hi all,

so i have a 2014 is 250 f-sport and i realize that it's about six years old now. i landed a new job that is substantially further away than my previous one and thus i am commuting about 30 miles to and 30 miles from work, so 60 miles roundtrip, monday through friday. i have followed the maintenance schedule to a t, but i really want to know if i should replace the water pump or alternator as part of a preventative maintenance program or whether i should leave it be. the car has about 40k miles on it currently.

anything else that i should be aware of to replace? i mean, there's not much that the owner's manual mentions besides regular fluid changes. i did have the serpentine belt changed because it started to chirp and that fixed that and i also had the coolant fluid replaced a few months back. additionally, i had all four tires replaced over the summer. oil changes have been performed regularly. i even took my local dealer up on an offer to have the transmission fluid flushed and refilled. it's up for debate whether or not that actually removes all of the fluid or whether it was a waste of money, but whatever.

i'm trying to avoid any sort of situation in which the car will need to be towed because it's lowered and not easily towed without having to remove the front bumper or risk serious damage to it and i would have no idea how to do so in an emergency situation.

thoughts? water pump? alternator? neither?


thanks!

 

Both items I would simply inspect periodically and replace when necessary.
For the waterpump you would be inspecting it for a leak, and when a leak is spotted, then book it in to get changed. Even when the leak starts you'll have plenty of time before it becomes a breakdown hazard.
For the alternator, once the charging system if working, then it's working. You're more likely to replace the battery a few times before you'll need an alternator, if you ever need one.

I can appreciate that you want to be prepared for the weekly commute as best as possible, but there are some items that the service life really has no fixed value, so to change them without a cause or failure is basically a guess.
The best you can do is proactively ask the dealer to check both items at each service...chances are they glance at the waterpump to see if it's leaking anyways, even during an oil change.

 

people have driven IS 250s in the past up to 150K - 200K miles with just oil changes.. just drive the car bro

 

thanks, guys. i'll hold off on replacing the two components until/if they actually break.

 

I was the grand preacher of PM over on the BMW side, but only cause the parts were dirt cheap and replacement was stupid easy. So it was a no brainer not to. For example over on the BMW side, water pump (OEM) was $40 and 4 bolts. Can do it during your lunch break.

Alternator? Rarely fails on those BMWs. what you'd do is replace the voltage regulator held on by two screws. Screwdriver and 10 minutes pop pop. Done for 10 years+.

Final stage resistor for blow motor? $40 and two screws. done in 5 min.

The BMW E46 is beautiful and easy to work on for most parts PM wise. The straight six engine design gives you plenty of room to work on. Most parts OEM= pop pop $40 done. that's what made it an easy 600,000 mile bruiser with minimal time and money IF maintained preventively. Plus with those cars, a failure of a stupid part can cause major headaches.

With these cars though, the parts aren't as modular and not as cheap (in most cases) and not easy to replace. So you're better off just driving the car as is.

 

Its funny i sold an 03 325xi 5 speed for my 15 F sport. between the coolant system issues and the fact that it was leaking oil from multiple places i was happy to get rid of it. but this comment had me reminiscing a little bit and has me thinking maybe I should have kept it and tried harder