yeah. Knock on wood. And if it blows up tomorrow, I will put an engine in it and drive it to 194k, because it's a good car and it deserves it.