[mike3000fl]

At 183,000 right now. I suppose I will face this soon.

[nate5ks]

174300 for me

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by mike3000fl

At 183,000 right now. I suppose I will face this soon.

My oil change timeline is as follows:

#11 - 180,184 June 30,2012. Reset with BT scan tool.
#12 - 195,000 November 17, 2012 as part of 200,000 tune up. Reset with stalk, BT scan tool did not work
#13 - 212,455 April 25, 2013. Reset with stalk, BT tool didn't work. CBS only set to 9,700 miles for next OCI. Should have been 17,000 to 18,000
#14 - 221,639 July 20, 2013. CBS would only reset to zero (0).
#%& - 225,650 August 2013. Concluded BMW is made up of a bunch of dumbasses.
#15 - 232,350 November 12, 2013. CBS only reset to zero miles.
#16 - 232,350 December 2013. Concluded BMW is still made up of a bunch of dumbasses.

[3s4u2]

Now at 215,678 and I can confirm similar issues were noticed on or around 200,000 tune and service, e-dipstick does work correctly.

I appreciate OP's PM long before this post for the heads up.

Again, Thanks Efthreeoh!

[Potty_Pants]

sorry to hear about your problem.

if you search hard enough I'd wager you find somebody at BMW NA HQ.

on another note (possibly illegal) you could always program your odometer down to -100K or whatever and document the mileage when it was changed ( to be legal ).

just like the squeaky breaks bmw gives the run-a-round.

about 15 months on new car... and haven't brought it back to dealer for a "broken item" ... unlike the bmw which had at least 5+ trips in the first year to work on a 25,000 miles per oil change problem among other things. too !

ppp

[NikosBM]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Yes, that's the point. I got the service bulletin from Sterling. When they told me what the issue was, I was thinking WTF, this is BS, so I said I need something from BMW that verifies this, that's when they sent me the bulletin.

They had the car for over a week. My car has not gone to a dealer in over 5 years, so the software was last updated in 2007 when the sticking steering lock issue came up. So Sterling updated my software to the current revision in August 2013 as part of the attempt to make the fix. They even had a BMW NA rep come in and look at it. Sterling's shop manager told me that he told the BMW rep "if we can't fix this guy's car, we should give him a new one just because he's kept this one in such good shape at the miles it has on it."

Well that Service Manager would soon be out of a job making idiotc claims like that. As much as I'd love for you to get a new car, he's so deeply full of shit it's seeping out his ears...

[DASHOCKER]

computers..

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by NikosBM

Well that Service Manager would soon be out of a job making idiotc claims like that. As much as I'd love for you to get a new car, he's so deeply full of shit it's seeping out his ears...

Dude, relax, he was giving me a compliment on how in great shape my car is at 225,000 (i.e. my maintenance of it - he knows I do all my own work) and was offhandedly implying he did everything he could with BMW NA to get the issue solved. Believe me the dealer's shop staff are as discouraged about this issue as I am. The Shop Manager personally worked on my car for the week it was there. He was as frustrated as I was (am). He knows I'm not stupid enough to take what he said literally (Although trade for an pristine E9 wouldn't be out of the question... ).

This is not a "crap on the dealer" thread. BMW of Sterling isn't the dealer I bought my car from; it's just the closest dealer to me during the day

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by DASHOCKER

computers..

Corporations...

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by 3s4u2

Now at 215,678 and I can confirm similar issues were noticed on or around 200,000 tune and service, e-dipstick does work correctly.

I appreciate OP's PM long before this post for the heads up.

Again, Thanks Efthreeoh!

Hey, it's what I do. I'm the E90 Guinea Pig.

[Richwm]

Guess we need to find a way to retrofit a dip stick. Hopefully someone will have a fix by next year or I will be joining you on the errors.

[NikosBM]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Dude, relax, he was giving me a compliment on how in great shape my car is at 225,000 (i.e. my maintenance of it - he knows I do all my own work) and was offhandedly implying he did everything he could with BMW NA to get the issue solved. Believe me the dealer's shop staff are as discouraged about this issue as I am. The Shop Manager personally worked on my car for the week it was there. He was as frustrated as I was (am). He knows I'm not stupid enough to take what he said literally (Although trade for an pristine E9 wouldn't be out of the question... ).

This is not a "crap on the dealer" thread. BMW of Sterling isn't the dealer I bought my car from; it's just the closest dealer to me during the day

I understand. it was more of a gesture towards how well you've maintained your car rather than the literal meaning of the sentence.

Cool! Well, good luck. I don't plan on keeping my car past 200,000km so i am not worried.

good luck... it really is bizzare that they would do such a thing. It doesn't even make sense from a software perspective. something shouldn't just stop working after X amount of miles...

[parabola]

I'll never get to this kind of mileage driving less than 5k miles/year...still pretty bad design.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by child_in_time

I'll never get to this kind of mileage driving less than 5k miles/year...still pretty bad design.

And maybe that's what BMW is banking on, 1st and 2nd hand owners will never come up on the issue. But what I don't understand then is this; BMW AG runs a division called BMW Classic (formerly BMW Mobile Tradition) that quoting from the website:

"BMW Classic normally assumes responsibility for supplying spare parts for BMW vehicles 12 years after the end of the series production. By ensuring the continued availability of the parts, as well as continuing the production and the aftermarket production, BMW Classic makes sure that classic BMW vehicles can be perfectly preserved and restored.

The Original BMW Parts for classic vehicles are subject to the same quality requirements as the parts for new cars. Each Original BMW Part is tested for operability and capability before it is delivered or mounted.

At present, the catalogue of Original BMW Parts for classic vehicles already contains more than 40,000 parts. This allows owners of classic BMW vehicles to preserve the high quality of their car models.

You can order the Original BMW Parts now in our new BMW Classic Online Shop." So read into that and it means, if you are restoring a "classic" BMW, BMW Classic will manufacture a one-off OE part for you. They also used to, as BMW Mobile Tradition, provide the original manufacturing build sheet and manufacturer certificate of origination (every car has one of these but as a purchaser you never see it). I had a friend who imported an E30 M3 Cabrio in the USA go though this process, which is how I came to know about it.

Now, I fully understand that my 2006 325i Sport Package stripper (vinyl with HIDs and BMW Assist) is probably not going to be considered a "classic" BMW someday, but for a company that is so engrossed in its own heritage, why in the hell would they program the car to basically say it is obsolete at 186,000 miles. It is obvious that BMW plans on directly producing parts for cars up to 12 years past the last production date, so throw in the 7-year model run each series goes through, that's an expected life cycle of 19 years BMW expects to support the car directly with parts. Then BMW classic kicks in to still make parts available after 19 years since the 1st introduction date of the series. Now all of us know that BMW is one of the rare manufacturers that enjoys a robust 2nd tier ownership market, where buyers who want the BMW marque so bad, but can't afford 1st-tier (original-purchase) ownership, buy used BMWs with loads of miles on them. The E90 fleet, when it gets up to my level of mileage in a few more years, will be banging on BMWs door to solve this stupid problem; it absolutely just makes no sense.

I just don't get it, BMW.

[roundle]

Maybe this issue was by design?

My E30 and E36 OCI lights stopped working correctly after 120K miles. And my E12 relied on the old window sticker system.

My E91 has its oil changed every 10k miles, so once I hit 186K, perhaps my LCI will start working well (for me).

In any event, would like to hear if BMW has a solution for you.

Good luck.

[MikeTerp]

Originally Posted by child_in_time

I'll never get to this kind of mileage driving less than 5k miles/year...still pretty bad design.

You know, I think that this may actually be part of the problem. Given how hard BMW pushes leases, they may think that only a handful of people will ever get to this point. That still does not excuse why this is a problem in the first place, and why BMW allowed it to happen. 186K miles is not that far for many of us. I kept my E39 for almost 170K miles and my E90 now has 110K miles on it. I do my own maintenance at this point too, so am glad to be warned that this may be an issue.
Please keep us informed if you get any more info back from BMW.

[Efthreeoh]

Just as an update, a BMW North America customer representative contacted me after I posted this thread and I responded to a PM I got a few weeks ago from the Bimmer Post member who monitors the Forum for BMW (I'll admit I was at first skeptical that BMW monitors the Forum).

So there's hope we are making progress on this issue. The person from BMW was very nice, was concerned, and said she will follow up with me every few days. She called me on my cell phone, which to my knowledge only the dealership has, which means I assume BMW NA has been in contact with BMW of Sterling.

I hope this results in a fix for the issue so that other E90 owners in the future don't have the issues I've experienced. I'll post an update when this comes to resolution.

[Three_thirty_I]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Just as an update, a BMW North America customer representative contacted me after I posted this thread and I responded to a PM I got a few weeks ago from the Bimmer Post member who monitors the Forum for BMW (I'll admit I was at first skeptical that BMW monitors the Forum).

So there's hope we are making progress on this issue. The person from BMW was very nice, was concerned, and said she will follow up with me every few days. She called me on my cell phone, which to my knowledge only the dealership has, which means I assume BMW NA has been in contact with BMW of Sterling.

I hope this results in a fix for the issue so that other E90 owners in the future don't have the issues I've experienced. I'll post an update when this comes to resolution.

Well, I really hope that they will sort this out!!

[biscut]

Any word on this?? I'm at 76k but barring accident/theft I'll most liekly bring my E90 past the 200k mark.

[Brian_TII]

Thanks for the information and please keep us posted. My 330i isn't that high on mileage yet but I fully expect it to get there one day and I hate hearing the "dong". My Lexus (with a dipstick and no oil change indicator) has over 200k and still going strong and I expect the same from my bmw.

[pruettfan]

I am just a couple of hundred miles away from the magic 186,000 mile mark so we will see what happens. I assume the programming is essentially the same for the 325 and 330, I have the 330 so we will see if this problem is consistent among the models.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by pruettfan

I am just a couple of hundred miles away from the magic 186,000 mile mark so we will see what happens. I assume the programming is essentially the same for the 325 and 330, I have the 330 so we will see if this problem is consistent among the models.

Nothing "magical" happens at 186,000; you'll not notice anything changing in the behavior of the oil life monitor UNTIL the next oil change after 186,000 miles. At that next oil change if you DIY and try to reset the CBS with a BMW-compatible scan tool, it will most likely not allow a reset. But then you will be able to reset the CBS using the turn signal stalk method and the OCI to roughly half of what it normally would reset to. Then subsequent oil changes will only allow a reset to 0 (zero) miles in the CBS.

If you don't DIY, the tech who will be resetting the CBS will find the issue, so be prepared to discuss it with him.