F10 550 owners, how often do you change your oil?

I fall under the 1 year/10k miles category, but on the outside chance I decide to keep this big puppy, how often are you changing your oil? I figure if I did, it would be every 6 months.

Anyone keeping theirs past warranty exparation and doing more than BMW's rediculous minimal recommendations? I had problems with it on a 328, and dont' feel any better with a very complex twin turbo V8 engine.

Apologize in advance if this has been hit up before.

Danke.

When you say you had problems on a 528, in what way?

My car is leased, if I owned it the only difference is I would have changed it at 1000 miles. Other than that I would not likely do much different unless I did a lot of short distance driving where the car never got warmed up fully. I've always been one to change my oil frequently (I do it myself). But truthfully, under most conditions changing oil more frequently probably is very highly overrated.

Email Mike Miller at BMWCCA, Roundel and Bimmer magazine. Ask him for "old school" maintenance schedule. Read and decide.

every 6 months. Using Motul 8100 X-clean 5w30

This is my oil filter after my first DIY oil change at 3,000 miles. I believe in doing the first oil change at 1,000 miles (I was very late) and then every 5,000 miles. Motul 8100 5w30 has a great reputation, I have used it before in my Porsche. Unfortunately, it is not readily available in my area and I have to have it shipped in.

I had my oil analyzed by Blackstone at 12kmi and it looked good for a couple thousand more miles. I think a break-in oil change wouldn't hurt, but after that, I would be happy with only once per year. I plan to keep my car for 80kmi, which for me is only four years.

Thanks for the input on the oil change. I didn't have problems with my 328, but did have a problem with long-life oil changes that go out 17k miles or so. If it's leased, that's what the next buyer can deal with.

When I had my 997.2, I changed in spring (only driven 1,200 miles/year). Overkill yes, but from new (got it with 3 miles on the clock) it was drinking a quart about every 4-600 miles, which Porsche said was "normal."

I had an 08 535xi that I put 15k on in one year which didn't get pampered treatment. Cared for, but no extra oil changes.

I lease so I simply follow the cars' electronics when it says to come in. If I owned it I would change the oil a lot more often.

This Ford/Conoco study indicates that "aged oil" as they call it lubricates better than fresh oil.
http://papers.sae.org/2007-01-4133/

There was a similar study, also reported as an SAE paper, that showed that fresh oil had a tendency to remove the old tribological anti-wear layer (zddp) laid down by the old oil before the fresh oil lays down its own layer. Wear increased during this 'break-in" period. I didn't book mark it because I couldn't believe it (didn't want to believe it) at the time.

This informal study supports the Ford study - http://web.archive.org/web/201010242...es/mobil1.html.

The bottom line is that the more often you change the oil (before the cbs says to do it) , the more often you are putting your engine through this "break-in" period of sub-optimal lubrication, for the first two or three thousand miles.

There's only a couple of reasons I can think of to change the oil "prematurely" before the CBS computer says to do so:
If a used oil analysis (done when the cbs says to do an oil change) shows that for your particular driving conditions you should do it earlier; or, looking ahead to when you sell the car, dealing with the Mike Miller followers who will run out into the night when you tell them that you changed the oil according to BMW's recommendations.

So how much oil does one loose during a filter change only? Is it an easy process for most cars?

So far I changed my oil at 2000 miles and 5000 miles.

Originally Posted by Stealth.Pilot

So far I changed my oil at 2000 miles and 5000 miles.

So, you dont ascribe to the study's findings?

Originally Posted by Ace535i

So, you dont ascribe to the study's findings?

I don't care about a few hundred bucks. I do care about ensuring my engine performs flawlessly.

While this is probably more to do with my break-in procedure than my oil change schedule, I do know that my car has not burned any oil where many here have burned over a quart with the same miles. I also don't have issues with rough idle or any of the other engine problems some forum members may have raised.

So, is it really about just changing the filtre, or the synthetic oil as well in order to ensure long engine preservation and top performance?

I'm going to have to look into changing my own oil. Depends on what I can DIY vs. Dealer. There's a chance I might keep this car, I a preventative oil change by 2k might be worth it. So far by comp. read-out I'm not drinking oil--by the tail-pipes it doesn't look like that as well.

Whatever the car says. I am one who believes that an early engine oil change actually hurts the engine vs helping it (apparently so do most manufacturers)...

You can do whatever you like. I purchased my car and will change the oil and filter about every 5k mi. even if the dash computer does not require a change. So sometimes the dealer changes the oil and filter under warranty and sometimes I do. Again, each to his or her own!

Originally Posted by Emilner

Whatever the car says. I am one who believes that an early engine oil change actually hurts the engine vs helping it (apparently so do most manufacturers)...

Then why does BMW recommend a 1200 mile oil change on the M3 and M5?

Originally Posted by Stealth.Pilot

Then why does BMW recommend a 1200 mile oil change on the M3 and M5?

I'm not sure why they do for the M cars and not the others. Since they sell orders of magnitude more non-M cars than they do M's, so their warranty exposure is far larger with the non-M cars. Maybe it's just part of the M ownership experience. I know of two E60 M5 owners locally who dumped their M5's right after seeing a large amount the metal particles in the oil filter and the oil pan.

Originally Posted by Stealth.Pilot

Then why does BMW recommend a 1200 mile oil change on the M3 and M5?

It is not for financial reasons. Every manufacturer tries whatever is necessary to make their motors last. No one want to be known as the company whose engines grenade at 60k miles. For what ever reason they feel the M cars require an earlier change....

Originally Posted by Emilner

It is not for financial reasons. Every manufacturer tries whatever is necessary to make their motors last. No one want to be known as the company whose engines grenade at 60k miles. For what ever reason they feel the M cars require an earlier change....

Right.

But since the OP addressed his question to 550 owners, I am assuming he has a 550. The F10 550 engine and the F10 M5 engine are very similar. The M5 has some additional technologies like Valvetronic, twin-scroll turbos, and a different turbo configuration, but it is a similar engine nonetheless. Which is why I think what's good for the M5 must also be good for the 550.

Originally Posted by Stealth.Pilot

Right.

But since the OP addressed his question to 550 owners, I am assuming he has a 550. The F10 550 engine and the F10 M5 engine are very similar. The M5 has some additional technologies like Valvetronic, twin-scroll turbos, and a different turbo configuration, but it is a similar engine nonetheless. Which is why I think what's good for the M5 must also be good for the 550.

Maybe they do extensive engine breakin on the M engines, or there are different tolerances. At the end of the day if it was good for the engine they would say to do it...