First Oil Change on 3.0i

I did the first oil change on my wife's 2005 3.0i with 5,500 miles. Here's a DIY guide on how I did it. Took approx. 30 minutes. Hope this helps somewhat to those who wish to do it themseleves.

Step1: DIY Oil (Mobil1 5/30) and Oil Filter Kit for 2005 X3, 3.0i. Kit comes with O-ring and crush washer.



Step2: Raise the vehicle safely.



Step3: Loosen the oil filter element cap using 36mm socket.



Step4:Remove old oil filter and O-ring. Notice what it looks like at 5,500 miles



Step5: Clean up all the old oil from the filter cannister.



Step6: Loosen the oil drain plug underneath the vehicle using 17mm socket and begin to drain the oil.



Step6a: Replace the washer, plug the drain plug back and tighten.



Step7: Lube the O-ring with new oil, pour some oil on the filter cannister and filter. This will prevent oil starvation when you first start the vehicle up.



Step8: Replace and tighten the oil filter element cap.



Step9: Pour oil into the oil filler. I first pour 6qts. Took the vehicle off the ramp and let her idle for a minute. Checked the level and ended up using a little over 7qts of oil.

Very informative, thanks for posting! Although, hopefully I will never have to change my oil myself since I have a lease and full maintenance.

I've never filled up the oil filter cannaster w /oil.

Thanks for the tip...and great write up!!

I got the car in Jan 2005 which is X3 3.0i 2005 and I just the 1st oils change at 15510 Miles The dealer told me just drive the car until the display miles going down to 500 miles then call them for appoinment to bring the car in for free oils change.

I am not sure why did you have to change by yourself? Is it free oils change up untill 50000 miles ? I drove 15000 miles in 6 months.

Oh, Every oils change including new front and back winshield wiper too.

Cubi

Originally Posted by Cubi

I drove 15000 miles in 6 months.


Cubi

Damn, you beat me. I put 10K in the first 6 months. Love the car so much I drove it everywhere.

Originally Posted by Cubi

I got the car in Jan 2005 which is X3 3.0i 2005 and I just the 1st oils change at 15510 Miles The dealer told me just drive the car until the display miles going down to 500 miles then call them for appoinment to bring the car in for free oils change.

I am not sure why did you have to change by yourself? Is it free oils change up untill 50000 miles ? I drove 15000 miles in 6 months.

Cubi

Because some us have two concerns:

1. We don't believe BMW's maintenance schedule claims are good for long-term vehicle life. Funny how before maintenance was included in the cost of the vehicle, on similar or identical hardware and similar or identical fluids BMW used to recommend much more frequent maintenance. For those of us planning long-term (>5 year) ownership spending a few hundred bucks extra on fluids is cheap insurance.

2. BMW dealers are notorious for terrible service, and the tales of damaged or abused cars occur all too often. I prefer to avoid dealers unless absolutely necessary. In one case, not BMW admittedly, I was out at lunch and saw my car at a resturant. The service writer was using it as personal transporation. Dinged doors, scratches, curbed wheels, crashes... and in almost every case I've either personally experienced or heard about BMW dealers are defiant when you try to resolve the issue.

great post. good to see that changing the oil filter is a snap.

question: did you reset the service interval computer?

comment: i did my 15k oil change at bmw and they were able to do it within an hour while i waited.

Originally Posted by kcnyla

great post. good to see that changing the oil filter is a snap.

question: did you reset the service interval computer?

comment: i did my 15k oil change at bmw and they were able to do it within an hour while i waited.

thanks. no i did not reset the service interval computer. (can you do that?) i still want the dealer to do the "free" service and i think that's how it's calculated if i'm not mistaken

Man, that filter looks pretty bad for being about 10,000 miles away from the BMW recommended oil change. So, for those that don't believe the scheduled intervals are good for the lengevity of the car then what would be BMW overall purpose for this? If it hurts the car in the long run, then that means they will break down sooner and, eventually, start getting a reputation for having their cars not last very long (or as long as they used to).

My question is....why would they risk that?

Originally Posted by Rob V

Man, that filter looks pretty bad for being about 10,000 miles away from the BMW recommended oil change.

How can you tell? The filter is simply brown from being saturated with brown oil. Oil naturally turns dark from heat. The only ways to tell if a filter is in bad shape is if it's physically damaged or if the filtering media is found to be clogged. Color is irrelevant, unless you change your oil every thousand miles or so, so that the oil stays honey-colored.

Originally Posted by IMR

How can you tell? The filter is simply brown from being saturated with brown oil. Oil naturally turns dark from heat. The only ways to tell if a filter is in bad shape is if it's physically damaged or if the filtering media is found to be clogged. Color is irrelevant, unless you change your oil every thousand miles or so, so that the oil stays honey-colored.

Well, echelon (the OP) seemed to be pretty surprised himself and he's the one that took the picture. I'll admit that I don't know a whole lot about it. I've only changed the oil in a car once or twice but it still looked pretty bad...*based on the the picture*. This still brings me to the point though....should we proactively be changing out the oil sooner than 15,000 miles to avoid a possible BMW scheme?

where can i buy Oil Filter Kit

Originally Posted by ggd4971

where can i buy Oil Filter Kit

I usually get mine from the dealer.

Originally Posted by ggd4971

where can i buy Oil Filter Kit

I bought oil and filter from the dealer for my E90.

7 qts of 5W30 BMW synthetic $37.80
1 OE BMW filter $10.90

Originally Posted by echelon153

I did the first oil change on my wife's 2005 3.0i with 5,500 miles. Here's a DIY guide on how I did it. Took approx. 30 minutes. Hope this helps somewhat to those who wish to do it themseleves.

Great write-up!

I'm still puzzled why your '05 just had the first oil change. The dealer will change your oil annually (included in the free maint) if you do not put many miles on the car. (For example, my '05 M3 has only 8,000 miles on it and has had the oil changed three times by the dealer for free, although the first of those was an extra M break-in change.)

Originally Posted by LMC

I'm still puzzled why your '05 just had the first oil change.

Look at the dates. This thread is ancient. First post is from August 2005.

Originally Posted by Rob V

should we proactively be changing out the oil sooner than 15,000 miles to avoid a possible BMW scheme?

If you intend to keep it past the warranty I would definitely change the oil at least once between the 15K BMW schedule. When I had my E90 I did mine at 5k and 10K then let the dealer do the 15K. I only used BMW oil and filters and kept it to myself.

I'll do the same on my X3 when I get it.

My daughter has the E90 now, has it serviced on their schedule, and she occasionally gets the infamous N52 lifter tick, which I never got.

This is an excellent write up with photos. The only difference is that I would be hesitant to use Mobil 1 5W30. I presume this oil is ok if you change it frequently. However, that oil does not have the BMW Longlife specification.

BMW LL04 oils include Total Quartz INEO MC3 5W30, which is hard to find but available in retail stores in Michigan and online at several places including performanceoilstore com. This would probably be my first choice.

If one prefers Mobil 1, consider 0W40 which has the BMW Longlife 01 specification. There's a debate about 0W40 being a PAO (name of chemical family), which is desirable, while the other grades are not.

My third choice would Castrol Syntec 0W30, a PAO, and my 4th choice would be the dealer BMW synthetic 5W30, which some say is not a PAO.

I don't mean to turn this thread into an oil war. Perhaps, this is just a note to look up oil threads on this forum if you are interested.

Originally Posted by Andrew*Debbie

Look at the dates. This thread is ancient. First post is from August 2005.

D'oh! Fell into the trap again!

Still and all it was a nice pictorial "do it yourself" guide. Just reinforced my decision to let the dealer do it for me!

Originally Posted by UncleJ

Still and all it was a nice pictorial "do it yourself" guide.

And a pretty good subject to get bumped up.

Changing the oil on an '07 and newer X3 3.0si is slightly different.

Best to use this special tool or one like it to remove the top of the oil canister. No 36mm flats on the current cap.

http://www.turnermotorsport.com/html...ID=83300493936

Actually, this thread is bookmarked for me. It's nice to double-check the instructions everytime I do it myself, which is every 7,5k miles with Castrol 0W-30.

Originally Posted by Andrew*Debbie

Changing the oil on an '07 and newer X3 3.0si is slightly different.

Best to use this special tool or one like it to remove the top of the oil canister. No 36mm flats on the current cap.

http://www.turnermotorsport.com/html...ID=83300493936

I have nothing against special tools, but has anyone had success with a strap wrench or similar general tool?

Originally Posted by b-y

I have nothing against special tools, but has anyone had success with a strap wrench or similar general tool?

A rubber Craftsman strap wrench worked just fine on my E90.

The cap should not be real tight as the sealing O ring is on the side and tightening the cap beyond bottoming out does nothing.