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BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum
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Question about Oil Change Frequency
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01-29-2011, 04:58 AM | #23 |
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No free maintenance here in Taiwan.
The BMW recommendation is every 10000KM which is 6200miles. But it is difficult to generalize. Most cars here in Taiwan will do mostly stop and go driving, short trips, and high temperatures, so oil will not last as long in these conditions as it might for US drivers. |
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01-29-2011, 05:15 AM | #24 | |
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01-29-2011, 05:18 AM | #25 | |
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01-29-2011, 08:02 AM | #26 |
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Porsche recommends oil changes every 10,000 miles or one year for their 2010 911 model. That is what I plan to do, but will shorten it to 7,500 miles to fit into BMW's every 15,000 mile service schedule. I probably won't run the BMW as hard as I would a 911, but I might run it a little hard.
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01-29-2011, 09:30 AM | #27 |
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01-29-2011, 09:37 AM | #28 | ||
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01-29-2011, 09:57 AM | #29 | |
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I totally agree. I don't care if people say I am changing my oil too soon ( I don't think I am). I do know that I plan on keeping my car a very long time and this will definitely help !!!! I bought my car with $$$$$$$$ not leased it. I can spend $ this much to keep it running at peak performance and not worry if the oil needs changing or if some sensor is working correctly to tell me when to change the oil. I have done this with every car I have ever owned ( 7 cars -I'm 43) and have never had a problem with the motor. Most of my cars have gone 500,000km before I got rid of them. The motors were still in great shape at 500,000km. One was a 4 cylinder 1.8l VW Jetta motor that just starting burning oil at 440,000km. Last edited by BMWs4ever; 01-29-2011 at 10:04 AM.. |
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01-29-2011, 10:39 AM | #30 |
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http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/s.../oil-life.html
Synthetics will go long past 10K, been studied and proven time and again. Change it as much as you want but it's proven to be overkill.
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01-29-2011, 10:51 AM | #31 | |
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Facts support that there is nothing wrong with the 15000 miles oil changes. It has been around since 1998-1999 and engines didn't start to wear faster. Never happened. Porsche, Mercedes and Audi embraced it. for Porsche, it is now up to 2 years. Save your money. |
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01-29-2011, 11:46 AM | #32 | |
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I go with what my car tells me or 10k, whichever comes first. But I had to get my oil changed at 4000km for an unrelated service issue, everything was reset then, and the CBS told be after 8000km. And yes...I was ticked off at the computer saying I needed an oil change, as I felt that even 10k km was too short for a modern car. But driving conditions do matter....so....until someone tells me the CBS is drinking the "change the oil often as insurance" kool aid, I will follow it. Then again, the longest I've kept a car is 2 years....so if anyone was to ignore frequent oil changes it ought to be me... Last edited by Taipei-TT; 01-29-2011 at 11:51 AM.. Reason: just added more info |
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01-29-2011, 02:16 PM | #33 | |
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01-29-2011, 03:03 PM | #34 |
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Send an oil sample to Blackstone Labs your next oil change and you can stop wondering. They'll analyze your used oil sample and tell you how your motor is wearing and how much longer you could have gone on that oil (if any) based on the amount of additives left and how broken down the oil is. Chances are you'll be able to easily go 7-10k miles or longer on long life synthetic even if you drive hard.
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01-29-2011, 04:33 PM | #35 |
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honestly, it all matters on how you drive. if you tear the shit out of your car regularly, i would change much, much sooner than the 15k. I run a JB3 on Map 5 and drive pretty hard. I notice a change in performance if I let the car go without a change any more than 7,500 miles, furthermore, the engine runs a lot hotter with the JB3 and a higher map setting. Generally my rule of thumb is when the engine oil becomes low after a change, I add some, then when it's low or at the minimum again, I change it. This is usually 6k-7.5k for me.
Now, if you drive a 328 or something other than the 35 and don't drive that hard, I see no harm in waiting until 7,500-10,000k for a change. I had a 328i before and would change every 9-10k.
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01-29-2011, 06:49 PM | #36 | |
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To the OP, if you haven't seen my thread yet, here's my used oil analysis from Blackstone Labs. I will be extending my 6.8K avg oil change interval up to 10K miles (w/ up to 2 track days) from now on. I'm sure I run my car harder than most tuned cars here, so take it for what it's worth. Every car performs differently, so I recommend doing your own UOI to fit your car and your driving style. http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=475228 Quote:
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01-29-2011, 07:50 PM | #37 |
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With previous cars that used regular oil, manufacturers recommended oil changes every 7.5K miles. I did them every 5K miles and my engines were always spotless.
In my e90, with synthetic oil, the service indicator suggests oil changes every 15K miles (rural driving). So far, I've been splitting that interval in half and doing them every 7.5K miles. When I did my last oil change, my SA recommended NOT doing additional oil changes, even if I plan on keeping my car a long time, and that was based on examining engines that had well over 100K miles on them. I understand the school of thought that says that BMW recommends long service intervals because it keeps their free maintenance costs down, but it is also in BMW's interest to have satisfied customers with engines that last a long time. Plus, every time we have someone touch our cars, we risk someone making a mistake (overfill, underfill, leaks, improperly torqued bolts, etc.). So I've concluded the following: - For normal driving, the recommended oil change interval is probably fine. - For normal driving, enthusiasts that want a margin of safety should probably change their oil every 10K miles. - For hard driving, enthusiasts should probably change it every 7.5K miles. |
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01-29-2011, 08:13 PM | #38 |
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Here's my opinion on this topic based upon what I've read here and my own research in the past.
Originally I asked this question because some engines, based upon design are carbon collectors and run dirtier more so than others and I'm not all that familiar with the BMW Inline-6 - especially the N54 as it pertains to design and engineering. Case in point, I own a 1990 Corvette ZR-1 that I've had since 1994. Factory fill was non-synthetic 10W30 - and I switched to full synthetic. I did have Blackstone Labs run a couple periodic tests and they always came back normal showing no signs of abnormal engine wear and the oil was always clean after 5,000 miles. The ZR-1's LT5 engine is known to build carbon more so than regular engines because of its design and how the PCV system was engineered. Hence the reason why, if you drive the car a lot in stop and go traffic or around town, it's always good to take it out on the highway, wind it up and exercise the engine. The ZR-1 is my weekend toy. I only take it out in the summer during good weather and it sees nothing but highway miles and plenty of exercise. No matter at what intervals I've changed the oil, it usually always comes out looking pretty close to what it looked like going in. The BMW is obviously my daily driver so it sees 1/2 highway miles and 1/2 around town miles per day. It also sees a lot of stop and go traffic to and from work - through highway construction projects that will be going on for at least 3-5 years to come - hence a lot of dust. In my opinion, I think 5,000 mile oil changes is probably overkill....given that 3,000 mile oil changes was once the recommended requirement for non-synthetic oil based cars. Given my driving conditions; higher levels of road dust from construction, traffic, etc., 15,000 miles is probably a little too high and 7,500 miles would probably be better. If I was beating the hell out of it every time I take it out and tracking it on weekends - I'd probably drop it down to 3,000-5,000 just to be on the safe side.
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01-29-2011, 09:53 PM | #39 |
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Oil change intervals should be strictly based on driving style.
For me I drive a very short distance to work on a daily basis. The car doesn't even get a chance to warm up. While I try to make sure I go on a cruise after work to get things warmed up and flowing that's just not enough. When I get to work and shut the car off cold there is a lot of unburnt residual fuel that gets to sit in there and leak into the oil. Gasoline breaks down oil badly, even synthetic oil. On an extreme driving routine like this 3-4k miles would not be a bad plan. Now if you are one that does a 30 mile highway commute every day, 5k is overkill. You could easily push it 7500-10k miles. The car gets up to operating temperature and stays there for a prolonged period, it's able to properly burn all the gas it is using and prevent deposits from sitting in the cylinders. For your average driver I say 5k is a reasonable number. In the most extreme case of highway driving 15k miles wouldn't be wrong but this is like truck driver style driving and most passenger cars are never treated like this. Also just because a shop finds problems with a car when they are doing your oil change doesn't mean they are lieing to you... cars break deal with it. Most shops make little to no profit off of the oil change and if they can get you back in the door for something wrong with the car then they will. This gets twisted by many consumers to be a rip off but hey if the car is broken... well... don't fix it if you don't believe it but its your car and in some very rare cases your life that could be at stake. I know I don't want to have a control arm / ball joint break driving down the highway at 60-70mph. |
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01-30-2011, 11:08 AM | #40 |
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01-31-2011, 09:35 AM | #42 |
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01-31-2011, 09:44 AM | #43 |
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Just chiming in with my experience. I purchased a new 2000 323i (6 cylinder, for those that don't know) and for 9 years I performed 15,000 mile oil changes and 7,500 filter changes. When I replaced the valve cover gasket at 180,000 miles there was no sludge in the engine. The car is still on the road and purrs. My current car, I will change the oil at 10,000 miles, which translates to once a year, just to feel warm and fuzzy.
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02-07-2011, 08:02 AM | #44 | |
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(finally, some factual analysis amongst the handwringing) |
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