[egenbiz09]

Hi, I'm a relatively new BMW owner (2011 328i sedan). I've searched around the forum and found the follows for a 45k service (thanks F1.tifosi)

engine oil change with filter
coils and spark plugs
reset oil service/maintenance light
air filter replacement
fill cooling system
fluid change
brake fluid flush/bleeding
fuel filter replacement
engine and A/C belt replacement
chassis inspection
Test brake system
engine and transmission leak diagnosis
exhaust system inspection

I trust the experts on our forum more than the dealerships. Could anyone please tell me if:

1. The 45k service is still active or it is just CBS for the above items now?
2. What did YOU do for YOUR similar car at this milestones?
3. Anything that I definitely MUST do to save me the headache later on when free-maintenance expires?

Thank you very much for your inputs.

[alexwhittemore]

It's all CBS. I will say that I brought my car in around 45k and under warranty they took care of oil (it was a year old, only 10.5k mi so not CBS yet but they'll also do an annual change), microfilter, brake fluid, and I think brakes. The thing is, all of those were conditional. I think the brake fluid interval is 50k, so that was coming up on due. My SA said "jeez, if you were just a few more miles down the road I could do spark plugs for you," which I find surprising since the interval for the 328 is 100k. Maybe he was thinking 335, which I think is 50k. My rear brakes just happened to be below the minimum thickness so they could replace them (the were not down to the maximum wear necessitating immediate replacement).

Point being, your car will be under warranty still, so bring it in and your SA will do everything possible to get maximum money out of BMW NA.

[ctuna]

On a 328 being old school would mean
All fluids and air filters . Plugs could wait to 60k .
My Indy tells me 90k and that kind of goes along
with most other non Turbo Cars.
The Turbo Cars eat plugs not the NA Cars.

Google the Mike Miller old school maintenance schedule.
If you you do half of that it will be twice as much as
what BMW does under the Free Maintenance Computer Recall
Program.

Brake Fluid is based on time . 2 years according to BMW
it has more to do with how much water is absorbs.
If you live in a wet climate it could be more oftern
and dry less. There is some kind of test you can perform on it
to see if it needs doing.

Change Oil every 7.5 k or yearly .

If you don't drive a lot or leave the car setting a battery tender
is recommended.

[tony20009]

Perhaps the most important thing to know is that whenever you are having a service performed and you take the car to a BMW dealership, if your car is functioning properly, tell them you refuse to pay whatever they are charging for them to "inspect, examine, look at, etc." anything. They'll give you all sorts of "sad story" about why you should have the inspections done, but at the end of the day, whatever they charge for the "inspections" is 100% free money to them, so much so that they'll even haggle the price of it with you.

Whenever you see the car on the lift image in your on-board computer between the speedo and tach, you should know that it's time for an oil change, but otherwise that light means, "time to give BMW more money for nothing." They may mention that along with the inspection they replace "minor lubricants." If that's the case, as them for an enumeration of what minor lubricants and where they are applied. With that, you can then ask them what they charge to apply/replace those elements, and you can then haggle the price down on that too or have someone else do it. Whatever you do, skip the "ol' look see" on other stuff. It's no big deal when you are still under free maintenance, but one you are paying out of pocket, skip that "inspection" stuff. If it's a real part, it will need to be changed out eventually, so it's up to you. You can have the BMW store do it or you can have a third party do it.

All the best.