Ok so my car is up for Inspection II. Should I just bite the bullet and take it to the dealership? Are there any independent shops that can do this for me for less than the dealer? Should I just change the oil, filters, and spark plugs myself and hope everything else is fine? If I do the stuff myself I'm afraid I'm going to miss something and get royally fcuked down the road.

I went to the dealer and nearly passed out when they asked for $900. I suggest you at least have an independent shop give you an estimate. Also, the dealer charged me ridiculous money for the spark plugs. I recommend you buy your own and take them to the shop.

When I posted a thread here complaining about the cost, someone local mentioned doing it yourself for about $150 in parts. I think it was JohnV, but you should do a search to find the thread.

I hope this helps,

Scott

Ok so my car is up for Inspection II. Should I just bite the bullet and take it to the dealership? Are there any independent shops that can do this for me for less than the dealer? Should I just change the oil, filters, and spark plugs myself and hope everything else is fine? If I do the stuff myself I'm afraid I'm going to miss something and get royally fcuked down the road.

The "other stuff" isn't really that bad, at least for an E36 M3. I don't know about a 540. It might be more involved.

I do my own inspections, but then again, I maintain the little stuff they check like the brakes, the exhaust, the door hinges, etc on a routine basis.

Do some research and find out what your car needs and determine if you feel comfortable doing it yourself.

John

check with Fa-rina in Lanham, Md,,, ask for Tony 301.577.5223, he does all my work,,,, da goose

I just called Tony at Fa-rina,,,, it's $400 for inspection II for my e39 525i. don't know what he does,,,, give him a call..... i've got 2 bimmers and they are fine... da goose

Pro -imports -- they had a thread on here a couple weeks ago about a discount on maintenance services.

If you have an E46 M3, you pretty much have to have the dealer do it :(
B/c some of that stuff involves computers that no one else has the equipment to work on.

I swear I think computers in cars (minus fuel inj.) are the biggest load of crap. Less ppl can work on the cars, and its a total monopoly on the dealerships that have the gear. Just think if you bought the 745 :eyecrazy but then again, that thing runs about as well as Windows ME

I do some of Inspection II myself.

Plugs, oil and filter, air filter, microfilters and windshield wipers.

I bring the car to my independent for gas filter and a closer inspection.

I generally change my tranny ad diff fluids in the spring and my brake fluid gets flushed on a regular basis so I don't work them into the Inspection routine.

It really isn't hard to do some of the stuff yourself.
If I had a driveway or garage I'd do the gas filter, diff and tranny fluids myself too.

Then you need to reset the SI light.

To make the cost a little easier to bear I buy Inspections II parts long before I need them and just leave them on my shelf.