When is my E39's Birthday?

Dear Folks,
In response to an earlier post about fluid level, John mentioned the
4year/50,000 mile warranty. My 2003 530i was manufactured in November
of 2002 and sold to the first owner in the US in May of 2003. It had a
Level I inspection at 28,000 miles in September of 2005 and currently
has 37,000 miles.

Should I request a Level II inspection in November of this year (4
years since the car was manufactured) or wait until the warranty is
about to expire?

Also, will my dealer actually perform a Level II inspection if the
service indicator doesn't say it's needed? (I'm still getting three
green bars on the service indicator.) Thanks to everyone's help, I did
change the oil myself in June at 35K.

I really appreciate everyone's advice.

Ambrose

> wrote in message
ups.com...
> Dear Folks,
> In response to an earlier post about fluid level, John mentioned the
> 4year/50,000 mile warranty. My 2003 530i was manufactured in November
> of 2002 and sold to the first owner in the US in May of 2003. It had a
> Level I inspection at 28,000 miles in September of 2005 and currently
> has 37,000 miles.
>
> Should I request a Level II inspection in November of this year (4
> years since the car was manufactured) or wait until the warranty is
> about to expire?
>
> Also, will my dealer actually perform a Level II inspection if the
> service indicator doesn't say it's needed? (I'm still getting three
> green bars on the service indicator.) Thanks to everyone's help, I did
> change the oil myself in June at 35K.
>
> I really appreciate everyone's advice.
>
> Ambrose

You're obviously within the 50K/4 year "free" (nothing is) maintenance which
SHOULD be transferable to the new owner (you).

The service interval is based on total fuel consumption (a good
approximation of your vehicles usage ... city/highway miles, start cycles,
etc). With the 530i, that should be roughly a service interval of 15,000 -
16,500 miles.

1st service - Oil service
2nd service - Insp 1 (Includes oil service)
3rd service - Oil service
4th service - Insp 2 (oil service)
and so on

If inspection 1 occurred at 28K, you should expect to do oil service at
roughly 28+15 = 43K. I'd recommend doing an oil change twice as often, say
every 7.5K, so yours at 35K isn't necessarily a bad thing. I wouldn't think
you'd need an Inspection 2 just yet. Your free maintenance is based on the
service indicator lights. I'd guess you have two or three green lights
still illuminated if they were reset at 28K.

You definitely want to have any outstanding issues resolved on the car
before your 4 years are up (looks like that will happen prior to 50K).
Start recording any issues with the car (wiper condition, systems operation
etc) and make sure they're all attended to prior to May 2007.

You should have a warrantee and service handbook with the car. This
describes the service, the actual procedures involved, etc.

R / John