[turnsignalslol]

I know that BMW says 30,000 miles is when you should change your spark plugs but is that too late? My car has almost 17000 miles on it (bought at close to 16000 miles) and I plan on changing oil, cabin air filter, and engine air filters once it hits around 20k miles then do oil changes every 5k miles onwards. I've heard that spark plugs aren't time based service items and should be changed purely on mileage rather than age. Would it be overkill to change my spark plugs at 20,000 miles? Would I be fine waiting until 25,000 miles or even 30,000 miles to change the plugs?

I plan on doing all of the labor myself, only thing I'm going to have a shop or dealership do is transmission oil change, differential oil change, and coolant flushes. That might change later down the line if I decide the first two are too expensive (I was quoted 1200 just for freaking spark plugs at the dealership!) and the third one, I don't mind paying $150-200 for a good indy shop to do it for me. I would need to invest in a compressed air blower and vacuum tool to do it myself and idk if I'm ready to do that yet. I'm definitely having the coolant flush done before the end of this year since the car is now 3 years old and I doubt all of the stuff I need to buy will be shipped to my house by the time I need it.

Finally, what is the stock gap for the OEM plugs? Is the best method of checking to just pull the plugs that are in my car right now and measuring with a gapping tool and feeler gauge?

[SEAT TIME RULES]

If your car is tuned the general rule of thumb is every 15-20K.

On a stock car 30K is fine IMHO.

Buy the pre-gapped BMW replacement plugs and call it a day.

I believe the OEM gap is 0.30

HTH,
HAZMAT