Quote Originally Posted by lowell
Disregard the service intervals. Change the oil between 5 and 6 thousand miles if you're using BMW synthetic. If the car's been dealer serviced, it would be a good idea to run an AutoRX treatment through it, or do a succession of 1,000 mile oil changes, because the thing is guaranteed to have sludge.

Change the trans fluid, and the filter if you want to. Should take Dexron III, but I don't have the sheet in front of me.

It will need rear ball joints at some point. Lowers seem to go faster than the uppers.

Then there's the cooling system. You might want to do some preventative maintenance if it's been ~ 60k since it had a radiator/water pump/tstat housing. The M52/54 are intolerant to cooling system failures, which leads some owners to cyclically replace those components. They run hot for emissions purposes, and it doesn't take long to lunch a motor. Given that a junk yard motor and install is going to cost $4000 on a car that's probably worth $8000, it makes sense to spend $500 on the cooling system every 60k.

best, whit
just a question about the De-sludging technique, should you change your filter every 1000 miles with the oil?