Hi

I did post last year, when I was looking at buying, and was very impressed with the advice and welcome I received here!

I've just bought a W reg (00) E38 728i, 122k on the clock, very pleased so far. I need to find a local place to get it serviced (Richmond / Thames).

I've had Saabs for ages, the recent ones (I had an 06 plate) were terrible. One thing I found was that the older ones needed servicing by a trained Saab person, as they had certain quirks and the tools needed were different. Is this true of my BMW too? I was surprised that someone with a 52 plate BMW 3 series I spoke to today said that he used a normal mechanic.

Looking forward to getting stuck in!

i take my 3 series to a mate of mine who's a mechanic...he does a great job on my car to be fair to him and is a lot cheaper than taking it to bmw.

if your bmw has fsh and you want to keep it that way for selling purposes i'd take it to bmw but if not i wouldnt bother as they will sting you big time

Stick with a local spanner shop, just as good ;)

The local garage did my last service on my Beemer, also they stamped the service book, which keeps FSH just not main dealer FSH, half the price of BMW, good luck with finding a garage.

Stick with a local spanner shop, just as good ;)

Annnnnnnnny Local Grease-Monkey can service a 728i. Same engine that's in 3, 5 and 7 series BMWs.

You can service your own car with a Halford's 20 knicka socket set to be fair..

OilCap does take a 36mm socket though.

We can help you through it if you fancy getting ya hands dirty

Daz

Welcome to BMWOC :)

Nice choice of car :)

Welcome to the club :)

cheers all! Am going to replace the spark plugs myself soon, have found some of those 4 prong Bosch ones for 3.96 each. Not even had time to open the bonnet yet though! Plus I don't have any space really to do it but if there's any suggestions for simple stuff that makes a difference then please let me know. I suppose after years of Saabs I'm used to not being able to touch the car myself, which I've missed!

So I'll use a normal mechanic then, seem there's little point in paying for a BMW specialist.

Cheers

Paul

A performance air filter makes a mile of diffrence. they are simple slide-in panel filters.

Fuel filter is under the n/s front passenger door. Nice and easy to change and often overlooked during services. Helps fuel efficiency.

Oil filter and oil is easy. Just need a 36mm socket to open the cap.

Check the colour of your PAS fluid. If its brown/black apposed to cherry red, drain it by pulling one of the hoses and replace with nice new stuff

Spark plugs are under individual coil packs. Be careful when lifting them as often the rubber at the bottom of the packs have came lose and will drop into the chambers as you unscrew the plugs.

ultimately, Easy Easy matey

Thanks DazH

I went to Halfords today to buy some Redex (it's a start!). Been on ebay and found sparks and K&N Performance Filter. Not used one of those before, some say they damage the engine by letting too much in.

PAS fluid - will hunt for that tomorrow. Meanwhile, I've also heard that the auto gearbox fluid should be changed every 60k. Apparrently BMW say it doesn't need it but it's best to. Have you heard this?

I need the stamp in the service book so will get a mechanic to do some things, but things like the above, I can do. Seems I might need the front and rear upper arms replacing as I've got a wobble when I slow from about 50-60mph, and I want the mechanic to check it anyway before I spend anything on it.

Halfords tried to sell me an engine cleaner but I can't rev my car for 15 mins outside otherwise I'll have a lynch mob on me! Will ask a mech about that.

K&N Performance Filter. Not used one of those before, some say they damage the engine by letting too much in.

Would enjoy a conversation with someone who says that :lol:

I did think it sounded a bit silly. I'll take your advice and buy one once the mechanic tells me I'm not throwing money away!

I did think it sounded a bit silly. I'll take your advice and buy one once the mechanic tells me I'm not throwing money away!

Me and every enthusiast/mechanic on this forum is telling you that your not throwing money away bud B)

Thanks, sorry I wasn't clear there. I meant throwing my money away on the car generally. I've not had a full check done on it, I bought it flying by the seat of my pants so hoping it's OK! Once I take it to a garage and they don't scream and tell me it's about to fall apart, then I'll go for it, get my toolkit out and buy the filter, Bosch sparks, some nicer lights etc.

I'm still arguing with the dealer I bought it from about the battery not working! Makes me think it didn't have the "thorough check" that they said it had.

Ahhh I see! ^_^ You do what you need to do matey and we will help where we can

Daz

great thanks! Didn't want you to think I was disrespecting your advice!

What's your thoughts on gearbox oil changes?

If your tran is giving you no problems, leave it alone my friend =]

Good news! The garage gave me a clean bill of health! They think the vibrating is wheel balancing, but were only guessing as they couldn't see the fault themselves.

I looked again at the service history and the trans fluid was changed in 2009, at 92k miles.

They said not to bother changing the sparks (for the 4 prong Bosch ones) as they were changed 2.5 years (20000m) ago, and apparrently they last for 40k - what do you guys think?

Slight oil sump leak, hard to see how much but they don't think it's too much of an issue now. Also the rear trailing arms both sides have slight play but they don't see I need to do anything about it yet.

Welcome to the club matey

Good news! The garage gave me a clean bill of health! They think the vibrating is wheel balancing, but were only guessing as they couldn't see the fault themselves.

I looked again at the service history and the trans fluid was changed in 2009, at 92k miles.

They said not to bother changing the sparks (for the 4 prong Bosch ones) as they were changed 2.5 years (20000m) ago, and apparrently they last for 40k - what do you guys think?

Slight oil sump leak, hard to see how much but they don't think it's too much of an issue now. Also the rear trailing arms both sides have slight play but they don't see I need to do anything about it yet.

Wow, they seemed interested - Not ! Was it near lunchtime ???

Well, it was a Friday..... I was just pleased that it doesn't appear to need anything urgently. But yes, I suppose I would've felt better if they'd have been a bit more proactive. but then, as that means less money for them, I guess it's good that they've erred on the side of no work needing doing!

I want to keep the car for a long time, so I do want to make sure it's properly looked after. Those sparks are bugging me now, I'm going to go downstairs and check them out myself in a bit. [