During the second week of January, we passed the one-year mark since we brought home our 2015 BMW 435i project car. And while we’ve detailed the performance modifications we’ve done, we haven’t talked that much about the more mundane tasks of simply maintaining the car for daily u…
I have a 2014 320i. It has been remarkably inexpensive to own for the last 5+ years/100k miles needing only brakes, fluids, filters, & a valve cover. I did coils as a PM at 200k because the internets said I should have done them at 50k - the OG ones were fine. At ~210k miles now, it's probably time to part ways.
EDIT to add: I bought it at 110k from a friend who was very much on top of recommended maintenance. Any time it needed maintenance, he handed the dealer his open checkbook and a blanket approval. In 2.5 years of ownership, he racked up $12k in maintenance costs! I, admittedly, have deferred maintenance like it's a Japanese commuter car. Below is from a spreadsheet I whipped up of all of his maintenance records.
We're counting changing out the cooling pump as preventative maintenance, but not the $2000 rod bearing change that was described as preventative maintenance as well? It was a recommended service by your guru.
How often should you replace rod bearings? “For a road car,” he says, “if I bought one with over 70K miles and it wasn’t already documented as being done, I would inspect and/or do them."
...
We finally decided to replace the rod bearings. As James stresses, it’s part of the ownership experience, and you can only kick that can so far down the road.
The VANOS service mentioned at the end of the article will go into year 2's budget, I assume :)
Keith Tanner said:We're counting changing out the cooling pump as preventative maintenance, but not the $2000 rod bearing change that was described as preventative maintenance as well? It was a recommended service by your guru.
How often should you replace rod bearings? “For a road car,” he says, “if I bought one with over 70K miles and it wasn’t already documented as being done, I would inspect and/or do them."
...
We finally decided to replace the rod bearings. As James stresses, it’s part of the ownership experience, and you can only kick that can so far down the road.
The VANOS service mentioned at the end of the article will go into year 2's budget, I assume :)
Mostly we're counting the stuff that hadn't been detailed already during the project coverage and that a "normal" owner would be dealing with. Someone not at the track every weekend would have a choice whether to upgrade the oiling system and rod bearings. They wouldn't have a choice to replace a bad coil.
I'm about 16 or so months into my ownership of a 17 year old BMW. Maybe the other shoe is about to drop but I've needed nothing other than oil changes and an AC recharge. My wife and I keep talking about replacing it but don't want to spend the money on another car, especially if the newer ones have huge maintenance costs.
SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) said:I'm about 16 or so months into my ownership of a 17 year old BMW. Maybe the other shoe is about to drop but I've needed nothing other than oil changes and an AC recharge. My wife and I keep talking about replacing it but don't want to spend the money on another car, especially if the newer ones have huge maintenance costs.
See my post above. I feel like that other shoe has been about to drop for a couple of years now. I really like it as a daily driver, but I'm not willing to spend the kind of $$ on maintenance that the PO did. To be fair, the dealer was killing him on some things. The 320i doesn't offer much from a performance or luxury perspective to make the maintenance costs worthwhile but it sure has been a nice daily driver.
Silly english question about the first line of the article for people who word gooder, "During the second week of January, we passed the one-year mark wince we brought home our 2015 BMW 435i project car. "
Is "wince" intended to be here as a commentary on the costs of owning a BMW for a year, or is that an acceptable substitute for "wence?"
WonkoTheSane said:Silly english question about the first line of the article for people who word gooder, "During the second week of January, we passed the one-year mark wince we brought home our 2015 BMW 435i project car. "
Is "wince" intended to be here as a commentary on the costs of owning a BMW for a year, or is that an acceptable substitute for "wence?"
Should be "since." Must have just gotten through proofing where occasionally we mentally separate spelling a grammer a little too hard.
The 2013 135i DCT, I picked up in Jan or Feb of 2018 has completely turned me off modern turbo BMWs. Even though lots of people of have said the B58 is a dramatically improved and more reliable engine than the N55.
I picked it up with 26k miles. White over coral interior. After 1.5 years and 8k miles I ditched it. Valve cover gasket and OFHG, battery, tensioner and belt, DCT was reprogrammed 3 different times because it absolutely sucked around town, but was brilliant on the back roads. On two different occasions, the transmission got hung up in a gear and forced me to pull over and restart to get it back to 1st.
Coming home from brunch one day, it started making a strange noise above 3500 rpms. Took it to the specialist and couldn't determine if it was the engine or DCT. I drove it down the street that day and traded it in on a used '18 Mazda 3 (same one that was totaled back in September).
Motojunky said:SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) said:I'm about 16 or so months into my ownership of a 17 year old BMW. Maybe the other shoe is about to drop but I've needed nothing other than oil changes and an AC recharge. My wife and I keep talking about replacing it but don't want to spend the money on another car, especially if the newer ones have huge maintenance costs.
See my post above. I feel like that other shoe has been about to drop for a couple of years now. I really like it as a daily driver, but I'm not willing to spend the kind of $$ on maintenance that the PO did. To be fair, the dealer was killing him on some things. The 320i doesn't offer much from a performance or luxury perspective to make the maintenance costs worthwhile but it sure has been a nice daily driver.
That's my hesitation on getting a newer one. My N52 is relatively simple by comparison. Naturally aspirated, no direct injection, etc... I'd love to get a newer car in the same driving spirit as my E90, but what do I get that won't be unreliable or a maintenance hog??
z31maniac said:The 2013 135i DCT, I picked up in Jan or Feb of 2018 has completely turned me off modern turbo BMWs. Even though lots of people of have said the B58 is a dramatically improved and more reliable engine than the N55.
I picked it up with 26k miles. White over coral interior. After 1.5 years and 8k miles I ditched it. Valve cover gasket and OFHG, battery, tensioner and belt, DCT was reprogrammed 3 different times because it absolutely sucked around town, but was brilliant on the back roads. On two different occasions, the transmission got hung up in a gear and forced me to pull over and restart to get it back to 1st.
Coming home from brunch one day, it started making a strange noise above 3500 rpms. Took it to the specialist and couldn't determine if it was the engine or DCT. I drove it down the street that day and traded it in on a used '18 Mazda 3 (same one that was totaled back in September).
That's painful for a car with 26k miles. Just curious, if you would have bought a 6MT, do you think you might have kept the car?
I've kicked around the idea of picking up a 135i 6MT a few times. Apparently I haven't learned my lesson with my 128i. Although it's tough to say how much normal maintenance on my 128i would have cost me, as a ton of the associated costs were as a result of the car previously being wrecked and not properly repaired.
Oddly enough, thus far the only oil leak I've experienced was from the oil filler cap, which was just a few bucks to replace. I plan on dropping the oil pan soon, but not because of any leaks, just to install a baffled oil pan for track work. Same with the OFHG- no leaks, but I'll soon replace it with a 135i variant that has an oil cooler attached to it.
I've had my 128i for almost 2 years now and have documented pretty much everything I've had to do to it:
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/e82-128i-when-your-projected-track-car-turns-into-your-daily/258441/page1/
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
All fixed now. Thank you for checking on our word gooding. 
I love that you guys are keeping track of the costs.
For someone like me it reinforces my decision to avoid modern German cars. The expenses, while not huge in this case, are enough for someone like me to say I'm out. To be fair I pick cars based on their ability to tolerate neglect.
For many folks the moderate costs will be worth it because of the way the car drives.
Again great information.
This tally is a great example of car guy project math :)
Include the cooling pump, but not the rod bearings even though they were both replaced for the same reason - street car reliability. But the latter is as much as the rest of the year's maintenance on its own, so let's just call it Race Car upgrade.
And we're counting labor in the door lock actuator, but not the cooling pump - which was only accessible because the engine was half disassembled anyhow for Race Car reasons. Car guy project math FTW!
I don't track costs. I don't want to know.
In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :
i have a 2010 E83 X3, and it has been remarkably trouble free to date (175000km). About 1/2 of what I've spent has been related to abusing it on our salty winter roads in Montreal (broken springs, axles with rusted wheel speed teeth, etc). Having said that, I'd be scared of a newer one
I've had a blissful two years in my 2018 BMW M2 N55 DCT. Not a single problem with 14 track days, even when it was 97 for three days straight at Pitt Race. 41k miles, and only a couple mods to make it track worthy (wheels, tires, brakes, camber).
Before this upcoming season... I need to do a front wheel bearing which started making a clicking noise at my last event, and the charge pipe as preventative. It sounds like I should be carrying a spare coil pack with me, too. Water pump, coolant overflow line, "micky mouse" flange, waterpump ground bolt, serpentine belt and tensioner, and DCT fluid will probably get changed at 50K miles as preventative.
roninsoldier83 said:z31maniac said:The 2013 135i DCT, I picked up in Jan or Feb of 2018 has completely turned me off modern turbo BMWs. Even though lots of people of have said the B58 is a dramatically improved and more reliable engine than the N55.
I picked it up with 26k miles. White over coral interior. After 1.5 years and 8k miles I ditched it. Valve cover gasket and OFHG, battery, tensioner and belt, DCT was reprogrammed 3 different times because it absolutely sucked around town, but was brilliant on the back roads. On two different occasions, the transmission got hung up in a gear and forced me to pull over and restart to get it back to 1st.
Coming home from brunch one day, it started making a strange noise above 3500 rpms. Took it to the specialist and couldn't determine if it was the engine or DCT. I drove it down the street that day and traded it in on a used '18 Mazda 3 (same one that was totaled back in September).
That's painful for a car with 26k miles. Just curious, if you would have bought a 6MT, do you think you might have kept the car?
I've kicked around the idea of picking up a 135i 6MT a few times. Apparently I haven't learned my lesson with my 128i. Although it's tough to say how much normal maintenance on my 128i would have cost me, as a ton of the associated costs were as a result of the car previously being wrecked and not properly repaired.
Oddly enough, thus far the only oil leak I've experienced was from the oil filler cap, which was just a few bucks to replace. I plan on dropping the oil pan soon, but not because of any leaks, just to install a baffled oil pan for track work. Same with the OFHG- no leaks, but I'll soon replace it with a 135i variant that has an oil cooler attached to it.
I've had my 128i for almost 2 years now and have documented pretty much everything I've had to do to it:
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/e82-128i-when-your-projected-track-car-turns-into-your-daily/258441/page1/
Possibly. Had I known at the time how much the intake/intake manifold/header/tune makes on the 128, I probably would have gone that way. But originally I had planned on keeping the 135 and doing some mild upgrades like the intercooler, downpipe, exhaust and tune.
But other stuff like the harmonic damper design on the front of the engine that can cause a belt tensioner failure to end up with belt pulled in through the front main seal and possibly the bearings........didn't know that one before I bought it either. And if you don't notice the OFHG leaking it can cause premature belt tensioner failure.
Tom1200 said:I love that you guys are keeping track of the costs.
For someone like me it reinforces my decision to avoid modern German cars. The expenses, while not huge in this case, are enough for someone like me to say I'm out. To be fair I pick cars based on their ability to tolerate neglect.
For many folks the moderate costs will be worth it because of the way the car drives.
Again great information.
I don't typically track costs. When I bought my BMW the PO wanted to keep the service records - I assume because it was his "company car" for the family business and he needed them for the tax man. He let me take them to transfer everything into a spreadsheet. I haven't kept records since I bought the car in 2019. Not for any important reason.
In my car's case, the PO bought it for $33k and spent another $12k in maintenance in 2.5 years. Not giant numbers, but far from pocket change in my world.
My BMW has been trouble free except this and this and this and oh that. 
Seriously though I appreciate the sharing. I love driving them, but really don't want to own one again and I slowly start sliding back to "well maybe" and then I get the reality check I need.
My E38 (admittenly more than 10 years old) has been really not bad to own. From all the horror stories out there I expected worse. It's definitely more needy than, say, a Camry. But other that catching up on a little bit of deferred maintenance from the PO, it's really just needed some wear items in the suspension, a few cooling system parts because they were old and I just didn't trust them, and I've had a few fiddly things like broken headlight sprayers and a broken parking brake release handle. But it's not terrible to work on and as long as you keep up with it, it's been reliable.
I agree with Keith, you guys aren't being fully transparent on all the costs. You're cherry picking jobs and labor to make it what you want. List out everything, including what labor would be if you had to pay a shop. Then we'll know how much it truly costs to run this car.
Nothing more expensive than a cheap german car...
12k a year is payments or lease on something new and kinda cool.
Of course I'm in the middle of reconditioning an old car and I'm hoping the costs slow down in year 2 and on as most of the wear items get replaced. You have to deal with a lot of neglect to start.
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