I finally got around to doing something earlier today that I'd been meaning to do ever since purchasing the car last year -- and that was making the dreaded trip to the local dealership. Unlike most other times, this wasn't for any issue with my own car, or because I wanted to browse the inventory. I'd read a few times prior that the service department could read your key fob in order pull all service records for a vehicle.
This information would let me know what exactly had been attended to by BMW in the car's first few years, as well as confirming what the prior owner claimed had been replaced.
I happened to be assisted by someone who proved to be very helpful in gathering this information for me, and although I wasn't allowed to keep a printed copy of the information, she did allow me to snap a picture with my phone to put with my records. I quickly thanked her and hit the road.
This snapshot from BMW, coupled with a CarFax I recently pulled, gives me
most of the complete history of the 135i I bought 8 years after it had been sold new after previously relying solely on the word of the previous owner.
Here is a time line of events and things I found noteworthy:
- Purchased new in Florida by the first owner, where it was kept and barely driven apparently.
- From October 28th, 2008 until May 11th, 2010, the car was driven less than 5,000 miles.
- HPFP and injectors (not sure of how many) were replaced in March of 2011 with 6,199 miles on the odometer, a very low mileage to have problems with those already (could show indication that early injectors failed because of time and not mileage).
- Third brake light needed replacing for the first time in September of 2011 with 7,501 miles.
- The first owner held the car for a little over three years, and sold it to the second owner (whom I purchased from).
- The second owner, just as he had told me, purchased the car from Carmax with 7,665 miles in late 2011 and registered the car in Virginia.
- Going back to the first owner, from October 28th, 2008 until July 5th, 2012, the car was driven less than 14,000 miles. Service records indicate that fluids were changed typically annually instead of mileage intervals.
- Fuel pressure sensor was replaced in 2012 with 12,564 miles on the odometer.
- Again as indicated by the previous owner, the tires were replaced in January of 2014 with the Michelin PSS rubber that was all used up when I received the car over two years later.
Besides re-registering the vehicle and the airbag recall, apparently the previous owner (which at this point I have no reason to not believe) had zero problems mechanically and had a local indy shop do all the oil changes every 7,500 miles until the car was sold to me with 53,677 miles on the odometer.
All the records indicate that the 2nd owner was completely truthful and transparent with his full knowledge of the car's history, which bodes well for how he claimed he cared and drove the car, which he described as meticulous and precise. It feels nice to confirm what I already knew, as well as find out some new things, about my car's full history. I can also stop second guessing whether I'm still on the original water pump, e-thermostat, belts, tensioners, etc. as now I know these have not been replaced since being assembled at the factory.