One Year Ownership

[banditM3]

Guys, I've gotten a lot of good info on this site. So I thought I would try to add a little more with my first year of running costs for any newbie e92 owners.

I searched for a few months looking for a good well kept M3. Its my 3rd (e36 and e46 previously) M3 so I knew what I was getting into.

Finally found a Jerez 08 DCT with 42500 miles on it. It had no records with it, so the first thing I did was find a good indy shop and had the oil and filter changed and had it checked throughly. Below is a break down of the last year and 8000 miles. Everything except the shifter assembly was done at the indy shop. I did the shifter assembly myself, saving about 700.00.

Oil service-250.00
DCT shifter assembly (used)- 400.00
New Battery-250.00
O2 sensor-350.00
Thermostat- 550.00
Windshield washer pump-35.00
1 under the front spoiler felt thing-100.00

I will need new tires in the next month or two, so you can add around 1000.00 for that.

She runs like a top, especially after the new O2 sensor.

Hope this helps someone.

[Gr330zhp]

Very cool

02 sensor already??

[Dolo_]

Nice man! You dove right in on the preventative maintenance

[banditM3]

Well, it wasn't really preventative maintanence. The car through codes for every one of those at various times. When it did, in it went to the indy. The only preventative was the battery as it was still on its original battery from 08.

GR, apparently the passenger side pre cat O2 sensor doesn't make it pass 50000 miles very often. Thats the one I had to change.

[dreamspeed]

So the thermostat, shifter assembly and o2 sensor where actually broken? The spark plugs are supposed to be done at around 37k so you might want to look into that. Easily doable yourself.

[Gr330zhp]

Originally Posted by banditM3

Well, it wasn't really preventative maintanence. The car through codes for every one of those at various times. When it did, in it went to the indy. The only preventative was the battery as it was still on its original battery from 08.

GR, apparently the passenger side pre cat O2 sensor doesn't make it pass 50000 miles very often. Thats the one I had to change.

Interesting , guess I will be doing that soon haha

[banditM3]

Dream, yeah, the thermostat was frozen open. Probably causing the O2 sensor to go bad prematurely by making the engine run too rich. Thats my unprofessional opinion anyway. There were two other e92 M3's at the indy for the same issues.

The shifter assembly wasn't physically broken. There is a sensor in it that was telling my car that park was not engaged (even though it was) causing the annoying warning light on the dash. The car ran fine and shifted through all the gears like it was supposed to. I just had to swap out the assembly.

I've added the spark plugs to my service schedule for this year....probably this summer as I approach 60000. The car was very well taken car of by the previous owner from what I can tell, so there is no reason to think that any was skimmped on. So at this point I'm pretty comfortable sticking to the suggested service intervals. Although, I am probably going to change the oil at the year mark next month instead of waiting for the 15000 mile mark.

[SteveInfante]

Thanks for making this thread for us who are still on the fence. I try and do all my own stuff so this is something to account for.

[banditM3]

Steve, I will say this, the DIYs on this site are awesome. I plan on doing my own oil next time and my own spark plug change. I've done that on some previous cars, though they weren't this complex. But I also recognize when a professional with intimate knowledge of these cars should be doing the job and not me.

The maintanence costs are definitely something to keep in mind when buying any M3, none of mine have been cheap to maintain. But again, I knew that this wasn't going to be like the Acura I traded in were I only paid for one 55.00 oil change a year either.

Glad I could help.

[SteveInfante]

I'm used to spending upwards of$100 per oil change anyway because of the oil required because of the track pack and oil cooler. Since I have Brembo breaks it's not cheap either. I know all too well the cost of maintaining a Euro car. I'm done with the muscle car and I'm going to spend more time on the track so this will be a nice change.

[spiderspider]

I'm doing oil changes at 5k intervals max. With ramps, oil changes on bmw's are just about as easy as it gets.

[Amirsm3]

Originally Posted by spiderspider

I'm doing oil changes at 5k intervals max. With ramps, oil changes on bmw's are just about as easy as it gets.

You should get your oil analyzed before you commit to 1/3 the interval BMW recommends. That's a lot of coin for preventive maintenance. If you're not shearing at 5k, I say keep going. Do another one at 7500 and work your way from there.

[BzsBimmer]

What happened with your DCT shifter?
I did the same as you when I picked up my M3 from Carmax (oil change) since I had no trust in them that they did it or did it with the right oil.

I've got all my stuff recorded on a google docs spreadsheet.

[banditM3]

Bzs, there is a sensor inside the shifter that was sending a message to the computer that "P (park) is not engaged". It came on once the car was in motion. Never had any issues shifting gears, they were always as smooth as butter. My indy shop told me that my shifter assembly would need to be swapped out, so i decided to tackle it on my own. Only took a couple of hours. Fixed the problem and havent seen the error code since.

This was the symbol on the info screen that I was getting.



This is what I replaced.

[gsxrliterbikz]

Spark plugs are really a 37k mile service interval?

[xeux]

Originally Posted by gsxrliterbikz

Spark plugs are really a 37k mile service interval?

Yep.

[Talk2meg00se]

question re: the "felt thing" - where did you get it, and is it something that you can swap out yourself? The one on my '08 is starting to look pretty ratty.

[BzsBimmer]

Ah yes, I've seen a couple of people replace those.

Originally Posted by banditM3

Bzs, there is a sensor inside the shifter that was sending a message to the computer that "P (park) is not engaged". It came on once the car was in motion. Never had any issues shifting gears, they were always as smooth as butter. My indy shop told me that my shifter assembly would need to be swapped out, so i decided to tackle it on my own. Only took a couple of hours. Fixed the problem and havent seen the error code since.

This was the symbol on the info screen that I was getting.

Attachment 1158735

This is what I replaced.
Attachment 1158739

[Gr330zhp]

Originally Posted by gsxrliterbikz

Spark plugs are really a 37k mile service interval?

36k I thought it was? :

[loveskiing]

Originally Posted by banditM3

Guys, I've gotten a lot of good info on this site. So I thought I would try to add a little more with my first year of running costs for any newbie e92 owners.

I searched for a few months looking for a good well kept M3. Its my 3rd (e36 and e46 previously) M3 so I knew what I was getting into.

Finally found a Jerez 08 DCT with 42500 miles on it. It had no records with it, so the first thing I did was find a good indy shop and had the oil and filter changed and had it checked throughly. Below is a break down of the last year and 8000 miles. Everything except the shifter assembly was done at the indy shop. I did the shifter assembly myself, saving about 700.00.

Oil service-250.00
DCT shifter assembly (used)- 400.00
New Battery-250.00
O2 sensor-350.00
Thermostat- 550.00
Windshield washer pump-35.00
1 under the front spoiler felt thing-100.00

I will need new tires in the next month or two, so you can add around 1000.00 for that.

She runs like a top, especially after the new O2 sensor.

Hope this helps someone.

Thanks for this post...but since this only applies to E92's, I'm thinking those of us with E90's will not have to pay as much $$$
My baby gets here in a few days...been looking for her for quite some time...will post pics and give the story after she arrives...right now she's riding across the country with a McLaren mp4-12c...I wonder if I tip the driver a few extra benjamins if he might drop that one off instead of the M3?

[banditM3]

Talk, got it from ecs tuning....its called a belly pan. I had to replace the left side. You can get left, right, center or the whole thing.

www.ecstuning.com

I think they may be a vendor on here.

[banditM3]

Oh, and yeah, its really easy to replace yourself.