[PhaseP]

Originally Posted by Bims328i

BMW says their transmission fluid is lifetime. LIFETIME.

BMW says you don't need to change your oil but every 10k miles.

Most don't trust the lifetime transmission fluid recommendation claim.

But will run their car on a 10k mile oil change and trust that recommendation.

When it costs less to just change your oil to keep your engine running new.

Oil in a combustion engine is crucial. Clean oil is critical to preserving the engine as a whole.

With costly and complex engine like in these BMW, just change your oil frequently. It is the cheaper alternative.

E90 cars are on the road for 17~18 years now, and that is more than enough time to show extended oil change intervals would cause problems with their engines. It didn't. Just use LL01 oil, and correct filter.

[mittu]

Theres a comment here about trusting OEM oil service interval.
If the OEM is using ambiguos terms for wearable consumables such as transmission oil, and it turns out they did not make the component, then its common-sense to check directly with the component manufacturer and other reliable sources.

Engine oil service varies depending on country, how hard you drive, remaps, engine wear, fuel grade.
For example;
Assuming the car is fairly new, unmodified, filled with regular petrol and driven normally, the service interval widely differs between US and Europe due to fuel quality.
In Western Europe its fine to go 18-20k miles/ 2yrs between oil changes (BMW), but its not the case in the US and most of the world. Both the car maker and oil company have specified this.

It has nothing to do with RON/AKI rating. Fuel quality is much more than just the octane rating.
And if your car is remapped, aged and well driven, then you may like to consider a thicker oil and a shorter service interval.

You cant just go off the sticker from when the car was new, because it isn't new anymore.
You wouldn't feed baby food to a 10yr old, so why would you put 0w-20 in a 10yr old high mileage engine?

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by PhaseP

E90 cars are on the road for 17~18 years now, and that is more than enough time to show extended oil change intervals would cause problems with their engines. It didn't. Just use LL01 oil, and correct filter.

This, close the thread.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by mittu

There's a comment here about trusting OEM oil service interval.
If the OEM is using ambiguous terms for wearable consumables such as transmission oil, and it turns out they did not make the component, then its common-sense to check directly with the component manufacturer and other reliable sources.

Engine oil service varies depending on country, how hard you drive, remaps, engine wear, fuel grade.
For example;
assuming the car is fairly new, unmodified, filled with regular petrol and driven normally, the service interval widely differs between US and Europe due to fuel quality.
In Western Europe its fine to go 18-20k miles/ 2yrs between oil changes (BMW), but its not the case in the US and most of the world. Both the car maker and oil company have specified this.

It has nothing to do with RON/AKI rating. Fuel quality is much more than just the octane rating.
And if your car is remapped, aged and well driven, then you might want to consider thicker oil and a shorter service interval.

You can't just go off the sticker from when the car was new, because it isn't new anymore.
You wouldn't feed a 15yr old baby food, so why would you put 0w-20 in a 15yr old high mileage engine?

So just a few notes to add to PhaseP comments. The only place where "lifetime" is mentioned regarding fluids is a sticker on the manual transmission, which states the oil in the manual transmission is a lifetime fill. Per page 7 of the E90 (US petrol version) the automatic transmission oil change interval is 100,000 miles. There is no official BMW oil change interval for the differential(s) or transfercase (for xi models). Coolant change interval is also not specified by BMW.

In the case of my car, which is well documented on E90 Post, I'm currently at 423,000 miles on the original factory installed engine and transmission. Neither has been rebuilt. My Engine OCI average is at 12,400 miles and the transmission OCI average is just under 100,000 miles. My car is "well driven" as you suggest requires additional maintenance and "thicker" engine oil. I'll not restate how my car has been used for the past 17 years I've owned it, but you can find my mileage interval updates I've posted over the years and find out. In short regarding engine oil service, I've only used BMW 5W-30 engine oil and a BMW OE oil filter or the MANN aftermarket OEM HU-816x filter. I've only used BMW oils in the transmission and differential. I've only used BMW coolant in the cooling system. The BMW fluids can be found on the internet for reasonable prices.

As PhaseP stated, the E90 has been out in the real-world fleet for 18+ years now. The maintenance and longevity is well known and established at this point. Over maintaining the E9X does not make it last any longer than the BMW CBS and recommended service intervals published at the time the cars were sold. There is no "assumption" of "fairly new" since the newest E9X you can buy was last sold in 2013. There are no "fairly new" E9X left. One buys a E9X at this point and he gets what he gets. It is a matter of money and effort as to how much he wants to bring the car back to near-new condition.

I can speak to this subject matter because I am an original owner of a 400,000+ mile E90 and have publicly documented the maintenance history of my car and periodically update the car's health here on E90 Post. I provide data for people to consider, but everyone is free to maintain their BMW as they think is appropriate. The analogy regarding baby food makes no sense, a car is not an organism, it is a machine made of plastic, rubber, glass, and metal. And please don't be one of those members who say BMW's service and maintenance schedules are inadequate if the car is tuned or tracked. Of course that is the case, because you are using the car as not intended by BMW.

[Bims328i]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

In the case of my car, which is well documented on E90 Post, I'm currently at 423,000 miles on the original factory installed engine and transmission. Neither has been rebuilt. My Engine OCI average is at 12,400 miles and the transmission OCI average is just under 100,000 miles. My car is "well driven" as you suggest requires additional maintenance and "thicker" engine oil. I'll not restate how my car has been used for the past 17 years I've owned it, but you can find my mileage interval updates I've posted over the years and find out. In short regarding engine oil service, I've only used BMW 5W-30 engine oil and a BMW OE oil filter or the MANN aftermarket OEM HU-816x filter. I've only used BMW oils in the transmission and differential. I've only used BMW coolant in the cooling system. The BMW fluids can be found on the internet for reasonable prices.

That is actually quite amazing you have THAT many miles on your E90. I wish I could have ordered mine and had it from the start. Thinking back around that time maybe I could have but wasn't looking at BMW. They are great cars if you take care of them like you obviously have! The previous owners that had my car didn't really seem to care so much about that. So maybe some of us are trying to mend these mistakes and figure out the best course of action from there. Cheers to the New Year!

[bmsaltlife]

I have a 2023 BMW 330i 2.0L and use a 0w-20 European formula. Every 5K, I do it myself.

https://www.searchforparts.com/artic...e-and-capacity