[gdnyc]

I don't understand what the big fuss is over the oil change. DIY is very easy. Filter is right on top of the engine. Put the car on ramps and drain the oil.

Like Rickwjenn said before, I enjoy working on my own car. I couldn't wait for the maintenance to expire on my car for that very reason. Plus, the dealer always manages to mess something else up in the process..

[STE92VE]

Originally Posted by gdnyc

I don't understand what the big fuss is over the oil change. DIY is very easy. Filter is right on top of the engine. Put the car on ramps and drain the oil.

The big fuss is not who is doing the oil change but rather that a benefit that was included when we purchased our vehicles has now been taken away.

[BayMoWe335]

Originally Posted by gdnyc

I don't understand what the big fuss is over the oil change. DIY is very easy. Filter is right on top of the engine. Put the car on ramps and drain the oil.

Like Rickwjenn said before, I enjoy working on my own car. I couldn't wait for the maintenance to expire on my car for that very reason. Plus, the dealer always manages to mess something else up in the process..

My god, easy or not....that's not the point.

Thanks for showing off that you're savvy and do your own oil changes.

[Outlaw 06]

Originally Posted by STE92VE

Hey, here's a novel idea that I just thought of....

If they can change the rules of the game, so can I. I'll change the interval of my BMW FS loan payments since my financial technicians determined that it's not necessary to make monthly payments.

Originally Posted by STE92VE

The big fuss is not who is doing the oil change but rather that a benefit that was included when we purchased our vehicles has now been taken away.

IMO you're getting yourself a little too worked up about a "free" oil change.

It will only cost you about $10 for a BMW oil filter, about $35 for 7 quarts of BMW LL01 compatible oil (Castrol Syntec 0W-30, Mobil 1 0W-40, etc.), and about 20 minutes of your time...

[iflyjetzzz]

I had my oil changed at the dealer a couple of weeks ago. When they reset the oil change interval, it was set to two years and 25K miles. I just bought the car a month ago so it was the first oil change for me. Was it reset to 25K miles after dealer oil changes prior to 9/1/10?
I've also noticed that the miles don't click down as fast as they did prior to the oil change ... ie the computer stated 3400 miles until next change when I bought it but after driving 2200 miles, it read 50 miles until change. I've driven nearly 2K miles of the same type of driving (a bit aggressive), yet it still reads 24K miles until next service.

So it appears that they've not only extended the interval between changes, they've also reprogrammed the conditioned based service software so that oil changes will be occurring at ~25K miles, no matter how hard you drive the car, instead of ~15K miles. There's no telling what other services have been extended due to software reprogramming.

Fortunately, I'm at 44K miles (my maintenance warranty expires at 50K and I won't be buying an extended maintenance warranty) and plan on doing my own changes at ~7K mile intervals.

[ENINTY]

Originally Posted by iflyjetzzz

I had my oil changed at the dealer a couple of weeks ago. When they reset the oil change interval, it was set to two years and 25K miles. I just bought the car a month ago so it was the first oil change for me. Was it reset to 25K miles after dealer oil changes prior to 9/1/10?
I've also noticed that the miles don't click down as fast as they did prior to the oil change ... ie the computer stated 3400 miles until next change when I bought it but after driving 2200 miles, it read 50 miles until change. I've driven nearly 2K miles of the same type of driving (a bit aggressive), yet it still reads 24K miles until next service.

So it appears that they've not only extended the interval between changes, they've also reprogrammed the conditioned based service software so that oil changes will be occurring at ~25K miles, no matter how hard you drive the car, instead of ~15K miles. There's no telling what other services have been extended due to software reprogramming.

Fortunately, I'm at 44K miles (my maintenance warranty expires at 50K and I won't be buying an extended maintenance warranty) and plan on doing my own changes at ~7K mile intervals.

When you go below 1,000 miles to the next oil service change, it counts down in 100 mile increments rather than 1,000 mile increments.

[STE92VE]

Now I know why they pulled the plug on our low mileage oil changes....they have to pay for these:

http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/dealerloc...sageId=8527218

[NaTuReB0Y]

eventually.....the engine oil will be lifetime....just like the transmission fluid

[iflyjetzzz]

Originally Posted by ENINTY

When you go below 1,000 miles to the next oil service change, it counts down in 100 mile increments rather than 1,000 mile increments.

I understand that it clicks down in 1000, 100, and 10 mile increments depending on how close you are to 0. I think that it was at 3400 miles until change when I got the car, so the 100 mile increment probably occurs in the last 5000 miles. I think that the last 500 miles, it went in 10 mile increments.

Let me write this in a different way:
I watched the miles until oil change starting at 3400 miles. It clicked down faster than my mileage increased on my odometer.
I have been watching the miles until next oil change, which started at 25K miles. The miles until change turned over to 24K miles at approximately 1K miles on my odometer. I've got ~1800 miles on the car since the oil change and it has not yet rolled over to 23K miles until change.
I have not changed my driving style to be less aggressive; if anything, I've been much harder on the engine since the oil change.

I bought this car at 40K miles so I don't have experience on how fast/slow the mileage clicked down on oil changes previously. It just appears to me that they've reprogrammed the software to extend mileage between oil changes along with the new time limits (no time limit for anyone over 6K miles annually).
And of note is that my oil change reads 9/2012 instead of 9/2011. What if I drive 5K miles in a year? The Conditioned Based Service (CBS) software wouldn't tell me that I need an oil change on 9/2011, in spite of that being the new policy.


I wouldn't be surprised if the CBS software gets reprogrammed for more frequent service intervals once your car is no longer covered by a maintenance warranty. It appears to be very easy to do with CBS.

[ENINTY]

Originally Posted by iflyjetzzz

I understand that it clicks down in 1000, 100, and 10 mile increments depending on how close you are to 0. I think that it was at 3400 miles until change when I got the car, so the 100 mile increment probably occurs in the last 5000 miles. I think that the last 500 miles, it went in 10 mile increments.

Let me write this in a different way:
I watched the miles until oil change starting at 3400 miles. It clicked down faster than my mileage increased on my odometer.
I have been watching the miles until next oil change, which started at 25K miles. The miles until change turned over to 24K miles at approximately 1K miles on my odometer. I've got ~1800 miles on the car since the oil change and it has not yet rolled over to 23K miles until change.
I have not changed my driving style to be less aggressive; if anything, I've been much harder on the engine since the oil change.

I bought this car at 40K miles so I don't have experience on how fast/slow the mileage clicked down on oil changes previously. It just appears to me that they've reprogrammed the software to extend mileage between oil changes along with the new time limits (no time limit for anyone over 6K miles annually).
And of note is that my oil change reads 9/2012 instead of 9/2011. What if I drive 5K miles in a year? The Conditioned Based Service (CBS) software wouldn't tell me that I need an oil change on 9/2011, in spite of that being the new policy.


I wouldn't be surprised if the CBS software gets reprogrammed for more frequent service intervals once your car is no longer covered by a maintenance warranty. It appears to be very easy to do with CBS.

So you need to keep an eye on it. Don't put any faith in the date the CBS quotes you. Just look at the mileage. I drive 800 miles a week and when I change the oil at the CBS dictated intervals, my CBS always says I'll need the next oil change in about 18 - 20 months, when I run off the 17,000 miles in about 5.5 months and need to change the oil. I'd bet the CBS works out to about 17,000 miles once you run the car for a while.

[Tom K.]

I was told that it becomes less linear the closer it is to the service and that seems to be the case.

My 128i had 2 changes prior to 17,000 miles without the countdown being reset. At that time, it read 6,000 to the next change but began decrementing more rapidly and called for the actual change at about 19,500 (15,000 of that was highway & back road mileage).

Tom

[STE92VE]

Good news all! BMW has reinstated the low mileage oil change policy!

[Sigwolf]

Originally Posted by STE92VE

Good news all! BMW has reinstated the low mileage oil change policy!

Meaning?

[Ninpo1]

Do you have any documentation that you could share in case the dealerships are not informed?