530 Sport - service intervals
Discussion
Thinking of getting a 530 sport - probably a 2001/2 car. I was under the impression that these were on variable servicing, service lights indicating when its due. However, had a test drive last week and the sales guy said the intervals were 15000 miles. Just wondering if they are fixed at 15k, or he just meant the variables were around 15k.
Any info appreciated.
The service book says approximately every 15k, but it is indicated by the green light system. 5 green lights, which go out one by one as you put the miles on, which then go to Orange (get me serviced) and Red (I really need a service now). I assume lot’s of short stop start driving and high revving action, will extinguish the green lights quicker. 3 series have a mileage indicator which is reset to 15k and counts down to zero as you put the miles on.
Don’t be too taken in by the service lights thou, as turn the ignition key to pos 1, open drivers and rear passenger doors, press interior light and wiggle left foot threes times anti-clockwise whilst pressing the trip computer, and you can reset the service lights.
I brought my 2002 530 Sport 2 months ago, fantastic car. Any questions ask away. In-fact don't bother just buy one, you wont be disappointed...
jj
Don’t be too taken in by the service lights thou, as turn the ignition key to pos 1, open drivers and rear passenger doors, press interior light and wiggle left foot threes times anti-clockwise whilst pressing the trip computer, and you can reset the service lights.
I brought my 2002 530 Sport 2 months ago, fantastic car. Any questions ask away. In-fact don't bother just buy one, you wont be disappointed...
jj
jj,
thanks for the response. I'm sure I'll think of a few q's ! Couple of thoughts that spring to mind :
Did you buy from a main dealer ?
Have you got the comms pack - is it any good ?
What are you getting to the gallon roughly ?
Also - on the test drive I had, the car didn't feel quite as punchy as I expected. I suspect it may be me not having a feel for the steptronic box straight off - I'm sure they are adequate. Any views ?
Also - did you consider anything else before choosing the BMW ? I have thought of an S-Type jag sport and have driven one briefly - not quite as keen on this as the BM though.
thanks for the response. I'm sure I'll think of a few q's ! Couple of thoughts that spring to mind :
Did you buy from a main dealer ?
Have you got the comms pack - is it any good ?
What are you getting to the gallon roughly ?
Also - on the test drive I had, the car didn't feel quite as punchy as I expected. I suspect it may be me not having a feel for the steptronic box straight off - I'm sure they are adequate. Any views ?
Also - did you consider anything else before choosing the BMW ? I have thought of an S-Type jag sport and have driven one briefly - not quite as keen on this as the BM though.
I had about £22k to spend on a car, so looked at all my options. Initially I wanted an A4 3ltr Quattro Sport up to a yr old. Drove several 3lts quat’s, but just felt somehow, a little let down by the speed, especially above the 70 mph mark, i.e doing an 70 – 90 over take, it just seemed a little flat (tiptronic/auto was terrible). Audi main dealer’s were and still are asking almost new prices for 6/9 month old cars. I could have got a new one for £26k and was being offered a 9 month old one from a main dealer for £25k, in my view this car should have been around £23k – with a little negotiation. Anyway after about a month of looking round, and not finding anything I started to looked at Jags.
I sat in the 2.5 V6 X-type took one look at the interior and in particular the heater controls, and quickly left (not to my taste at all). I then looked inside the S-type, again similar views, also not sure if I like the S-Type shape..
In the mean time I had a spell of about two months in a 330 CI Sport, although the 3 series shape and image isn’t to my liking, the engine was fantastic. So I drove a 530 SE and loved it. I felt it was to soft on the suspension, so tested a sport, which is noticeably stiffer. As soon as I drove it, I knew it was the car for me. OK so it’s an older car than I was looking at, compared to the Audi (2 yrs compared to 9 months), but it is fantastic.
Mine’s a basic car (so no comms pack) with leather and auto. MPG’s wise, well if you’ve ever been to MK, you’ll know it’s full of straights (70mph) and roundabouts. Driving it around MK, I get about 21 – 23 mpg, if I go and see a client and do a motorway run of say 100 mils, that goes up to an average of 27MPG. However, I recently did a run of about 280 miles on mainly M-Way and the rest around MK and the MPG rose to 33 MPG. I’ve been closely monitoring the MPG figures recently, because I though it was using quite a lot. It’s now settled down to a very respectable 410 miles per tank full (£55 – c65 ltrs) about 27.5MPG.
Be careful when viewing cars. I wanted main dealer for the warranty and peace of mind. I saw 3, with the last one being the one I brought. The first two both had seen the body shop. The first car had seen paint on both front wings, even thou the dealer said they had no record of any body work being done, it had dust and grit in the corner edges of the wings, with over spray on the head lamp rubbers..!! And the other had seen paint on one of the rear doors, again with slight over spray on one of the window rubbers, with a spot (OK so it was a pin head, but it’s still rust) on the boot lid. So make sure you look closely at what you’re buying. Look closely at the rear lights, the top of the lights, the clear bit, tend to get water inside them and go green, all 3 had this, although I get mine replaced before delivery, as it looks terrible.
Performance wise, I see like me you’ve got a Chim. I wanted a nice quiet, comfortable car to just cruise around in, when I’m not driving the Trev. This is the one, although it’s no sports car. It’s weak points (if it has any) are the brakes, it’s a big car to stop, and it doesn’t like too many stops from 70 MPH down to 0, than again living in MK hardly any car I have driven does, so perhaps I’m being a little hard. Oh and brake dust, clean the wheels one day, the next day as black as anything..!! It corners absolutely lovely, I took it for a 30 mile hack across some B-roads the other Sunday, and was surprised at the progress I made. The sport mode on the auto box is really really nice for speeds up to about the 80 mph mark, after that it revs a bit high (as it only uses the first 4 gears and revs to 4k normally before changing). The Auto box is lovely thou in normal ‘D’ mode. Put it in ‘D’ and forget all about it. Lot’s of people rave about this box, being my first Auto I’ve owned, it works like I believe an auto should do. I’m not a fan of using the kick down feature, so I tend to knock it into tiptronic mode and choose my gear before I need to over take anything. I have always slated auto’s, but I don’t think I will ever go back to a manual (for an everyday car) ever again.
The car has lots of nice touches like, complete closure alarm, parking sensors front and rear, cruise control, big door pockets, light sensing displays for radio and heater matrix, auto dipping mirror (I’m not a fan of, personally – but I can see it’s benefit) Auto wipers (again can see a benefit, but sometimes they seem to have a mind of their own – thankfully you can turn them off).
Although the only negative thing, and I think this maybe personal to my car, is that the rear seats do not fold down, their fixed. Which means I can’t get my snow board into the car, unless I recline and place it in the front passenger seat. So make sure you get one with the rear seats that fold down, if you carry lots of long stuff around, although the boot is fairly big, it’s surprising the times I’ve missed having folding rear seats.
jj
I sat in the 2.5 V6 X-type took one look at the interior and in particular the heater controls, and quickly left (not to my taste at all). I then looked inside the S-type, again similar views, also not sure if I like the S-Type shape..
In the mean time I had a spell of about two months in a 330 CI Sport, although the 3 series shape and image isn’t to my liking, the engine was fantastic. So I drove a 530 SE and loved it. I felt it was to soft on the suspension, so tested a sport, which is noticeably stiffer. As soon as I drove it, I knew it was the car for me. OK so it’s an older car than I was looking at, compared to the Audi (2 yrs compared to 9 months), but it is fantastic.
Mine’s a basic car (so no comms pack) with leather and auto. MPG’s wise, well if you’ve ever been to MK, you’ll know it’s full of straights (70mph) and roundabouts. Driving it around MK, I get about 21 – 23 mpg, if I go and see a client and do a motorway run of say 100 mils, that goes up to an average of 27MPG. However, I recently did a run of about 280 miles on mainly M-Way and the rest around MK and the MPG rose to 33 MPG. I’ve been closely monitoring the MPG figures recently, because I though it was using quite a lot. It’s now settled down to a very respectable 410 miles per tank full (£55 – c65 ltrs) about 27.5MPG.
Be careful when viewing cars. I wanted main dealer for the warranty and peace of mind. I saw 3, with the last one being the one I brought. The first two both had seen the body shop. The first car had seen paint on both front wings, even thou the dealer said they had no record of any body work being done, it had dust and grit in the corner edges of the wings, with over spray on the head lamp rubbers..!! And the other had seen paint on one of the rear doors, again with slight over spray on one of the window rubbers, with a spot (OK so it was a pin head, but it’s still rust) on the boot lid. So make sure you look closely at what you’re buying. Look closely at the rear lights, the top of the lights, the clear bit, tend to get water inside them and go green, all 3 had this, although I get mine replaced before delivery, as it looks terrible.
Performance wise, I see like me you’ve got a Chim. I wanted a nice quiet, comfortable car to just cruise around in, when I’m not driving the Trev. This is the one, although it’s no sports car. It’s weak points (if it has any) are the brakes, it’s a big car to stop, and it doesn’t like too many stops from 70 MPH down to 0, than again living in MK hardly any car I have driven does, so perhaps I’m being a little hard. Oh and brake dust, clean the wheels one day, the next day as black as anything..!! It corners absolutely lovely, I took it for a 30 mile hack across some B-roads the other Sunday, and was surprised at the progress I made. The sport mode on the auto box is really really nice for speeds up to about the 80 mph mark, after that it revs a bit high (as it only uses the first 4 gears and revs to 4k normally before changing). The Auto box is lovely thou in normal ‘D’ mode. Put it in ‘D’ and forget all about it. Lot’s of people rave about this box, being my first Auto I’ve owned, it works like I believe an auto should do. I’m not a fan of using the kick down feature, so I tend to knock it into tiptronic mode and choose my gear before I need to over take anything. I have always slated auto’s, but I don’t think I will ever go back to a manual (for an everyday car) ever again.
The car has lots of nice touches like, complete closure alarm, parking sensors front and rear, cruise control, big door pockets, light sensing displays for radio and heater matrix, auto dipping mirror (I’m not a fan of, personally – but I can see it’s benefit) Auto wipers (again can see a benefit, but sometimes they seem to have a mind of their own – thankfully you can turn them off).
Although the only negative thing, and I think this maybe personal to my car, is that the rear seats do not fold down, their fixed. Which means I can’t get my snow board into the car, unless I recline and place it in the front passenger seat. So make sure you get one with the rear seats that fold down, if you carry lots of long stuff around, although the boot is fairly big, it’s surprising the times I’ve missed having folding rear seats.
jj
4000 rpm is the trigger to click the car further toward the green lights going out im told... but jj's "review" is far better than any help i can offer, being as he owns one 
15000 is good going for a service unless your parked on the motorway day in day out... i'd say 12-13000 is more more like it for every day use.
15000 is good going for a service unless your parked on the motorway day in day out... i'd say 12-13000 is more more like it for every day use.
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