Retrieving Old Service Records?

[km111222]

Hi all,

Has anyone had any experience pulling old service records, or service history, from BMW dealers when their car was with a previous owner? I've been putting together records for my M3 and on the Carfax it shows records from close to when it was new from BMW Weatherford, and a couple other dealers. Would appreciate any advice. Thanks

[Estoril]

Unless you have a relationship with a dealer SA, dealerships generally don't turn over records that didn't occur during your ownership. There are reasons for this. Also, once the car was out of warranty, most people had the car maintained by independent shops. They will have their own approach, but I suspect most will not be that interested in turning over records you didn't pay for.

In the end - what matters is what the car is now. Get it to a highly qualified shop, up on the lift and have a full 360-degree inspection. Stay ahead of maintenance. Change fluids. Rubber degrades with age.

[km111222]

Unless you have a relationship with a dealer SA, dealerships generally don't turn over records that didn't occur during your ownership. There are reasons for this. Also, once the car was out of warranty, most people had the car maintained by independent shops. They will have their own approach, but I suspect most will not be that interested in turning over records you didn't pay for.

In the end - what matters is what the car is now. Get it to a highly qualified show, up on the lift and have a full 360-degree inspection. Stay ahead of maintenance. Change fluids. Rubber degrades with age.

Yeah, I'm afraid that's the case.. and independent shops won't turn over records either. Not worried about how the car is now, it's a 35k mile car and everything's in good shape and I keep on top of maintenance. Was more just a curiosity thing. Thanks.

[bigjae46]

It depends what you are looking for. You can get what's called a key read or DCS. It will be a VIN specific printout that will have recall history, parts warranty extensions and any service history where BMWNA paid a warranty claim (factory, maintenance, CPO, recall). An SA should check that every time a car is checked into a dealership. You can get a copy of it. If you're looking for anything that the owner paid out of pocket, insurance claims, and other non-BMWNA warranty work - you can probably review some sort of summary but it will be more difficult to get a print out. A bribe might be in order.

There is value in checking. Might be some warranty extensions, some warranties provided by other sources, and parts warranties. In some cases, these are transferrable.

For example, if you had a coolant service done every 30k miles at the dealership I used to work at (thank god I escaped!) there was a transferrable warranty on any major coolant system component. Water pump no workie? No charge replacement for the customer.

It is a little stickier but BMWNA has a lifetime parts warranty on replacement shock, struts, alternators, starters, power steering pumps, and water pumps. Might be a few other things. This is more of a gray area. Technically, this is only for the original owner. You MIGHT get lucky, if the replacement has no name on it then you're good to go! I used some shitty 90's dos looking software. So when a customer was deleted, removed, or whatever, it would blank out the customer info.

I smart and not greedy SA can find these things. Most SA's are greedy so they want the customer to pay - they get more money vs warranty work.

[km111222]

It depends what you are looking for. You can get what's called a key read or DCS. It will be a VIN specific printout that will have recall history, parts warranty extensions and any service history where BMWNA paid a warranty claim (factory, maintenance, CPO, recall). An SA should check that every time a car is checked into a dealership. You can get a copy of it. If you're looking for anything that the owner paid out of pocket, insurance claims, and other non-BMWNA warranty work - you can probably review some sort of summary but it will be more difficult to get a print out. A bribe might be in order.

There is value in checking. Might be some warranty extensions, some warranties provided by other sources, and parts warranties. In some cases, these are transferrable.

For example, if you had a coolant service done every 30k miles at the dealership I used to work at (thank god I escaped!) there was a transferrable warranty on any major coolant system component. Water pump no workie? No charge replacement for the customer.

It is a little stickier but BMWNA has a lifetime parts warranty on replacement shock, struts, alternators, starters, power steering pumps, and water pumps. Might be a few other things. This is more of a gray area. Technically, this is only for the original owner. You MIGHT get lucky, if the replacement has no name on it then you're good to go! I used some shitty 90's dos looking software. So when a customer was deleted, removed, or whatever, it would blank out the customer info.

I smart and not greedy SA can find these things. Most SA's are greedy so they want the customer to pay - they get more money vs warranty work.

This is really helpful. Maybe next oil change I do I'll bring it to the dealer and see what they might be willing to pull up. Thanks for the info.

[E11even]

Hi all,

Has anyone had any experience pulling old service records, or service history, from BMW dealers when their car was with a previous owner? I've been putting together records for my M3 and on the Carfax it shows records from close to when it was new from BMW Weatherford, and a couple other dealers. Would appreciate any advice. Thanks

I have used vin-spec.com for multiple used BMW I’ve bought.

The site seems a little sketchy…you enter the VIN AND email. A day or two later they’ll send you a link to a Patreon account which you can PayPal for the records ($9.99 I think) Both times they pulled a complete list of all dealer records from BMW which was beyond helpful and insightful.

I would highly recommend it, I can send you copies of the PDF sent to me so you get a good idea of what to expect. Seems to be a complete dealer service records and commentary ( which can be very entertaining to read)

[L0okitzRaj]

I’ve had good experience in the past (back in 2010ish) emailing bmw, and having them email them over any records they had. Also, in my past experience local shops will also help.

times have changed so who knows if they will anymore