Those of us who’ve been in the auto service business for many years first got used to finding our specific service information in printed manuals — a huge, ponderous and clumsy mountain of paper. There was a period back about a quarter of a century ago when it looked like microfiche data systems would become the answer to the problems of storaging and organizing tech info.  Very quickly, however, it was generally realized that the power of the personal computer could vastly improve on that, even adding a search function. So, we got the CD, then DVD, service information systems that have been evolving and improving all along.
They had a couple of drawbacks, however. First, you had to make sure you kept your discs updated. And, shuffling through piles of discs for exactly the right one takes time.

Take a minute to subscribe . . .

Enter the Internet. Here, a site can be maintained by a company — BMW in this case, of course — so that it always contains the most up-to-date content possible. No messing with stacks of CDs/DVDs, either.
This is such an important aid to all people who work on cars, dealers and independents alike, that there’s now a law making it a requirement that, where emissions-related subjects are concerned, all carmakers provide access to such a site at a reasonable cost.  But BMW has gone way beyond that, providing comprehensive information on the whole car. This can be had on a daily, monthly or yearly subscription basis at $25, $300, and $2,500, respectively.  That’s a good value, and, in any case, it can be charged to the customer.
We’ve been using BMW’s tech info site for over a year, and have had great success finding exactly what we were looking for.  The menus make sense, and the searches are easy to use and highly productive. As a matter of fact, we’ve tried other automakers’ technical sites, and have found them to be much less convenient to use.
On the BMW site, which is affectionately known as TIS for Technical Information System, the menu page that opens up after you log on couldn’t be any easier to understand or work with. We always check the “What’s New” section, which contains info added within the last 30 days. Then, we usually go to “Service Information” and do a search under “Bulletins & Measures” (very simple and effective).
There’s much more here that you’ll appreciate, such as repair manuals new and old (and we mean old!), labor times, special tools, a model map that gives you series, engine, and code, and OBD II Mode $06 interface data.  We can’t think of anything you’d need that you won’t find on this site.  You’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.

. . . and the whole world of BMW service technical information will open up to you with this menu, which we hope most of you are familiar with.