Quote:
Originally Posted by shata
Ya I think most of us here will tell you that the maintenance intervals from bmw these days are nuts. Hell my 330i has programed interval for oil changes in computer @ 19k. They smoking something these days just saying.
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It's not as crazy as you think. OCI on my E46 averaged 18k. When I had the valve cover off at 88k to replace the VANOS seals, the valvetrain looked brand new, with just a light coat of golden-brown oil. I was expecting it to be covered with sludge, and it literally looked like it just came out of the factory. Remember, this is after only 5 oil changes, and 18k miles since the last one.
As a second bit of evidence, when I changed the oil at 52k, I sent a sample of the old oil out for analysis. Results came back good, and in fact the lab told me to keep using it! By that time, of course, it had fresh oil, but it was good to know that despite the long interval, I still had a substantial safety margin.