Hi, welcome to the 8 series site.

Most of us who own an 8 series likes to work on the car for several reasons :
1. it is cheaper then a dealer (or should I say stealer)
2. Most of the independent service shops has only one question about the car when you ask them to work on your car : what kind of a car/BMW is that ?
3. it is fun !

But of course in order to maintain the perfect conditions we should get the right parts for the Bimmer, so we have to go to some other stores than the local auto parts store. Choices are :
- Dealer
- importer/independent specialist such as
Zygmund, BMP, etc

Both places works better if you have a part number in handy. So I guess most of us, trying to get as much manual, book, etc. to get for our car as possible. There are several choices , for example : I work from a Mitchell parts catalog and a BMW workshop manual, BMW microfiche.
The best choice is to get a parts CD for your car but the problem is not many available.
If you have enough time and found a friendly parts department guy at the dealer , you shoudl be fine. I did found two actually so I'm oke as long as they are there. If you want a copy of the Mitchell crash parts catalog, that is $9.99+shipping from me. it would give you mostly body and interior parts numbers , but there are several engine/drivetrain and electrical part numbers as well.
Let me know and as I said in my E-mail I can ship to europe also.

By : Lez