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Best Regards,
Shipo
Also, does the 2006 0r 2007 E-60 I-6 have a dipstick? If so, what the heck are they thinking?!? :confuse:
Regards,
OW
That my friend is the sixty-four million dollar question.
I'll do a little digging and report back.
Best Regards,
Shipo
link title
Regards,
OW
What IS this mysterious "condensation" that withstands the heat of an engine running all day? Heavy water?
Let me put a hypothetical out there...say there was a dipstick and the oil was cloudy on the dipstick This might portend for some condensation or other substance in the oil. But without that indicator, how will we ever know lest we drain the oil each time and measure it to see if we have enough or to add any.
Can you see a problem brewing after 4 years/48K??
Regards,
OW
Why? Because checking and changing one's oil was one of the last elements of control left to a car owner...his last shred of dignity...and the dipstick has been grabbed from his hand with a "hey, gimme that. You don't know what you're doing".
Well, I'm being dramatic and tongue in cheek, but you get the idea.
Let's just lock the front (or rear) hood so only the "qualified techs" can access to service the drivetrain components.
Live and learn.
Regards,
OW
Idoc2
Are we treating symptoms and not causes? --is my question to BMW.
This whole things sounds so....medieval..... :P
"Hans, drain the oil, check the weight, divide by the specific gravity and air out the engine to dry up the water to make sure we can run tonight! We got to beat those Audi guys! They got dipsticks!!"
Regards,
OW
I know my oil was at the halfway point only a few days before when I checked it, so I'm not too worried about being low. I am concerned about it though since I have no confidence in the acuracy of the sensor. I will be talking to my SA this week.
All of a sudden this morning, I remember seeing a thread about "oil" in this forum and have been reading for a while. So, from my readings I'd like to confirm that I probably have the same affliction of an indicator light malfunction vs burning through quarts of oil after 160 miles? I'd prefer to schedule something with the dealer vs. showing up and waiting a couple of hours for them to fix it. Thanks from a long time lurker and first time poster.
I have a 2006 3 and there was a light indication at 5K miles but I never added any oil and the problem rectified itself after a few resets/re-starts during the same day of occurrence.
Regards,
OW
No excuses. Bad sensor design can not be fixed by "drying out" the engine! Either the sensor is bad or the engine is!!!
Regards,
OW
Keep us posted. I really hope they have to give you a new car. I will gamble they can not fix it because there is a problem with your particular engine they can not diagnose and solve.
Regards,
OW
1. Lemon Law is going to be a question of State law, and that differs from state to state. (And, consider that in some circumstances, the buyer and seller may reside in different states.)
2. Don't make any assumptions about what the Lemon Law provides. Don't even assume that summaries of the law which you find at state government or 'lawyer-dot-com websites are complete and accurate. A summary is not the same thing as the actual statute and regulations. Track down the entire original sets of provisions, and read them all.
3. The text of the Lemon Law is not the end-all, either, because there may have been administrative decisions, court decisions, and even unpublished court decisions, interpreting and applying that law. It could be worth your while to find a lawyer who's handled Lemon Law cases and is willing to talk a little.
4. Documentation IS important, as more than one correspondent here has pointed out. In some states, the dealerships are required to document every service effort and provide you a copy. But, I've experienced service visits which weren't documented. Don't be embarrassed to say, nicely, "Could you please place in your service record that XXXXX", and ask for a copy of the record.
5. If it's bad enough, think outside the box -- consider whom else you might contact -- Better Business Bureau? State Consumer Advocate? Journalist consumer columnist? Your salesman? Federal agency? Other ideas? I will say this: If you love the car otherwise, and you love BMW, don't hesitate to put that in writing as part of your correspondence -- you may get an entirely different reception. There is a big difference -- especially to your dealer -- between being a loyal customer, who can bring in other customers, but who's getting shafted and having his/her confidence and support eroded, and someone who's just all-around negative and apparently just looking for an excuse to dump his/her car.
6. Watch the calendar, and don't let things slide. Don't just drive your new car around unheedingly with serious warning lights on. Your legal rights may expire with the increasing odometer readings, and you're being neglectful yourself, if you ignore the warnings. And, they may actually be able to fix it!
The weekend is when the car is driven the most, so we'll give it a good run this weekend and I'll post next week. This is the first BMW and I love the drive, love the feel, love the handling and love the car. I want this to work out.
I think my car is great. I had a problem with the air-bag warning light that ultimately need a complete wiring harness change to the steering wheel.
Other than that, the car has been flawless outside of the 1-day oil warning that miraculously went away.
The dealer I bought from is very customer oriented with repairs and maintenance so far. I am very impressed and this is the best treatment i have ever experienced from any car company.
Isn't that all that matters?
Idoc2
1) While I've never changed the oil on an E90 I have done it on E46s and E39s. The basic procedure is to drain the oil from the sump, drain the oil from the oil filter canister, refill both and away you go.
2) As a general rule, cars with a belly pan have a fairly easy way of removing or adjusting the position of said pan.
3) Last I heard, all BMWs need to be reset with a specific reset tool. That said, it wouldn't surprise me if there was now a method to do that via the iDrive interface or other dash board interface.
4) Yes, dealers sell filters. IIRC, a filter is somewhere between $7.50 and $10.00.
5) What is your reasoning for not wanting to wait for the 15K serivce?
6) My dealers have all been able to do the oil change while I waited. Total time less than an hour.
7) If I were BMW and I found that a car under warranty had been taken to Jiffy Lube, I'd immediately void the engine portion of the warranty. Why? Well, among other reasons, Pennzoil, and by extension Jiffy Lube, doesn't offer even a single oil that is certified to meet the BMW LL-01 oil specification. I'm sure if you call your local Jiffy Boob and ask, they'll tell you that they have just the oil for your car, however, if you check the Pennzoil web site, you'll see that no BMW oil spec is among the many specs that the claim to meet.
8) If you MUST have your oil changed before the engine monitor says that it's time, then make damn sure you buy yourself seven quarts of either BMW Synthetic Oil, German made (says "Made in Germany" right on the label) Castrol Syntec 0W-30 or Mobil 1 0W-40, and then either do the job yourself, or take it to a good independent mechanic and WATCH him or her do it, making sure that they pour in the oil you bought.
Best Regards,
Shipo
There is a "trap door" in the aero shield that opens with a 1/4 turn screw to access the drain plug. However, following advice from other posters here and after reading about them in Consumer Reports, I bought an oil extractor which pulls the oil out through the dipstick tube... pretty sweet!
The filter (which can be purchased at any dealership or online) is under the hood right near the front of the bay toward the right side. You need a 36mm socket to remove the cover... Sears sells them.
In 06/00 and newer E46's, the computer can be reset without a tool. The process in the Bentley service manual is:
* With ignition key in OFF position, press and hold the odometer button (one on the left) in instrument cluster.
* Turn key to accessory position.
* Keep button pressed for approx. 5sec until any of following appear in the display: "Oil Service" or "Inspection", with "Reset" or "Re".
* Press button again and hold for ~ 5sec until "Reset" or "Re" flash.
* While display is flashing, press button briefly to reset SII.
* At this point, you should see the new interval displayed.
There is much debate about the necessity of shorter oil change intervals (right Shipo?)... I do mine at 7500 miles cause I like that warm fuzzy feeling I get. :-)
Stay away from JiffyLube!! Do the change yourself, go to a reputable indy, or let the dealer do it.
Given that my now extremely high annual mileage precludes me from leasing a new BMW, I'm in "lurk" mode for the perfect 2000 528i 5-Speed with all of the trimmins. Obviously that car will be outside the warranty and free maintenance period, and instead of paying for a UOA every so often to confirm the oil's continued effacacy, I'll just target 10,000 mile oil changes and be done with it. The current plan is to pick up a car with relatively low mileage (60K-70K), and then drive it until the quarter of a million mark.
Said another way, if you change your oil at 5,000 mile intervals, it is an absolute certainty that you will be throwing away oil that would otherwise still be good for another seven to ten thousand miles.
Best Regards,
Shipo
ANY HELP YOU CAN GIVE WOULD BE APPRECIATED. THANKS!!!
What is the max mileage between changes on your DGC?
Regards,
OW
Actually we have two, both with the 3.8 liter engine. One has a recommendation of 6,000 miles and the other has a recommendation of 7,500 miles. Using Mobil 1 0W-40, I'm using a target 10,000 mile OCI with both vans.
Best Regards,
Shipo
I think you should be posting here for a quicker answer:
BMW 330ci Related Topic
Of course you can check back here, too, in case someone with that car pops in--but we'd like to stay on topic with OIL.
Regards,
OW
1. Took delivery of new 2007 328xi Loaded Sticker 45,000.
on Dec. 27
2. Jan. 6 in shop till Jan. 22 for valvetronic and relay
3. Jan 24 back in shop till Feb. 5 for a new DME
4. Feb. 16 to Feb. 17 for oil sensor
5. March 19 to March 20 Software issue
Molly at customer relations was unbelievable she understood my utter frustration with this car, she spoke to dealer and regional rep. Tuesday afternoon I get a call from my servive rep that regional approved taking back the car and getting me into a new one. Going today to order. Thank You
Molly and BMW North America.
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Regards,
OW