Help with doing my own maintenance at home

[Full_of_fit]

First of all I would like to say thank you to everyone on this form. I appreciate the time and effort it takes a video or a post with pictures so I truly great. Here comes the question(s)…

I have a 2017 m3 with competition package and just under 33k on the odometer. I am coming up on maintenance, in about, 2300 miles. The dealership prices are obviously going to insane. All that to say and ask what services should I expect. I honestly would love to do the maintenance myself but truth be told, I’m scared of screwing something up. Since this is my daily driver I can not afford to mess something.
I understand some of you are awesome at doing the service(s) yourself. I would please ask for any help with tools, fluids, etc.
I will not be offended if if it’s a noob question and in all honesty you can talk to me like a 4 year old and use stickers and crayons if you need.
Thank you once again in advance for any and all advance and help you can give me.

[aliiin]

Check out youtube, there are a lot of good DIY videos on there. Tommy L Garage has a good DIY channel, he usually links all the stuff he uses and is pretty thorough.

[Full_of_fit]

Originally Posted by aliiin

Check out youtube, there are a lot of good DIY videos on there. Tommy L Garage has a good DIY channel, he usually links all the stuff he uses and is pretty thorough.

Yes I have seen his videos and they are very helpful so appreciate the input.
If you don’t mind is there a list of tools that I should buy? I would love to get the race ramps but I have converted our garage into a gym. I will still have clearance but not 100% the very edge of I can can get about half my bumper in. Thank you in advance I appreciate your help 👍

[TopJimmy]

What mileage was the last service done?
Which services were performed?
If you have the service history post that too.
This will help us advise you best.

[Full_of_fit]

Originally Posted by TopJimmy

What mileage was the last service done?
Which services were performed?
If you have the service history post that too.
This will help us advise you best.

I have not done any service yet,I bought my car last October, CPO with just under 27,000 miles on it. There were no service records that came with the car but I figured that they must have been done due to the car being able to be CPO.
Then I starting thinking about it and I was thinking that even with the low mileage maybe there were/are services that have to be done just because of age.
I also know that I do not have the knowledge to proceed and do have questions such as:
Do I need to change my spark plugs due to time? Or change differential fluid for the same reason?
I am truly grateful for everyone’s help, time and patience with my lack of understanding. I know that the dealership is insane with their prices and if I say I’m worried about my spark plugs, differential fluid etc… I just am opportunity for them to upsell me on services that I may not need.

[TopJimmy]

Nothing needs to be done based on time. It's all mileage. Just follow the standard maintenance schedule.

If you drive very hard then the only thing we do is cut oil changes and spark plug change intervals' in half. (Every 5K and 15K miles, respectively)

[Full_of_fit]

Originally Posted by TopJimmy

Nothing needs to be done based on time. It's all mileage. Just follow the standard maintenance schedule.

If you drive very hard then the only thing we do is cut oil changes and spark plug change intervals' in half. (Every 5K and 15K miles, respectively)

Thank you for your reply. I will do as you say, I do not track my car although I wish I could. Of course I do have some fun but I’m guessing that is all why we bought our cars instead of Toyota Camary’s

[AlmondJayRoM3]

Check with a local dealer to see if you can get the maintenance history. The carfax might even tell you. That way you can see if the spark plugs were changed recently since BMW recommends oil changes every 10k miles or 1 year with spark plugs and air filters every 3rd oil change. Cabin air filter every 2 years. IMO the spark plugs/air filters should be based on mileage and just change them every 30k miles. Brake fluid is at 5 years then every 2 years after. Annually if you track your car. Differential fluid is at 50k miles.

As for maintenance at home, you can definitely do oil changes and cabin air filter with minimal investment in tooling. Spark plugs and engine air filters just a little more. You don't really have to do much more than that at home to see big savings and you can do those in your driveway. Anymore and you will find yourself in a rabbit hole buying tools you have probably have no room for.

[Full_of_fit]

Originally Posted by AlmondJayRoM3

Check with a local dealer to see if you can get the maintenance history. The carfax might even tell you. That way you can see if the spark plugs were changed recently since BMW recommends oil changes every 10k miles or 1 year with spark plugs and air filters every 3rd oil change. Cabin air filter every 2 years. IMO the spark plugs/air filters should be based on mileage and just change them every 30k miles. Brake fluid is at 5 years then every 2 years after. Annually if you track your car. Differential fluid is at 50k miles.

As for maintenance at home, you can definitely do oil changes and cabin air filter with minimal investment in tooling. Spark plugs and engine air filters just a little more. You don't really have to do much more than that at home to see big savings and you can do those in your driveway. Anymore and you will find yourself in a rabbit hole buying tools you have probably have no room for.

Awesome thank you very much for responding. I am definitely not looking to spend as much on tools and it would cost just to have the work done at my dealership. I do believe I did get the carfax from the dealership and I just looked for anything major, of course that was just ignorance on my end, but will look to see if I can find the car fax report, if not I will just purchase one.

Are there any BMW specific tools that I will need? Thank you once again for your help and to everyone that has replied. I sincerely appreciate everyone’s time and knowledge because I know you could have clicked on my post and not replied.

[AlmondJayRoM3]

Originally Posted by Full_of_fit

Awesome thank you very much for responding. I am definitely not looking to spend as much on tools and it would cost just to have the work done at my dealership. I do believe I did get the carfax from the dealership and I just looked for anything major, of course that was just ignorance on my end, but will look to see if I can find the car fax report, if not I will just purchase one.

Are there any BMW specific tools that I will need? Thank you once again for your help and to everyone that has replied. I sincerely appreciate everyone’s time and knowledge because I know you could have clicked on my post and not replied.

Not BMW specific but you will need an oil filter cap wrench compatible with S55/N55. I think it’s 86 mm but just search for it on Amazon.

[alex2364]

Originally Posted by TopJimmy

Nothing needs to be done based on time. It's all mileage. Just follow the standard maintenance schedule.

If you drive very hard then the only thing we do is cut oil changes and spark plug change intervals' in half. (Every 5K and 15K miles, respectively)

This is completely false. There are plenty of maintenance items based on time or mileage, whichever comes first, using BMW’s schedule.

Oil change: 10k miles or 1 year
Spark plugs: Every 3rd oil change
Brake fluid: 30k miles or 3 years

https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...1&postcount=11

[TopJimmy]

Sorry, I say hogwash. If you try to get a SA to do plugs or oil based on time they'll say no and point you to the service indicator in iDrive which go in miles.

Our oil system is not openly vented so moisture doesn't condense in from ambient air.

If you stored your car properly for 5 years the plugs wouldn't change. Ours are iridium coated for self cleaning.

Brake fluid…again, the SA told me they go in miles. I tried.

[pilotedecourse]

Originally Posted by Full_of_fit

First of all I would like to say thank you to everyone on this form. I appreciate the time and effort it takes a video or a post with pictures so I truly great. Here comes the question(s)…

I have a 2017 m3 with competition package and just under 33k on the odometer. I am coming up on maintenance, in about, 2300 miles. The dealership prices are obviously going to insane. All that to say and ask what services should I expect. I honestly would love to do the maintenance myself but truth be told, I’m scared of screwing something up. Since this is my daily driver I can not afford to mess something.
I understand some of you are awesome at doing the service(s) yourself. I would please ask for any help with tools, fluids, etc.
I will not be offended if if it’s a noob question and in all honesty you can talk to me like a 4 year old and use stickers and crayons if you need.
Thank you once again in advance for any and all advance and help you can give me.

I was in the exact same spot as you at the beginning of the year. My car is out of warranty and I do some tracking so avoiding the dealer tax is crucial but before this year I never turned a wrench on any vehicle I have owned. Fortunately, I have found this car pretty easy to work on with the right tools and youtube videos (I'll share some of my favorites below).

I also didn't have a lot of the tools so some investment was required, but the way I see it, each of the tools I bought will pay (have paid) for themselves very quickly and will be useful on every car I own from here on out. To put it in perspective, the first job I did was installing camber plates. An indy quoted me roughly $1,400 for the labor alone on that job, which is almost double what it costs to purchase every tool I list below.

This is what I bought together with rough prices; pretty much all are available at an auto parts store. With these you can do A LOT on your car.

TOOLS
1. Low profile 3000# jack (sub $200) - I bought mine from home depot but a lot of people like Harbor Freight (my best guess is they're probably all made in the same place so get the one that's cheapest/easiest to obtain). Also check craigslist. You can also do with a lower spec jack but the differences between a 2000# jack and a 3000# jack are pretty minimal, so not sure why you would opt for a less capable tool.

2. Jack pads ($20 on amazon) - our cars have specific jack points and you really should have an adapter before lifting the car/placing it on stands (although if you look under your car you will probably notice that the pads are deformed from people not using the proper adapter). I ultimately got tired of lining up the pads so I screwed in rubber adapters to a set of jack pads and just leave them there under the car, as per the suggestion from Tommy L Garage.

3. 4 Esco Jack Stands ($300 for 4). You can find these on amazon (https://www.amazon.com/ESCO-10498-Ja...s%2C134&sr=8-3). You don't need this specific brand but the flat top works best with our jack points (with adapters). If you end up doing any significant wrenching, you'll need these at some point. Including a link to put the car on jack stands below. Seems intimidating but it is very straightforward. Some people buy race ramps for things like oil changes and I did initially but ultimately they were a waste of money because the car is so low that I would need to jack up the car to put them on the ramps - at that point you might as well just use the stands.

4. 1/2" Impact Gun (~$200) - Not necessary but REALLY helpful for removing wheels and saves lots of time. I bought a Milwaukee set at home depot and it came with a 3/8" mini impact socket. You can also use a breaker bar for $40 but that will take forever and if you take your wheels off often this will get old quickly. Breaker bars are also useful for some other jobs (e.g., manual trans and diff fluid bolts) so not a bad idea to pick one up anyway at some point.

5. 1/2" Torque Wrench and 3/8" Torque Wrench (you can get mechanical versions of each at most tool stores for around $40-50; spendy ones are $200ish) - the 1/2" is needed to tighten lug bolts and I would consider this essential if you're taking off wheels. 3/8" torque wrenches are useful for your drain plug and some of the other things around the engine bay (carbon and aluminum braces). These are some of the most important tools you need to wrench on the car.

6. Good metric socket set (~$50). Needed for...almost everything. Some sets are only compatible with hex bolts, but others have multiple grooves that can be used with E Torx bolts which you find in some places on our cars. Also a good idea to get a set that has certain allen wrench sizes that plug into your socket wrench (useful if you need to torque a hex bolt).

7. Good metric allen key set ($20). Same deal.

8. Trim tool set ($10). Useful for removing trim tabs and clips around the car.

9. Oil filter socket ($10). Needed for oil changes.

10. Punch set if you're doing brake pads ($10).

11. Container for used oil ($10).

12. Fluid siphon ($10). Useful for brake flushes and transmission and diff changes (though careful with fluid cross contamination).

13. Can of brake cleaner ($5). Helps clean up after brake jobs, particularly any leaked brake fluid.

14. Box of Nitrile Gloves.

With these tools in hand I have been able to do the following on my car (with youtube clips where helpful - I made my own youtube playlist so i could access the videos later).

Put the car on jack stands.

Rotate Tires/Change to Winter Tires

Oil Change (

). Just wait until you go down the oil selection rabbit hole in the forum thread titled "Another Engine Oil Thread..." : )

Cabin Air Filter.

Intake Air Filter.

Manual transmission and diff fluid change.

and

.

Pads and Rotors. Front:

Rear:

.

Camber Plates. In my opinion FaRKLE (a forum member) has the best camber plate videos but which one depends on which model you get. Don't need to do this if you don't track your car. https://www.youtube.com/user/FaRKle0079

Spark Plugs. I haven't done this yet and a couple of additional tools are required (socket extension and spark plug socket) but it seems straightforward. Probably not the best first DIY project to attempt.

Brake Fluid Bleed/Flush.

or

. You need to buy a power bleeder in addition to the tools above. TLG has all the links to what you would need in his video.

I'm sure there are other things you can do with this set of tools but this covers a lot of the maintenance for the F8X platform. Finally, some tips to getting into your own maintenance based on my own recent experience:

Do your research. For every job I watched different youtube videos over and over until I could do the process in my head beginning to end. Watching different videos of the same job helped me get views from different angles on the same parts and hearing slightly different explanations helped me better understand the job. Obviously you don't need to remember the small details (e.g., torque values, which are probably better for you to double check anyway), but it's helpful to have a solid idea of how the whole thing works before you jump in.

Go slow. Every job takes more time than you think it should your first time. The first thing I did was camber plates (again, probably not the best first job), and before that I had never put my car on jack stands, disconnected the battery, removed the braces, etc. Each of these individual steps takes time to learn but they are additive to each other so that the next time you go in for a different job, you have familiarity with more systems and won't take as long.

Doublecheck you have all the tools before starting a job. It really sucks to work 2 hours on a job only to realize you need a 1/2" socket wrench and don't have one (ask me how I know...). As part of your research process, confirm you have every tool you need to do the job from beginning to end.

It's not as hard as you think. For me it was easy to think that wrenching was impossible and that you'll screw something up without specialized training or experience, but really a lot of the systems on these and other cars are designed to be simple and serviceable (which saves dealers time and money). Most of the basics are pretty straightforward and you'll get a pretty solid handle on how the systems work after a few reps. Some things are better left off to a mechanic in my view (diagnostics for non-obvious problems, particularly messy jobs (coolant flush) or jobs requiring specialized equipment), but for the most part, routine maintenance is pretty doable in your driveway.

Happy wrenching!

[Full_of_fit]

Originally Posted by pilotedecourse

I was in the exact same spot as you at the beginning of the year. My car is out of warranty and I do some tracking so avoiding the dealer tax is crucial but before this year I never turned a wrench on any vehicle I have owned. Fortunately, I have found this car pretty easy to work on with the right tools and youtube videos (I'll share some of my favorites below).

I also didn't have a lot of the tools so some investment was required, but the way I see it, each of the tools I bought will pay (have paid) for themselves very quickly and will be useful on every car I own from here on out. To put it in perspective, the first job I did was installing camber plates. An indy quoted me roughly $1,400 for the labor alone on that job, which is almost double what it costs to purchase every tool I list below.

This is what I bought together with rough prices; pretty much all are available at an auto parts store. With these you can do A LOT on your car.

TOOLS
1. Low profile 3000# jack (sub $200) - I bought mine from home depot but a lot of people like Harbor Freight (my best guess is they're probably all made in the same place so get the one that's cheapest/easiest to obtain). Also check craigslist. You can also do with a lower spec jack but the differences between a 2000# jack and a 3000# jack are pretty minimal, so not sure why you would opt for a less capable tool.

2. Jack pads ($20 on amazon) - our cars have specific jack points and you really should have an adapter before lifting the car/placing it on stands (although if you look under your car you will probably notice that the pads are deformed from people not using the proper adapter). I ultimately got tired of lining up the pads so I screwed in rubber adapters to a set of jack pads and just leave them there under the car, as per the suggestion from Tommy L Garage.

3. 4 Esco Jack Stands ($300 for 4). You can find these on amazon (https://www.amazon.com/ESCO-10498-Ja...s%2C134&sr=8-3). You don't need this specific brand but the flat top works best with our jack points (with adapters). If you end up doing any significant wrenching, you'll need these at some point. Including a link to put the car on jack stands below. Seems intimidating but it is very straightforward. Some people buy race ramps for things like oil changes and I did initially but ultimately they were a waste of money because the car is so low that I would need to jack up the car to put them on the ramps - at that point you might as well just use the stands.

4. 1/2" Impact Gun (~$200) - Not necessary but REALLY helpful for removing wheels and saves lots of time. I bought a Milwaukee set at home depot and it came with a 3/8" mini impact socket. You can also use a breaker bar for $40 but that will take forever and if you take your wheels off often this will get old quickly. Breaker bars are also useful for some other jobs (e.g., manual trans and diff fluid bolts) so not a bad idea to pick one up anyway at some point.

5. 1/2" Torque Wrench and 3/8" Torque Wrench (you can get mechanical versions of each at most tool stores for around $40-50; spendy ones are $200ish) - the 1/2" is needed to tighten lug bolts and I would consider this essential if you're taking off wheels. 3/8" torque wrenches are useful for your drain plug and some of the other things around the engine bay (carbon and aluminum braces). These are some of the most important tools you need to wrench on the car.

6. Good metric socket set (~$50). Needed for...almost everything. Some sets are only compatible with hex bolts, but others have multiple grooves that can be used with E Torx bolts which you find in some places on our cars. Also a good idea to get a set that has certain allen wrench sizes that plug into your socket wrench (useful if you need to torque a hex bolt).

7. Good metric allen key set ($20). Same deal.

8. Trim tool set ($10). Useful for removing trim tabs and clips around the car.

9. Oil filter socket ($10). Needed for oil changes.

10. Punch set if you're doing brake pads ($10).

11. Container for used oil ($10).

12. Fluid siphon ($10). Useful for brake flushes and transmission and diff changes (though careful with fluid cross contamination).

13. Can of brake cleaner ($5). Helps clean up after brake jobs, particularly any leaked brake fluid.

14. Box of Nitrile Gloves.

With these tools in hand I have been able to do the following on my car (with youtube clips where helpful - I made my own youtube playlist so i could access the videos later).

Put the car on jack stands.

Rotate Tires/Change to Winter Tires

Oil Change (

). Just wait until you go down the oil selection rabbit hole in the forum thread titled "Another Engine Oil Thread..." : )

Cabin Air Filter.

Intake Air Filter.

Manual transmission and diff fluid change.

and

.

Pads and Rotors. Front:

Rear:

.

Camber Plates. In my opinion FaRKLE (a forum member) has the best camber plate videos but which one depends on which model you get. Don't need to do this if you don't track your car. https://www.youtube.com/user/FaRKle0079

Spark Plugs. I haven't done this yet and a couple of additional tools are required (socket extension and spark plug socket) but it seems straightforward. Probably not the best first DIY project to attempt.

Brake Fluid Bleed/Flush.

or

. You need to buy a power bleeder in addition to the tools above. TLG has all the links to what you would need in his video.

I'm sure there are other things you can do with this set of tools but this covers a lot of the maintenance for the F8X platform. Finally, some tips to getting into your own maintenance based on my own recent experience:

Do your research. For every job I watched different youtube videos over and over until I could do the process in my head beginning to end. Watching different videos of the same job helped me get views from different angles on the same parts and hearing slightly different explanations helped me better understand the job. Obviously you don't need to remember the small details (e.g., torque values, which are probably better for you to double check anyway), but it's helpful to have a solid idea of how the whole thing works before you jump in.

Go slow. Every job takes more time than you think it should your first time. The first thing I did was camber plates (again, probably not the best first job), and before that I had never put my car on jack stands, disconnected the battery, removed the braces, etc. Each of these individual steps takes time to learn but they are additive to each other so that the next time you go in for a different job, you have familiarity with more systems and won't take as long.

Doublecheck you have all the tools before starting a job. It really sucks to work 2 hours on a job only to realize you need a 1/2" socket wrench and don't have one (ask me how I know...). As part of your research process, confirm you have every tool you need to do the job from beginning to end.

It's not as hard as you think. For me it was easy to think that wrenching was impossible and that you'll screw something up without specialized training or experience, but really a lot of the systems on these and other cars are designed to be simple and serviceable (which saves dealers time and money). Most of the basics are pretty straightforward and you'll get a pretty solid handle on how the systems work after a few reps. Some things are better left off to a mechanic in my view (diagnostics for non-obvious problems, particularly messy jobs (coolant flush) or jobs requiring specialized equipment), but for the most part, routine maintenance is pretty doable in your driveway.

Happy wrenching!

Man Thank you so much!! You are awesome and I cannot Thank you enough for taking the time you did to help me. Honestly Thank you very much your post has been tremendously helpful

[jmciver]

That post by pilotedecourse is probably one of the best compilation of beginner DIY materials and info I have seen in a while. Well done. I have DIY'ed all of that stuff, and a few more over my years of F80 ownership (except spark plugs, but will DIY them when next due). I started DIY'ing on my BMW's going back to my E36 M3 days in the late 90's and it has been very rewarding (and easy on my wallet ). Going down the tool rabbit hole can be "interesting" - but nothing wrong with finding a good excuse to get a new tool …

A few additional tools for consideration depending on how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go…

1. BMW Diagnostic/Maintenance Software - ISTA. ISTA has the official maintenance procedures used by the dealer. I have found that while the DIY videos online can be very informative and helpful, they sometimes do have some holes. The ISTA procedures will fill in those holes. Most DIY maintenance help out with short cuts (and some helpful ones at that). But having the ISTA procedures helps you understand the "why" behind the DIY shortcut, and why you may or may not want to perform the job exactly like in the DIY. The ISTA software is not for sale officially by BMW, but there is a lot of info on the net on how to get it.

2. BMW specific OBD scan tool. Being able to read and clear BMW diagnostic codes is a must for any avid DIY'er. I am personally a fan of BimmerLink, but there are others out there. The key is to get a BMW specific one, not a generic one.

3. When you are ready to really up your DIY game, dump the jack stands and move up to Quickjacks. Definitely one of the best all around tools I have purchased. But admittedly is probably reserved for more of the hard core DIY types, which I guess I am …

Good luck!

[Full_of_fit]

Originally Posted by jmciver

That post by pilotedecourse is probably one of the best compilation of beginner DIY materials and info I have seen in a while. Well done. I have DIY'ed all of that stuff, and a few more over my years of F80 ownership (except spark plugs, but will DIY them when next due). I started DIY'ing on my BMW's going back to my E36 M3 days in the late 90's and it has been very rewarding (and easy on my wallet ). Going down the tool rabbit hole can be "interesting" - but nothing wrong with finding a good excuse to get a new tool …

A few additional tools for consideration depending on how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go…

1. BMW Diagnostic/Maintenance Software - ISTA. ISTA has the official maintenance procedures used by the dealer. I have found that while the DIY videos online can be very informative and helpful, they sometimes do have some holes. The ISTA procedures will fill in those holes. Most DIY maintenance help out with short cuts (and some helpful ones at that). But having the ISTA procedures helps you understand the "why" behind the DIY shortcut, and why you may or may not want to perform the job exactly like in the DIY. The ISTA software is not for sale officially by BMW, but there is a lot of info on the net on how to get it.

2. BMW specific OBD scan tool. Being able to read and clear BMW diagnostic codes is a must for any avid DIY'er. I am personally a fan of BimmerLink, but there are others out there. The key is to get a BMW specific one, not a generic one.

3. When you are ready to really up your DIY game, dump the jack stands and move up to Quickjacks. Definitely one of the best all around tools I have purchased. But admittedly is probably reserved for more of the hard core DIY types, which I guess I am …

Good luck!

Man once again you guys are awesome! It is a humbling experience to understand your short falls but at the same time is is very rewarding to know that I have a community that will guide and support me and one day hopefully the knowledge you have given to me, I can pass on to the next person that may have similar concerns or questions.
I did what to purchase quick jacks however, during the Covid earlier stages when everything was shut down I built out my garage to a pretty good home gym and unfortunately currently I only have a one car garage. We looked at houses but decided to hold out due to the current interest rates. At least our next house will have a 3 car garage and I will be able to have “my area” lol. I told my wife that I do not care about anything else she wants to have in the house, she can do whatever she wants but that a 3 car garage is something that is a must!

[jmciver]

Originally Posted by Full_of_fit

Man once again you guys are awesome! It is a humbling experience to understand your short falls but at the same time is is very rewarding to know that I have a community that will guide and support me and one day hopefully the knowledge you have given to me, I can pass on to the next person that may have similar concerns or questions.
I did what to purchase quick jacks however, during the Covid earlier stages when everything was shut down I built out my garage to a pretty good home gym and unfortunately currently I only have a one car garage. We looked at houses but decided to hold out due to the current interest rates. At least our next house will have a 3 car garage and I will be able to have “my area” lol. I told my wife that I do not care about anything else she wants to have in the house, she can do whatever she wants but that a 3 car garage is something that is a must!

Well, FWIW, I originally got my Quickjack when I had a one car garage. Like I said, you can always make an excuse to get some new tools….

[Full_of_fit]

Originally Posted by jmciver

Well, FWIW, I originally got my Quickjack when I had a one car garage. Like I said, you can always make an excuse to get some new tools….

I have no idea why the pictures are rotated but you get the idea. I swear this is no room, I promise:-) I looks much better now but this was mid set up, ended up repainting the walls and put radiant barrier panels on the garage door and installing a 14,000 btu AC. (In Texas the summers are no joke!) I cleaned up the shelves, actually bought new ones, which was a kick in the wallet.

[alex2364]

Originally Posted by TopJimmy

Sorry, I say hogwash. If you try to get a SA to do plugs or oil based on time they'll say no and point you to the service indicator in iDrive which go in miles.

Our oil system is not openly vented so moisture doesn't condense in from ambient air.

If you stored your car properly for 5 years the plugs wouldn't change. Ours are iridium coated for self cleaning.

Brake fluid…again, the SA told me they go in miles. I tried.

What are you smoking? The iDrive service indicator literally says service due in xxxxx miles or month/year. I have a garage queen ‘20 F82 with 2500 miles. It’s going to get it’s 3rd oil change, brake fluid, and spark plugs all paid by BMW.

[jonf49]

Originally Posted by alex2364

What are you smoking? The iDrive service indicator literally says service due in xxxxx miles or month/year. I have a garage queen ‘20 F82 with 2500 miles. It’s going to get it’s 3rd oil change, brake fluid, and spark plugs all paid by BMW.

You’re using iDrive to tell you when you need to do maintainance. I was under the impression that it only offered readings on oil levels and tire pressure.
Sorry if I sound ignorant.

I attached what I was told is the BMW service interval, but the above posts seem to recommend changing items more frequently. Should in be trusting the attached list?

Thx