E90 Oil Change (DIY)

I would like to share my experience of changing the oil in my 2006 BMW 325i (e90) with sport package. My car has only 2300 miles on it, but I thought I should do a post break-in period oil change. ...

I am planning to do the oil change this weekend, and I will look the blot.

That is rather odd! Maybe someone else with a 330i can verify whether there's a difference in the oil pan shape between the 330i and 325i. I would have assumed the same shape since the part numbers are supposed to be the same for the 3-liter block. Perhaps BMW made a change during manufacture. When was your car built? My car was built in May, 2005.

mine is the same as the pictures.

Danny

http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog....4500&SKU=10122

At this online store there is available this oil extractor. Problem is, it goes down the dipstick!

I would like to get one to do my X5 oil changes, but I wonder if it work on the E90???? I had better call them Monday to ask.

hi, could anyone please tell me whether royal purple oil is BMW approved ? i would like to use it in my E90 330i engine.

Here's some pics from my oil change. I jacked it up from the right-rear jack point, then placed a jack stand under the right-front jack point for safety.

As you can see, my drain plug is parallel to the ground, unlike Wraith's.
I've got a 330, late July production.

A couple of things I found:
The copper crush washer was glued to the drain plug with paint, so it took me a bit of looking to see that I needed to pry it off first.

After the change, I parked my car on my slanted driveway, and when I later moved it, there were some oil drippings. I figured I had under-tightened the plug, so I checked it out. There didn't seem to be any oil around the plug, and it was plenty tight. However, there was oil on the underside of the plastic underbody cover. I'm guessing that the oil stream went a little wild while it was draining, and got oil in there. Once I sopped it up, I haven't seen any more drippings.

I got about 6.25 quarts of drained oil out, so I initially refilled with 6.5 quarts. I took it for a drive, and at first it showed up as full. As I drove more, it soon showed one notch low. I added another quarter quart, and it still showed a notch low. A little more, still low. Then I took it for a longer drive (around 20 miles) and it eventually showed as full. In all I added about 7.5 quarts. The lesson is, when you think it should be full, take it for a long drive before adding too much oil.

I used jacks on the right side instead of ramps. After I had drained it fully, I dropped it back down to level ground, and another 1/2 quart drained out. If you want to be really anal, this a good way to get the most oil out.

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No, no Royal purple oils appear on BMW's approved lists

USA 325i and 330i have same oil pan

It must be a change in the production part
Ill check if the number changed recently early next week

mc68386,

Indeed, your oil pan looks different than mine - a lot larger. I think BMW changed the oil pan between May and July. Let's wait for E90Fleet to verify. I'm sure he will come through for us.

Any one figure out if the bolt in front of the drain door is actually the front jack point? The plastic cover shape looks like for jack pad.

It looks the same size to me, just different.

Looks like the difference is between auto and manual cars

Please post your type of drain plug ( straight down or sideways ) and what transmission you have

Straight down, 330, MT, July production

I have a 325i with automatic transmission. The drain bolt is sideways.

From what I see of HRC's signature, he has a manual transmission but said his drain bolt is oriented like mine - sideways...

Yes, just like yours! I dunno?

Danny

Really great write-up. Thanks for this. Just a question...has anyone considered using the Fumoto valve to make the oil changes easier? You can read about it here: http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_2029/article.html

Don't know if it would fit on the E90 however?

that's a great little invention, hmm wonder why nobody thought of it sooner.

Very cool, yet just a little scary.

Thanks for the DIY.....just got done with my first oil change.
For those of you who wants to wait until 15,000 miles....go ahead.
But today, when I empty the used oil into the recycler container....
there were quite a few pieces of metallic debris that I could clearly see......NASTY!
The engine was LITERALLY Breakin' In!

definitely getting mine done before 15,000. Thanks for info nautreboy.

I'm new to this world and was wondering if the oil filter can be changed without changing the oil. After a 7.5k oil change and the dealer paid 15k oil change I had the idea to change the oil filter every 7.5k and then having the oil services done every 15k. Is this possible and/or reasonable? Make any sense?

I had the same idea. I decided to look at the oil after break-in (1550 mi) and see how it looked. If it looked OK, I'd just change the filter. If it looked bad, I'd change the oil too. Why change anything? Because all break-in is is wearing off of metal shavings inside the engine. Big shavings get caught by the filter (shortening its life). Small shavings are too small for the filter to catch, so they just flow through the engine, which doesn't sound like it could possibly be a good thing.
So, I looked at the oil (by opening up the filter compartment) and saw lots of metal flake in the oil. Based on that, I changed the oil and filter both. I'll take another look at the oil at around 5K miles.