What is BMW smoking?

They just require a bit more attention.

For example, if you drive a Honda or Toyota you can skip out on transmission fluid changes, and nothing will really happen (my dad never changed his transmission fluid on his 1998 Toyota Camry that we sold last year with 195k miles on it and the transmission shifted fine). Skip out on things like this on a BMW, you'll be sorry.

Fluid changes are part of normal maintenance items that a lot of people tend to skip. But usually on Asian cars skipping transmission fluid service won't do much harm from what I've heard.
Watch this video instead:


The issue that technicians have with BMW is their use of cheap plastic components within the engine bay. They're scared to death of breaking connectors or actual connections during the parts removal process and having to deal with the accompanying friction with the customer over who pays for their replacement. Take a valve cover gasket on a modern BMW I6. A $50 crankcase breather hose must be removed. It is connected to the VC via barbed fitting and snap connector at charge pipe on the other. By the time the VCG needs replacing the breather hose has become brittle. When it come to removal the hose can crack, the barbs can snap, and the connector at the charge pipe crack requiring a new section of charge pipe.

open-uri20180802-28897-1hjy6vr.
 


That 7 series E66 is totally right: only beautiful BMWs are allowed


Any thread on BMW motors would not truly be complete without a link to Tavarish's epic takedown of them several years back:

https://jalopnik.com/bmw-engines-ar...ource=deadspin_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
 
They just require a bit more attention.

For example, if you drive a Honda or Toyota you can skip out on transmission fluid changes, and nothing will really happen (my dad never changed his transmission fluid on his 1998 Toyota Camry that we sold last year with 195k miles on it and the transmission shifted fine). Skip out on things like this on a BMW, you'll be sorry.

Fluid changes are part of normal maintenance items that a lot of people tend to skip. But usually on Asian cars skipping transmission fluid service won't do much harm from what I've heard.

Honda had some very highly failure prone and needy transmissions in the Accord and Odyssey for quite a stint. The VCM engines are also a potential disaster. Let's not paint with too broad a brush here ;)
 
The current marketing products coming from BMW have not gone over well with long time enthusiasts. BMW like everyone else understands that money must be made in electrification. The regulatory regime is pushing them that way and the younger buyers who are BMW's target market prefer the convenience of EV. They're not really interested in design or driving dynamics. They're box checkers of a different type where they place an emphasis on interior software features rather than exterior features.
****, guess I'm old then. I have 0 interest in electric cars
 
Factory rotors on my Tundra lasted until 150,000 miles. I rarely get more than 80,000 on BMW rotors.
150k? how? Factory rotors on the 2011 Toyota Sienna we have lasted 58k miles. I lost count on how many times we replaced the rotors on the 1998 Toyota Camry before we sold it.
 
150k? how? Factory rotors on the 2011 Toyota Sienna we have lasted 58k miles. I lost count on how many times we replaced the rotors on the 1998 Toyota Camry before we sold it.
Seriously? You must be an aggressive braker or live in mountains. The pads/ rotors lasted 100k miles on the front of our 1999 Camry. Rears were probably 150-180k miles. We sold it with 250k miles and did front pads/rotors twice and rears once.
 
Not really. He has a valid point about the cost of special tools and the diagnostic software being outrageous.

I've owned a bunch of BMW's. We have four now. The oldest is 11 years old, and has an engine that the internet has been saying is a ticking time bomb, almost for as long as we've owned it. IF it starts to nickle and dime us, I'll be sure to mention it. I'm also a former master tech. I have the tools and expertise to fix anything that might go wrong. OR, if I'm not inclined to do that, I have friends and former colleagues still in the repair biz who will.

Yes, this guy sounds to me like another parts changer, in over his head.
 
The issue that technicians have with BMW is their use of cheap plastic components within the engine bay. They're scared to death of breaking connectors or actual connections during the parts removal process and having to deal with the accompanying friction with the customer over who pays for their replacement. Take a valve cover gasket on a modern BMW I6. A $50 crankcase breather hose must be removed. It is connected to the VC via barbed fitting and snap connector at charge pipe on the other. By the time the VCG needs replacing the breather hose has become brittle. When it come to removal the hose can crack, the barbs can snap, and the connector at the charge pipe crack requiring a new section of charge pipe.
Like I said b4, no more complex/different than other car on the road today.
🤷‍♂️
 
Seriously? You must be an aggressive braker or live in mountains. The pads/ rotors lasted 100k miles on the front of our 1999 Camry. Rears were probably 150-180k miles. We sold it with 250k miles and did front pads/rotors twice and rears once.
Well, I mean the rotors on the Sienna weren't bad but we were doing the pads so we just went ahead and did the rotors too :ROFLMAO:. On the Camry, I think we did the same thing. I honestly forgot.
 
The current marketing products coming from BMW have not gone over well with long time enthusiasts. BMW like everyone else understands that money must be made in electrification. The regulatory regime is pushing them that way and the younger buyers who are BMW's target market prefer the convenience of EV. They're not really interested in design or driving dynamics. They're box checkers of a different type where they place an emphasis on interior software features rather than exterior features.
Heh, young buyers the target market of a more expensive luxury EV. That's not reality, try Honda Civic and Mazda 3 ICE.
 
~80k miles on my 7 series, no issues to report. Runs great and we perform all the preventative maintenance the computer tells us to perform.

I don't know why unintelligent and unprofessional part-changers get posted on here as some sort of proof of anything meaningful.

Some cars are crappy, some cars are reliable, some are in between. My car is infinitely nicer than any Camry or Accord, and I'll pay a little extra in maintenance for that. It is all a trade off. If you want some hyper-reliable anodyne transportation, that is great.
 
Factory rotors on my Tundra lasted until 150,000 miles. I rarely get more than 80,000 on BMW rotors.
Well, considering how it brakes, no wonder.
But, I have Land Cruiser Prado and they cannot last longer than 10k miles before vibrating. Same on Sienna.
Though aftermarket ones solved the problem.
 
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