lCI 1st service - Only 5 k on the mileage!

After driving nearly 3 months, the service indicator lighted up. The mileage on the car read 5565km. It came as a pleasant surprise because in almost all the forums car owners were saying the 1st service was suppose to be when the car reached the 10k mark. I did called up the service guys and he told me to wait till the service light come on. Without really explaining too much he said the car's computer will tell the owner when. Seems like the car's computer decides when the car should go in. No one has really explain how the engine management calculates when it's time for a change. Well maybe that's a BMW's secret. An engine computer that can calculate when the engine oil's lifespan is up? 

In a way I was glad the light came up. In many of the forums there were heated debates of how often or when to change the engine oil, ranges from as short as every 5k mark to as long as 20,000 mark. I too was worried if I had the bad oil with all the shredded metal swimming amongst the pistons and the bearings for too long it may make damage the engine.

The next day I called up Auto Bavaria to book a time. To my dismay, the next available date to send my car in was about 12 days time. Hmmm in 12 days time could there be more damage to the engine? Not satisfied I followed up with another call to their other service centres and the result was not much different. I read somewhere that BMW service centres regardless of which dealers they are with will service any BMW cars. I called up Ingress and enquired if they do service cars not purchased from them and they agreed without any conditions. The best thing was I could send in the car the very next day.

The entire experience was pretty painless. I send in the car in the morning around 9.30. The service guy in charge called Razak was professional. Took my remote key and all my details was downloaded to his computer. No need to key in anything. My name, address, mileage, problems all came out in the report card. After the paper work he sat in the car for a test and I unloaded a fair amount of complains - mostly creaks and pops. He wasn't really surprised and best of all he even know what to do with the noise.

Left the car in the service centre and he promised to get back to me in the afternoon. While waiting for a cab, I helped myself to a great breakfast served at the service centre. Not bad I would say. The Sheer pleasure tagline came back to me with a smile.

Aproximately 6 hours later, Razak called to tell me the car's ready. I got there and to my surprise the car's washed up and also the creaking noise on the door sills were gone. He even printed out a report from the engine management system. No worries and all's well and ready to go.