[Dave-ncl]

It's approaching 5 months since getting the 67 plate 320d shadow. If I remember back I think the car was originally showing 15 or 16k until an oil change. Today after 9k it's showing under 2k. I've recently looked for the previous service info on the idrive. As there is no option to view I went to see BMW to ask if they could see what has been done (service wise) in the past. They said that they weren't aware of any previous servicing and said I need the oil/microfilter at around £270.

The information above has raised a number of questions.

1) Since the car was bought with almost 15k on it and is now close to 24k. Servicing of some description must have been carried out by Arnold Clark. (Funny how they always said take it to the dealers if any issue to preserve your warranty). The car has just turned 2 years old and CBS would have been screaming by 18k... right?

2) I'm ok with an old change at 10k due to the driving style and type of short trips. Is there a better grade of oil than the shell helix, castol edge, Mobile 1 etc that will slow the CBS as I could change the oil at 10k and still see a decent amount of milage on the CBS before it hits red then costing a lot at the stealers.

What would happen if the car was stilling on say 8k until an oil change and you did a oil/filter change and didn't reset the countdown. Would it automatically slow down the reduction on the CBS value due to the improved quality of the detected oil. Or would it continue to decrease based on mlies covered?

I read a long post regarding the dealers own price list compared to the official BMW website. In my experience, the dealers always try to charge higher unless your aware of the BMW site price. They always amend to the lower price, however I've noticed that within the website each dealer has a different price for the same work. Unfortunately the 3 dealers close by don't have much price volatility so can't really put one up against the other. My preferred is Lloyds that are only a pound or so more expensive than Coopers. (Although Coopers tried to quote £70 more than BMW as opposed to Lloyds £5 extra). I think it would be great if it had more search options... i.e. compare, distance etc instead of clicking into each dealership then needing to re-enter your details to select the next price list. I'm up in Edinburgh in a few weeks and found a dealer at £250. I wouldn't bother with this to save £20 but shows there are variances in different parts of the country.

I'd prefer not to be at the dealers every 6 month but when I do, I want to pay a competitive price. Hopefully I can get some advice on the oil questions

Thank you

[aquazi]

I got my car new... i had the service pack “thrown in” which is 3yrs 30k miles.

I tried to book my service in at 15k miles (1yr in) and The dealer wouldnt service my car until the mileage count down on the obc was within 1k miles.

In the end my first service was at 15 months old and 21k miles!

So the service requirement is generally by the car saying or every 2 yrs whichever comes first.

On idrive if you go into vehicle status you can see the service due dates and it will show when each are needed (either by date or mileage)

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Dave-ncl

I1) Since the car was bought with almost 15k on it and is now close to 24k. Servicing of some description must have been carried out by Arnold Clark. (Funny how they always said take it to the dealers if any issue to preserve your warranty). The car has just turned 2 years old and CBS would have been screaming by 18k... right?

I'm up in Edinburgh in a few weeks and found a dealer at £250. I wouldn't bother with this to save £20 but shows there are variances in different parts of the country.

Something is wrong/unrecorded, if there is no apparent service history, and the car is over 2-years old. CBS would have timed out.

Shop around, of course there will be variations across the country, costs are different.

[Wills2]

The key will tell the SA what has and hasn't been done.

[doncarlyon]

Mine is asking for an oil service in 600 miles. Will probably take it to Cooper BMW in Durham.

Is it possible to chose just the oil change and not the microfilter (which is just a cabin / pollen filter IIRC) ?

[Sasquartch]

Originally Posted by doncarlyon

Mine is asking for an oil service in 600 miles. Will probably take it to Cooper BMW in Durham.

Is it possible to chose just the oil change and not the microfilter (which is just a cabin / pollen filter IIRC) ?

I tried to get my dealer to do just an oil and oil filter change without the cabin filter but they said whilst they could do it they wouldnt record it on the computer. So in the end I agreed to having the cabin filter done as I wanted to keep to a full SH

[SkyJawa]

I had mine done with just oil and filter and did the micro filter myself. They were fine with this.

They wanted to charge a fortune to update the idrive to reflect the service called “standard scope”, a complete con for 5 min work so I told them not to bother. This was raised in another thread I posted.

I’m happy enough that the invoice is proof it was done, but it took them 4 weeks to provide that, but that’s another story altogether!

[BurnleyBimmer]

I just had an oil and micro filter done at Lloyd’s BMW £255 on a 340i. Next is break fluid, in 2020, according to the car.

[Dave-ncl]

Thanks Chaps.

I'm sure it's had a service from AC bit unrecorded. Lloyds are saying it's never had one but I think if they look closely (or maybe contact BMW if needed) they must see at some point the indicator being reset.

I've read that some dealers will allow you to supply your own oil. Since I'd previously paid about £50 for Shell or Castrol I didn't see the point as an oil and filter is £190 and they'd probably bill for an hours labour at £120 and possibly plus VAT. Same goes for doing the microfilter, as that is £69 more and from what I've seen costs about £55 to buy.

Not much saving to be had for the extra trouble.

As I said, I'm sitting just on 24k at the minute and both brakes are still showing in the mid 30k on the idrive. So....I'm also wondering whether it's had a pad change at 14k (which is very low) as it can only be the reason why their still showing at such a high value.

Sorry... last one. ...

A few weeks back I didn't close my fuel flap and walked into it, causing it to go further towards the front of the car than it should. As a result, the spring is knackered. The flap closes snug and locks but has no push to open mechanism now. I just get a (finger) nail in the top and it opens but prefer to fix it if it isn't a big job.

Any ideas?

Thank you

[SkyJawa]

Keep an eye on the Bmw website for you servicing needs. When I plugged the details in for my local dealer it came up with a special offer for the oil change at 129 quid. I bit their hand off.

Local dealer couldn’t believe it when I went to pay and showed the proof they said the oil and filter was more expensive than that let alone any labour!

[bishbosh]

Originally Posted by SkyJawa

they said the oil and filter was more expensive than that let alone any labour!

At full BMW retail price I'm sure, but not at the trade price they'll buy it at.

[Mick.86uk]

Originally Posted by SkyJawa

Keep an eye on the Bmw website for you servicing needs. When I plugged the details in for my local dealer it came up with a special offer for the oil change at 129 quid. I bit their hand off.

Local dealer couldn’t believe it when I went to pay and showed the proof they said the oil and filter was more expensive than that let alone any labour!

Same offer on my 440i when I checked on the BMW service website yesterday, thought they would add the standard scope cost onto it but seems cheap at that price.

[SkyJawa]

Originally Posted by Mick.86uk

Same offer on my 440i when I checked on the BMW service website yesterday, thought they would add the standard scope cost onto it but seems cheap at that price.

They do they wanted to charge about 50 quid to plug a laptop in for 5 mins.

[doncarlyon]

What determines if it needs the microfilter? both options are available on the website.

[Jim23k]

The £129 price for an oil and filter change as quoted on the BMW service site has been at that price for almost a year. It's the same offer as the £99 oil service for 4 cylinder engines.

I've tried several dealerships when I wanted an interim oil service doing and none would honour this price as they said it was from an old promotion that's no longer running. Best I could manage at the time was £160 ish for my 340i.

You might get lucky...as others have said there is no standard scope charge for this service as it's not part of the service schedule - it excludes the cabin filter and they don't update the service history. It's perfect for an interim oil change.

You may get lucky and get then to honour it, in which case please share the dealership.

Quite why they haven't corrected the website in so long is a mystery. Perhaps better to get people booked in first ;-)

[lethbridge]

Originally Posted by Dave-ncl

As I said, I'm sitting just on 24k at the minute and both brakes are still showing in the mid 30k on the idrive. So....I'm also wondering whether it's had a pad change at 14k (which is very low) as it can only be the reason why their still showing at such a high value.

Depends on usage but that seems normal to me for average or higher mileage (so likely plenty of motorway driving) - I've done 90k+ before needing a change of pads on some of my previous BMWs. On the oil change that does seem high and regardless should have triggered at 2 years - mine have usually needed changing at around 20-22k intervals (I did high mileage so changes were forced by mileage not age).

[Jim23k]

Yep 2 years absolute max for oil (which is madness unless getting rid of car in near future) and that's 2 years from date of manufacture, not registration.

[ukbeemerboy]

Originally Posted by Jim23k

Yep 2 years absolute max for oil (which is madness unless getting rid of car in near future) and that's 2 years from date of manufacture, not registration.

But the service schedule reflects this, it doesn’t get reset when registered.

[doncarlyon]

Another servicing question...

In the iDrive it says rear pads "at" 18000 miles

In the connected drive app it says "in" 17000 miles

Which is correct?

[Michael340i]

Originally Posted by Dave-ncl

Is there a better grade of oil than the shell helix, castol edge, Mobile 1 etc that will slow the CBS as I could change the oil at 10k and still see a decent amount of milage on the CBS before it hits red then costing a lot at the stealers.

What would happen if the car was stilling on say 8k until an oil change and you did a oil/filter change and didn't reset the countdown. Would it automatically slow down the reduction on the CBS value due to the improved quality of the detected oil. Or would it continue to decrease based on mlies covered?

AFAIK The service indicator doesn't look at the quality of the oil, it just goes by date, and fuel used. Short trips, cold starts, heavy throttle all use more fuel so mean shorter service intervals. Few cold starts, lots of motorway miles mean better fuel economy, less load on the engine, and more miles between services.