M3 E36 Question

Help... I have a 1999 M3 Evo which has just had a Inspection II @ 37300 miles. Ive now done 38700 ish and one of the service lights have already gone out !! I mostly do motorway miles and havent really pushed the car hard ( well i dont think i have ) but for a light to go out already after only covering 1400 miles or so is a bit worring..

I had a 325 E46 which quite easly covered 15k between services and i pushed that really hard ( company car ).

Should i just keep the car in E mode and drive it nice a smooth or drive it how it was intended to be driven... Trouble is the services are quite expensive

BMW "oilservice" and "inspection" service lights were put in place in 1982 to help owners remember when to return to a service center for routine maintenance, such as oil changes and general inspection of all hoses, belts, etc.... It's actually a great idea- one that has really caught on ( Mercedes, Volvo and others are following BMWs lead)

What Causes the SII (service interval indicator) lights to come on?
The SII lights are not "event" triggered. What that means is that they are not reporting a component failure or warning of imminent failure. Rather, the SII light computer "estimates" miles traveled. Once it estimates you have gone a certain number of miles it illuminates one of the SII lights (i.e. Oilservice- 7,500 estimated miles, or Inspection-15,000 estimated miles*). Mileage is estimated based on a formula:

Technical details of the service reminder lights:
Mileage is estimated based on the following formula:
e= a(1+t+r)
e=Estimated mileage
a=Actual mileage traveled
t=1 if engine temperature is below operating temperature, else t=0
r=.5 if engine is above 4500 RPM, else r=0

Example: If you traveled 5 miles with a cold engine running at 5000 RPM, the SII computer would actually "estimate" 12.5 miles traveled:
Solving for e:
a=5 (the actual miles traveled)
t=1 (because the engine was cold)
r=.5 (the engine was exceeding 4500 RPM)
e=5 X (1+1+.5)=12.5 estimated miles (from a trip of only 5 miles)
Once the computer reaches a certain count value (about 7,500 miles for Oilservice and 15,000 miles for inspection*), it will illuminate one of the service lights (oilservice or inspection)
The five green "countdown" lights are there to let you know approximately how long it will be before the next time your Oilservice or Inspection light will come on.

Explained:
Say an Oilservice or Inspection is due in 3000 miles, and
There are three green lights remaining (they shut off within 15 seconds of starting your engine)
So; 3000 miles remaining divided by 3 green leds = 1000 miles per Green led.
The yellow light along with the word Oilservice/Inspection indicates service is now due. The red lights indicate service overdue by approximately 100 miles per light

(From Peake Research)

Cheers,
RCBMW

Originally Posted by Red M1st

Help... I have a 1999 M3 Evo which has just had a Inspection II @ 37300 miles. Ive now done 38700 ish and one of the service lights have already gone out !! I mostly do motorway miles and havent really pushed the car hard ( well i dont think i have ) but for a light to go out already after only covering 1400 miles or so is a bit worring..

I had a 325 E46 which quite easly covered 15k between services and i pushed that really hard ( company car ).

Should i just keep the car in E mode and drive it nice a smooth or drive it how it was intended to be driven... Trouble is the services are quite expensive

Doesn't the 1999 E36 M3 (321 bhp variety) retain the 7,500 mile service intervals compared to the 9,000-mile intervals of non-M E36s? In which case, 1,400 miles per light sounds about right.

I have only just managed to reach 12,000 miles and my car (E36 318i 2.0) is telling me tat I have only a few hundred miles to go. Thing is, the car is driven with plenty of mechanical sympathy, and is never put under heavy load for long periods of time. So I don't know where the missing 3,000 miles went.

thanks for the detailed reply, its all very helpful.

As for the milage between services the reason i ask is that when BWM printed off the service history the difference in millage covered between services was quite different and i was worried that it had missed services or had them late ( i havent had a M3 before and i didnt have the car from new - not the rich )

However, after reading you explanation it clears up a couple of things however, it had an oil service at around 29700 and then a Inspec II at 37300 which again works out at about 7600 between the oil service and the inspec II, previously it had covered about 15k between an inspec I and the oil serivce.

Maybe i am driving it too hard, but i normally keep it in E mode and just drive it, now and then i do switch to Sport and give it a little blast but nothing hard.

If this all sound as if its right, and the services are going to be every 8k or so, then ill make sure i use the M3 less and revert to my 323i for work millage.

thanks again...

Wow. I am officially impressed by my car. Once again. Those germans... they think of everything!