We recently received this question on Facebook and thought it best to put the answer here for everyone -
Jeff asked -
"I know G01 is still a relatively new car, but what is your guys take on preventative maintenance with this vehicle and your experience with B58? Anything i should look out for? Does the work you guys done will be recorded by Carfax? Will BMW service know about what works have done?"
Jeff has an X3 m40i which if you don't know is one of the coolest SAV's BMW produces right now. The turbo and all wheel drive compact SAV has everything you need to dominate any terrain on your way to dropping the kids off at school. We used to have 2 BMW X3's as loaner cars and they were 2 of the best vehicles we've ever owned. So lets answer Jeff's question about maintaining his BMW X3 -
First things first - Yes all of our services are reported to carfax so your records will be kept up to date and show the awesome maintenance services you've done here at OMS. Carfax does a good job of keeping what needs to be kept private, private. They only show a summary of service but nothing about your name or even ours (unless you pay for the upgraded report).
This is a good thing and it does not affect your warranty with BMW. You are allowed to choose ANY repair or maintenance facility to maintain your car and its illegal for the dealer to deny any kind of warranty because you serviced it somewhere else. This is actually the BEST time to start our relationship with a car. Many customers choose us to do the "in between" oil services while their car is under warranty. This means that BMW does the basic service at their recommended interval, which is between 5,000-15,000 miles depending on who you ask, and we do the "in between" oil service at 5,000 miles. This X3 has a VERY high performance turbocharged engine in it and its our recommendation to have the oil serviced every 5,000 miles. So with us seeing the car in between the standard oil services and performing our insanely thorough vehicle health inspection - We can find issues before they become issues. We pride ourselves on our inspection process and we're confident its more thorough than any other shop out there, even the dealers. So when we inspect your car we give you plenty of warning for any issues that may be coming up in the future. If your car is still under warranty, you can take that information and ask the dealer to look at that minor issue andhopefully have it fixed (for free) before it causes you an inconvenience.
PS. especially because the oil services are due at 5,000 miles most of our customers choose our Lifetime Oil Service plan to keep the cost of routine maintenance down. Most of these plans are between $600-$900 and cover 3 oil services a year - Forever. Yep forever, once you buy the package you'll never pay for another oil service with us again on this car AND you get a special loaner car every time. https://oceansidemotorsports.com/want-free-oil-services-for-life
You asked about other maintenance to look out for -
While your X3m40i is a SUPER special car its maintenance is no different than the other turbocharged BMW's so you can follow our recommended maintenance schedule at the bottom of this page. Keep in mind this is the ///OMS way to maintain your X3 and we've developed this over our many years of maintaining these cars all the way past 200k miles. They differ from BMW's recommendations for a few reasons but mostly because we're here to maintain your car in the most affordable way for the long run.
A few key services to keep in mind - Your X3 has a real fancy all wheel drive system that requires unique maintenance compared to a 2 wheel drive car. At 50,000 miles you need to service -
- Front & Rear Differentials
- Transfer Case
- Transmission fluid
Doing those routine fluid services is the most affordable way to ensure all the "big stuff" has the fresh fluid it needs to opperate and not wear out. Keeping fresh fluids in your car is the most affordable and convenient long term plan for any car, but especially the X3m40i.
We look forward to seeing your BMW X3 and having you as part of our ///OMS Family!
*The BMW X3m40i does not have a servicable fuel filter. Yours is part of the fuel pump assembly so its not designed to be replaced. To maintain the fuel system we recommend frequent fuel system cleaner additives and our favorite is the 44k by BG.