[Wingman335]

I have a 2011 335i. I plan on keeping the car as long as I can (I know I'm asking too much out of a 335i, but stick with me here).

Therefore, I planned on making oil changes every 7500 miles. This way, I pay for one oil change, and BMW pays for the other one. While explaining this to a friend of mine, he asked if the "Oil Change Due In xxxxx miles" would get reset when I change it at 7500 miles.

I didn't have a good answer for him. He does raise a good point- if I change oil at 7500, wouldn't the CBS note the oil change and reset it back to 15000 miles? Then I won't get BMW to pay for the next oil change after 7500 miles.

Can anyone please clarify this for me? Thanks!

[jaybird124]

No it will not reset.

I believe the rate that it goes down is based on the fuel metering (it's judgement on how hard the car is being driven), but there aren't any sensors to tell it the oil has been replaced or the 'quality' of the oil has been improved.

[ctuna]

Just a reminder its not totally computer based.
You are doing the right thing with the 7500 mile changes
That computer based change has to be reset by a person
so it won't rollover just be sure they don't reset it when you have
it in for the in between BMW schedule.
You also might want to google the Mike Miller BMW schedule .
Also get in the habit of checking the oil level with the computer so
you know what its doing its so easy a lot of people ignore it though.
There are a few threads where people come up surprised when the idiot
light tells them to add oil.

[John 070]

From what I understand, CBS is not touched, so your reminder will come up as if you never got the interval oil change. I too planned on doing it at 7,500 or 1 year, just that I never drove it enough to even reach 6k in a year...so with the exception of a 1800 mi. oil change when new, I got my oil changed once per year with low miles...

CBS is a bit flaky. I got a free oil change in August, and 1800 miles later, another one in November. I didn't even ask for the Nov. oil change....

[ChasVS]

Your dealer will use your odometer reading to determine 15K between changes they do. You could change it every week and the Service Interval wouldn't change.

[hipnotic]

it will not be touched or reset when you do your own oil change

[Wingman335]

Thanks for the replies, folks! I guess I will have to make sure I tell the dealer not to reset the counter when I take it in for the oil changes on my dime.

Originally Posted by josh06lau

it will not be touched or reset when you do your own oil change

Well, I would still be taking it to the dealer to get the oil changes.

[jaybird124]

You might be able to save some scratch doing it yourself. It's pretty easy to do on the BMW's if you can jack the car or use Rhino ramps.

[shockin330i]

Originally Posted by jaybird124

You might be able to save some scratch doing it yourself. It's pretty easy to do on the BMW's if you can jack the car or use Rhino ramps.

Werd, You're looking at 100 + if you have bmw do it for you.

[raceyBMW]

Originally Posted by jaybird124

No it will not reset.

I believe the rate that it goes down is based on the fuel metering (it's judgement on how hard the car is being driven), but there aren't any sensors to tell it the oil has been replaced or the 'quality' of the oil has been improved.

This is actually not completely true, as the car does indeed test the condition of the oil. You can read the attached for how it does this.

However, you will still need to reset the CBS after an oil change so that the car will take a new baseline at that point.

[Tom K.]

Originally Posted by shockin330i

Werd, You're looking at 100 + if you have bmw do it for you.

My dealer usually charges $100 which includes a thorough hand wash.

Buying the kit for DIY costs about $65. Plus you have to arrange for recycling the old oil (unless you are one of those types who dumps it in the nearest storm drain!).

So for $35, I'll have them do it and get a free $10 wash thrown in.

Tom

[jaybird124]

Originally Posted by raceyBMW

This is actually not completely true, as the car does indeed test the condition of the oil. You can read the attached for how it does this.

However, you will still need to reset the CBS after an oil change so that the car will take a new baseline at that point.

Great info. Thanks!

[Wingman335]

Originally Posted by raceyBMW

This is actually not completely true, as the car does indeed test the condition of the oil. You can read the attached for how it does this.

However, you will still need to reset the CBS after an oil change so that the car will take a new baseline at that point.

Excellent info. However, this means that the CBS will sense that new oil has been added (since it changes the dielectric properties that is used by the sensor to measure the oil quality). Won't this cause any changes in the mileage estimate of the oil change?

I apologize if I am sounding stupid- I just want to make sure I don't get hosed out of getting my next oil change by BMW. Surely I can raise this issue at the dealer, but I wanted to be prepared before going there.

[ENINTY]

The oil condition sensor does measure the quality of the oil in the engine, but it is looking for the oil quality to degrade to a specific threshold, so even though the oil condition will change to that of fresh oil, the sensor doesn't recognize it because it only knows when the oil reaches a threshold of capacitance that indicates the oil needs to be changed (along with many other parameters the CBS tracks like fuel use, cold starts, mileage, etc.). There is no intelligence built into the CBS oil monitoring system.

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by raceyBMW

This is actually not completely true, as the car does indeed test the condition of the oil. You can read the attached for how it does this.

However, you will still need to reset the CBS after an oil change so that the car will take a new baseline at that point.

Incorrect. There is a TSB on this related to the low-mileage annual oil changes and that TSB specifically says DO NOT reset the CBS on these interim oil changes.

[raceyBMW]

I think you are referring to this

http://www.bmwtis.com/tiscode/cgi-bi...sion=289253807

The only reason they say do not reset the CBS on an oil change that is taken before your actual interval is so they can track when you actually "need" it based off your mileage vs. when you changed it. At least as far as I can tell that is the reason. There are other items that are based off the engine oil service, such as the recommendation that spark plugs be replaced at 45k miles or every third oil change.

http://www.bmwtis.com/tiscode/cgi-bi...allname=Fontes

"Oil change is determined from the engine oil condition sensor which monitors the oil condition, oil level, and oil temperature, and from additional algorithms using these parameters: engine load, fuel consumption, time and distance since the last oil change."

[AWD Addict]

My BMW service doesn't reset the 15k at my intermittant 7500mi changes. My schedule is unchanged for regular service, I just add one in the middle.

[AWD Addict]

Originally Posted by Tom K.

My dealer usually charges $100 which includes a thorough hand wash.

Buying the kit for DIY costs about $65. Plus you have to arrange for recycling the old oil (unless you are one of those types who dumps it in the nearest storm drain!).

So for $35, I'll have them do it and get a free $10 wash thrown in.

Tom

+1. with oil disposal and time lost to doing the change yourself, It actually makes sense to have BMW do it.

[Socom]

Originally Posted by AWD Addict

Originally Posted by Tom K.
My dealer usually charges $100 which includes a thorough hand wash.

Buying the kit for DIY costs about $65. Plus you have to arrange for recycling the old oil (unless you are one of those types who dumps it in the nearest storm drain!).

So for $35, I'll have them do it and get a free $10 wash thrown in.

Tom


+1. with oil disposal and time lost to doing the change yourself, It actually makes sense to have BMW do it.

Most autoparts stores are required to have oil disposal available free of charge. I don't know about you, but it takes ~1 hr to buy the oil , change it, and then dispose of used. Sure beats the hassle of scheduling an appointment, dealing with a loaner, blah blah blah.

[AWD Addict]

Originally Posted by Socom

Most autoparts stores are required to have oil disposal available free of charge. I don't know about you, but it takes ~1 hr to buy the oil , change it, and then dispose of used. Sure beats the hassle of scheduling an appointment, dealing with a loaner, blah blah blah.

There may not be an extra charge, but I guarantee they're not losing money on it. They're just rolling the price into the oil.

1hr is probably about right if i'm not screwing around. But let's face it. My time is worth more than $30/hr.

[twofast2s]

i got a free engine oil change on november for annual change, but my CBS still had few thousand miles left.

fast forward 2 month, i now have 2000miles left on my CBS, and my free maintenance was over just last month.

what do i have to do in this case? reset CBS? i know i don't have to change engine oil, but i also don't want to disrupt CBS. won't CBS kinda pointless in my case?


thanks

[Tom K.]

Originally Posted by twofast2s

i got a free engine oil change on november for annual change, but my CBS still had few thousand miles left.
fast forward 2 month, i now have 2000miles left on my CBS, and my free maintenance was over just last month.
what do i have to do in this case? reset CBS? i know i don't have to change engine oil, but i also don't want to disrupt CBS. won't CBS kinda pointless in my case?

thanks

Since you and not BMW are now responsible for maintenance, it really doesn't matter. Since you had an annual change, it sounds like you aren't putting enough miles on the car to trigger a mileage based change, so simply change it once a year or every 8,000 miles, whichever comes first.

But I'd have the dealer reset the computer on your next change so that you can measure both mileage and time (it should be reset for a one year period, not two as is sometimes the case).

Tom