My BMW X3 m40i goes in for 3rd service: Total bill & experience

This is my first ever spend on maintenance activity ever since I bought the car. $454 bucks is so darn cheap for a car of this stature.

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40,000 Miles- Service Report

Prologue

I was away on work to India and while I was gone, I told my better half to keep shifting between BMW and Tesla which she did when going to work.

As I was approaching 40K miles, I thought of getting the regular service done in advance at my current odometer reading of 39,000 miles ( 62,000 kms)

Touchwood there are absolutely no issues in the car and it drives like a dream and just like when I got it out of the showroom on Day 1 around 3.8 years ago.

I reached out to another local BHPian who has the same car, same variant, same color too. LOL!….He clocks lot of miles and his 2019 X3M40i must now be at 75,000 miles and he too has zero issues till date.

I didnt want to go back to BMW dealership as they like any other dealership would like to fleece you. Rahul (BHPian) recommended this garage called -Signature Independent which does work exclusively for BMW and Mini.

Called them up and booked an appointment for Friday 3:00pm and reached there on time. I met with Eric who is the owner and he was super friendly and ran some diagnostics and came back and suggested the following

1. Oil & Oil Filter Replacement
2. Air Cabin Filter Replacement (Replaced at 20K miles by BMW Dealership)
3. Engine Filter Replacement (Replaced at 20K miles by BMW Dealership)
4. Spark Plugs Replacement (Never replaced till date)

There was absolutely no push for anything. I could have walked out doing just the Oil and Oil Filter Replacement and Air Filter replacement which would have costed me just some $150 bucks.

But, I decided to get the Air Cabin and Engine Air Filter also replaced.

There are 6 Iridium spark plugs that go into the car and I was bit shocked to see the actual plug cost is so minimal but, labor was too much. I skipped this one for now and will get them done at my next service which Eric said is totally fine as current ones are in good shape according to him.

They even gave me a print out of a full CARFAX report free of cost that tells you the full service history.

Total time taken from in and out was 1 Hour and 15 minutes. I felt little disappointed they didn’t wash the car. But, hey at least they were super friendly and unlike the dealership didn’t push hard on anything and were super honest.

Important Notes

My new tires have done around 7,000 miles and they went down 30% of their life which means, I can drive them for another 20,000 miles easily.2. Welcome to the world of “M Brakes” despite my hard driving and braking, I was surprised to note that after 60,000 kms the brake pads have worn out only 30% which is shocking (In a pleasant way). Brake pads start at 10mm and they are currently at 7mm and 6mm and Eric said I can drive until 2mm (3mm on safer side). Which means, these pads will last another 30,000 miles…. Wohooooo !!!

Feeling after the Service ?

Car feels exactly the same. There is no special feeling after the service. It drove beautifully before the service and drove exactly the same after the service.

Summary : I have finally spent some dollars from my pocket on the Blau Rakete. Yup, this is my first ever spend on maintenance activity ever since I bought the car. $454 bucks is so darn cheap for a car of this stature. I’m super happy with the overall outcome.

To celebrate the service, I drove back home from the back roads (it’s all forest and twisty for 20 miles) in “Sports +’ with paddle shifters and unleashing the beast on the curvy roads and scaring folks on road with pops, crackles and bangs…LOL

Cheers to BMW X3M40i !!!

Estimate Given

Estimate that I agreed upon...

Outside the garage..

Odo Reading after the service.

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