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      09-05-2012, 02:56 PM   #8
Finnegan
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Drives: Z4M/. Z3M, E36/46 M3
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Teaching the dog to slalom

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rated M Roadster View Post
Your advisors are idiots. Your car will tell you if you need inspection 1 before 30k miles. It's dependent on how the car was driven. I just did my inspection 1 at 24k miles. If it doesn't say you need it, then do it at 30k miles. Inspection 1 and 2 absolutely need a valve adjustment. They can't just check and see if it does. You go through the same steps whether it needs new shims or not. Maybe your dealer isn't the one that should be giving you a second opinion.


Like Rated M said, both Inspection I and II include valve adjustments. Inspection II involves fluid changes (diff, transmission) and plugs. Inspection I does not. The service indicator uses fuel consumption as a rough guide to determine whether the valves need adjustment. I agree that you could probably just do an oil change if the car doesn't see hard driving. I'd also have whoever does the service look closely for leaks (rear axle, diff, power steering, CPV). 'Course you can DIY that too (same with the oil change).

Dealer/SA are probably getting the M mixed up with the 3.0i or si. The 3.0 doesn't require valve adjustments. Here's a checklist that clearly shows the differences.

The Z4M is relatively rare, and if you put it in terms of it being an E46 M3 they'll probably "get it". But I'm not sure I'd want to trust my car/business to a dealership where I'd have to explain what to have serviced. But if you've got 6K miles to go, you can worry about that later.

I'm not quite sure what's meant by "recording purposes". If you keep all the receipts for work done on the car, and go to sell it, those serve as records. Personally I find those a lot more valuable and accurate than hoping things get reported into "Car Faux", which I've found is horribly (and inaccurate) in some cases.
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