525i Oil Change

[boatingdobbins]

I just purchased a '04 525i - my first BMW. I do not agree with the long recommended oil change intervala. I enjoy working on cars and plan on doing the oil change myself. I believe that oil changes are covered by the warranty as the car only has 23,000 miles.

Should I take the car to the dealer for the free changes at the recommended interval and do a change myself in between? Any problems with this approach?

[M.Wong]

I don't know about the newer 5ers and if they have service indicators/lights, but on the E39 the dealer would change the oil only when the oil service or inspection lights came on, or once per year, which ever came first.

I did two oil changes myself (every 4K miles or so) without resetting the service indicators, so I would still get the BMW Maintenance ones done at no cost. I think most enthusiasts would agree with that frequency, and not the factory or service light intervals.