100k mi service question

[SKstak]

I am capable of flushing my brake fluid & oil. I was just wondering if anyone could tell me a cost estimate for all other fluids. My dad's vehicle ended up receiving a mark-up that was twice the amount of the estimate!

[spidertri]

When you flush the brake fluid make sure to get the fluid in the clutch line as well, it all comes from the same reservoir.

Other fluids being...coolant, power steering fluid? Coolant is around $20 for the gallon which needs to be mixed 50/50 with distilled water. The biggest hassle with that is bleeding the system properly. I think CirrusSR22 wrote up a great article in the knowledge base on flushing the power steering system you should check that out for costs.

[SKstak]

Much thanx.

[MPWR]

You're doing this stuff yourself?

If you haven't done it recently, I'd replace:
Engine oil (and filter)
Coolant
Transmission oil (for manual trans)
Differential oil
Brake fluid/clutch fluid

You might want to throw in an air filter and a fuel filter. And I'd do the plugs. And the hoses (since you're draining the coolant anyway). And maybe the belts. And it would be a good time to do the thermostat(!) and water pump.

As for how much the fluids would cost, well that depends on your skills shopping, doesn't it?

If you want to make this all really easy, join BMW CCA NCC and come out to one of our DIYs.

[SKstak]

I only intend on doing the oil & brakes myself (since those are the only two items I have learned to date) I would rather have a professional mechanic do the rest. If the service shop intends on requiring that these two items be included with the service contract, then so be it. I just don't know what a ballpark figure is for having the fluids done in general.

I have thought about replacing the plugs. I saw another posting saying that it is best to stick with the same plugs. This true?

I'm not sure if I would be able to replace hoses yet. The belts have been changed. I guess I would have to ask the shop to do the pump and T-stat.

Thanx for the suggestions.

[MPWR]

I'll say it again-

Join BMW CCA NCC and come out to one of our DIYs.

All of this stuff is easy to do yourself, and we can teach you to do it if you've never done it before. It is MUCH cheaper than paying a shop, and it hardly takes a professional to do the easy stuff. If you can change your oil and brakes, you can do everything on this list yourself.

The next DIY will be in mid January, in a shop in Hangover MD (near BWI).

[spidertri]

Originally Posted by MPWR

The next DIY will be in mid January, in a shop in Hangover MD (near BWI).

DIY events are awesome, do you have anymore details on the Hanover one? I can't find anything on the NCC website.

[MPWR]

Turns out, I do.

The first NCC DIY of 2010 will be at At Speed Motorsports on Jan 16th, starting about 9am. This is a small shop, so early registration is recommended. Registration for this event will start on Dec 19, and will be open for two weeks. ti's are enthusiastically welcomed, what are you hoping to do?

The NCC website will be updated soon (hopefully in the next week or so). Rumors are we will have a new webmaster soon, and that could help to make our site a fair bit more useful.

There will be another DIY on Jan 23 at Convenience Car Care in Manassass, and there will be two in February also.

[spidertri]

Not sure yet, possibly do tie rods. I did my rear subframe bushings at Passport last summer and it was a great experience. Lots of really nice and helpful people. Hopefully there will be more MD locations this year.

[MPWR]

Tie rods shouldn't be hard (but they certainly can be- bring your own blowtorch). You will obviously want an alignment afterward before you drive it again. At Speed has an alignment lift- we'll be using it for most of the day for fluid changes. But if you're interested we could probably see if you could schedule and alignment that afternoon, and what they would charge.

We're planning more MD events than ever before. We're looking at three at Passport, two or three at At Speed, one at Tischer, hopefully one at Russel, and two at a new shop in Baltimore called Eurotech.

If you'd like to see more events in MD, PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING OUR DIY COMMITTEE AND HELPING OUT. We're going to try to have 24 DIYs in 2010, but we desperately need more help. We have more shops wanting to host DIYs than we can schedule, because we don't have enough people to help run them.