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 use.
Our friend Rennie Bryant from Redline Bimmer has a saying: “BMWs are 100% …
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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/
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