[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by tlow98

I like your ethics with regards to maintaining at bmw's recommended intervals. Great experiment!

If I didn't do so many short city trips in the mountains (aka, San Francisco) id likely try the trans fluid for longer. As such im changing it at a more conservative old-world conventional 60k. Or maybe I'm just fooling myself?

Also, does your moniker, aka handle, hint at your next bimmer purchase?

Nah. I came up with that one after... well never mind. Look up "Clifton" and see who he decided to argue with regarding oil change intervals. If anyone wants to up the intervals, I'm good with it; it's their car after all. To be honest, I'm keeping the Z4 I picked up in December 2014 at a 10K OCI, just because that's what the E90 is getting now, just makes it easier to change either engine at 10K intervals. I bought the Z4 used, so I've changed all the juices (except the coolant) at 38,000 to baseline everything. I also rotate tires every 5K. I've had 4 BMWs with 3 still in the fleet. '89 E30 256,000 miles; '97 Z3 171,800 miles; '06 E90 300,000+ miles, and the Z4 now at 48,500 miles. Been my experience you can't kill a BMW if you take care of it.

I'll probably retire the E90 from DD around the time I pick up a 200-mile EV (read Chevy Bolt).

[J_Lewis]

Congrats....... Makes me feel much better about my recent purchase.....

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by J_Lewis

Congrats....... Makes me feel much better about my recent purchase.....

How many miles?

[J_Lewis]

227k...... 06 325i 6mt

[3s4u2]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Where's your wife's car at Brother?

287,689 still a ways behind you and still runs and drives great. I can't believe this ZF auto transmission is still going strong, maintenance is everything!

[tlow98]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Nah. I came up with that one after... well never mind. Look up "Clifton" and see who he decided to argue with regarding oil change intervals. If anyone wants to up the intervals, I'm good with it; it's their car after all. To be honest, I'm keeping the Z4 I picked up in December 2014 at a 10K OCI, just because That's what the E90 is getting now, just makes it easier to change either engine at 10K intervals. I bought the Z4 used, so I've changed all the juices (except the coolant) at 38,000 to baseline everything. I also rotate tires every 5K. I've had 4 BMWs with 3 still in the fleet. '89 E30 256,000 miles; '97 Z3 171,800 miles; '06 E90 300,000+ miles, and the Z4 now at 48,500 miles. Been my experience you can't kill a BMW if you take care of it.

I'll probably retire the E90 from DD around the time I pick up a 200-mile EV (read Chevy Bolt).

Understood! I'm actually doing 10k OCIs on my e90 simply because happens to fall on the round number of the the thousands. Easy enough and safe and pretty cheap too.

Good to hear about all this bimmers! I've had good experiences with my three bimmer vehicles, as well. All NA inline sixes. Pretty straightforward cars.

EV sounds extra easy! Enjoy that

[Socket]

[07lilredwagon]

Congrats and well done. Your documentation and final numbers give a benchmark to most anyone planning on keeping their car past normal parameters.

Im at 157,000 now. A little more than halfway there, eh?

I would say the longevity is due to both care and luck of the draw. (mostly care?) taking care of the right things at the right time (without letting them go too long) like you have done is very important.

My 07 N52 328xi has had all the typical issues with more frequency than you have experienced. I still consider myself "lucky" and think my Bimmer escaped some of the vanos, gasket, electrical, fuel pump, cooling and recall issues prone to other years of production....So I am in agreement that the E9x N52 cars are pretty solid.

My only complaint is that they are generally very expensive to repair...even DIY.

for me:
New struts/shocks at 140,000, OFHG twice, fluids flush (all) at 120,000, coolant hoses (95 percent of them) at 140,000, Vanos service 3 times (DIY), fuel tank purge valve at 140,000, intake gaskets at 140,000, tranny service at 110 & 140 (GM auto), 2 sets of tires (going to non runflats next), wheels trued and painted at 120,000, oil changes at 6-8,000 intervals.....ect....

thanks again for posting this....very well done!

JP

[Lshaw]

Originally Posted by J_Lewis

227k...... 06 325i 6mt

ballsy

[Seattlesquash]

You da man! Fantastic, and I got 170k miles to go.

[snayko]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

7:04 AM April 18th, 2016

I chased down a bad driveline vibration that showed up in February 2014. Replaced the trans mounts, guibo, and driveshaft center bearing to no avail. It ended up being the dual mass flywheel.

I have same car I have slight driveline vibration as well only under load(gas pedal) And I replaced guibo, center bearing, engine and transmission mounts.
No luck so far.

So the only thing I was thinking left - is differential ?
But you are saying it's DMF ? How did you get that ?
How did you eliminate differential problems ?

P.S. Ups sorry looks like I don't have DMF - automatic transmission

[Andrewah05]

ahhhhhhhhhhh congrats!!!!!!!

[BMWs4ever]

Congrats !

Good to hear these cars can do that many miles

[fun2drive]

Sold my M3 with 287K miles to a friend and it was a convertible. OCI per the light and yes the engine was fine. I pulled the head to refresh it and it was a waste of time and money it was just fine actually.
BMW does build a heck of a car and congrats on your 300K miles.
My E93 is anything but reliable but maybe now with all maintenance up to date it will roll a long time.
I have access to the base auto hobby shops and for me a 20 min oil change is the norm. I over maintain the OCI on this E93 but now that I have done oil analysis I can stretch it.
Oh my M3 trans was a ZF auto and went 200K no fluid change.
I think I am on my way to changing a bearing on one of the right hand side wheels.
I know of two friends that hit deer with their cars. One an E46 and did like 20K in damage and then it happened again and was totaled.
Now this is hard to believe but my colleague was returning from northern Ohio dropping off his daughter at pharmacy school and crested a hill at 50 mph (back roads and yes he drives that slow) and two bucks were in the middle of the road. He jammed the brakes on hit both of them killed both of them and this with a Honda Civic. Pushed the bumper back 3 inches, that's it. About 6 months ago he hit another deer not sure if it was a buck or doe but killed that one again back roads driving fairly slow and again no real added damage to the Civic.
160 miles a day is a heck of a commute but perfect for keeping the entire BMW well oiled.
Congrats again!

[Desert_Fox]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

r...

My total cost of ownership to-date has been $96,204 (purchase, loan cost, fuel, and maintenance).
Total gallons of fuel - 11,188.
Total fuel cost - $36,589.56.
Lifetime MPG 26.82
Total Maintenance cost - $20,060 (most all of it DIY)
11 sets of tires

Within reason because it was over 10 years and a TON of miles, but man that still is a lot of money.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by Desert_Fox

Within reason because it was over 10 years and a TON of miles, but man that still is a lot of money.

Any car is like that. People just never track the total ownership costs. $0.33 per mile, which is about average.

[roundle]

Will you refresh the suspension again?

Was there a certain point when you noticed your factory shocks were going? For me, things started to feel a bit soft about 10K miles ago (at about 100K miles).

I'm on the fence about doing OEM refresh or bilstein B12. I have factory ZSP as well.

Also, never a single head bolt issue in these 300K miles?

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by roundle

Will you refresh the suspension again?

Was there a certain point when you noticed your factory shocks were going? For me, things started to feel a bit soft about 10K miles ago (at about 100K miles).

I'm on the fence about doing OEM refresh or bilstein B12. I have factory ZSP as well.

Also, never a single head bolt issue in these 300K miles?

Every BMW I've owned (and redone the suspension on) has been since they were new, so I know how a factory fresh BMW suspension feels. I've always found the 3-series suspension loses its rebound damping first then the compression side goes. I put a Bilstein/H&R sport suspension on my Wife's Z3 at around 140,000 miles and it absolutely transformed the car. I think it now has 40K miles on it and still feels great (I just drove it to the store this morning - that's like 50 miles round trip...); just love to drive the Z3 with the suspension in it. When I replaced my ZHP suspension on the E90 with the BMW ZHP parts, I really didn't notice any big change other than rebound damping improvement.

My next refresh for the E90 will be a Bilstein B12. I did the BMW ZHP only because the parts were on sale as a conversion kit for $200 (incredible deal at the time).

No headbolt issues nor valve cover bolts.

[max_330i]

Wow, these NA engines really are bulletproof. I'm glad to see I have a good bit of life left in mine (with proper maintenance of course )

Max

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by max_330i

Wow, these NA engines really are bulletproof. I'm glad to see I have a good bit of life left in mine (with proper maintenance of course )

Max

Well you'll see a thousand threads that emphatically state CBS OCI's like mine are not "proper maintenance"... One dude, Clifton in particular, was adamant that 15K+ OCIs were detrimental to the life of the engine. He was also adamant that the only way to ensure no engine damage was to use Blackstone labs at every oil change. He was so fervent about it he reported me to the Mods when he started using names and I retorted. He's long gone, I'm still here at 303,000 miles.

[TheBingoBalls]

Congrats. I'm about to hit 200,000 km with the only major repair/fix being the thermostat and water pump. Aside from the suspension which I need to replace, I'm hoping to get another 300k before I'll be completely satisfied in retiring it! *fingers crossed*.

[delmarco]

CRAZY!!!! 300,000 miles in 10 years! Lots of driving!

I live in NY and in 12 years of me driving three BMW 3 Series I've not come close to that


First car: From 6/2004 to 9/2008 I owned a prod.9/1995 318i E36 Purchased with 132,000 miles and Totaled at 162,000 miles - Driven 30,000 miles in 4 years (I also had a 1999 Dodge Neon and then leased a 2007 Honda Accord these years)

Second car: From 9/2008 to 3/2016 I owned a prod.6/2001 330i E46 Purchased with 37,000 and Sold with 97,000 miles - Driven 60,000 miles in 8 years (I also leased 2007 Honda Accord, and then leased two C300 Benz 2010 & 2013 and then leased a 2015 GLK350 Benz these years)

Current car: From 3/2016 to 6/2016 I own a prod.5/2011 335i E90 Purchased with 42,800 and now has 44,800 - Driven 2,000 miles in 4 months (I also currently lease a 2015 GLK350 Benz)


So that has me at 92,000 miles in 12 years compared to your 300,000 miles in 10 years!