Oil change once a year???

Fyi

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=428361&highlight=marketing+for+fools

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e6...-old-school-maintenance-schedule-our-m5s.html

lifetime fluids and 15 k oil changes mean the lifetime is 100k miles
They will not change at 12k unless something has changed.
You do get a yearly free change if you don't have a computer recall.
This is marketing 101 they don't want your car to last they want to sell you an new one
planned obsolescence

The Blackstone oil reports listed in many threads on this forum say the oil is depleted of all additives at 10k
most people that care about there cars will change at no more than 7.5k

Here we go again
http://www.carbibles.com/engineoil_bible.html

http://www.carjunky.com/news/motor_oil/mom4.shtml

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94785

Also leasers don't care about this aspect at all.

To my mind, an oil change is cheap insurance. I do agree that the 3000 mile oil change espoused by the quick-lube places is ridiculous and really only exists to get the uneducated back for their next oil change much sooner. However, I also am of the belief that the 15,000 mile oil change is also ridiculous simply because oil is a wear item.

If you do some reading into what oil actually goes through inside the crankcase of an engine, then you can understand why after 10,000 miles it's pretty much spent. I tend to agree with those who say a 7,500 mile oil change is in order... and if you want to save a bit of money either do it yourself or take it to an indy mechanic. No reason to take it to BMW to spend what they're asking.

Now, as far as leased cars... well honestly the way I view it is that from BMW's perspective they actually don't really care either. The 15,000 mile oil change means that during the average lease you'll have your oil changed twice. After that, the car goes CPO and is then owned by someone else, and therefore is someone else's problem. Statistically, 15K oil changes if they do cause problems with an engine are unlikely to cause problems immediately. In fact, I'd be highly surprised if you'd see problems much before 100K miles, by which point the car is no longer owned by BMWFS, no longer a CPO and no longer BMW's problem. And they'd much rather you go out and buy a new BMW than own a BMW that's sitting at 100K miles or more.

I'm sure there was plenty of market and statistical analysis that went into the 15K oil change cycle, mostly accounting. There's a certain level of acceptable risk that BMW will take on because I would say the statistical likelihood of problems is VERY low.

I will say for the record that my current DD; a 1996 Subaru SVX has 148K miles on the clock, no leaks and runs like a top. OK, it has a power steering leak at the moment, but that has nothing to do with oil. This car has had nothing but Mobil 1 pretty much all of its life changed at 7500 miles. There's nary a valve click unless it's really cold (very common on these flat sixes) and despite its share of electrical gremlins and now old wear items starting to fail (wheel bearings, transmission seals etc) the car has been incredibly reliable. I plan to take the same maintenance track with my 135i when it gets stateside, and though I'm leasing there's a good chance I'll buy out the lease and keep the car for a while if I like it. Even if I don't, the next owner will get a CPO that's been babied and might last them a long while.

d geek said:

I'd say you're wasting your $$

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Below are two S54 engines, the "clean" one is mine during the last valve adjustment I performed at ~32k. The other has 40k. MY S54 oil change interval is 4500 miles, the other, even though the recommended interval is halved (7500 miles), has broken down oil detergent, varnish and this "gold" tint. You can be the judge, but I'd rather have the engine clean inside.

Montreal 007 said:

All the cars i have driven in the past, i had to change the oil every 6000 miles according to owners manual.....BMW says once a year or 12,000 miles. I find that astonishing. The sceptic in me says BMW recommends this so the car wont last as long and you have to buy a new one sooner. On the other hand i am sure BMW has a good reason for this. Your thoughts?

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Yes, they have a good reason...to save them (BMW) a lot of $$$. Prior to them covering maintenance, BMW had shorter change intervals. Yes, synthetic oils are better and I'm guessing the enginerds at BMW did a cost/benefit that said, "hey, we can stretch out the oil change intervals, save a lot of money, and there will only be a .0001 uptick of engine failures if we do this", so bingo, they did it because even with that slight increase of potential engine failures they would have to cover, it still saves them a lot of dinero.

Also, I'm guessing (educated, ha) the majority of snobby, snooty, newest model now BMW owner's wouldn't be caught dead in a 4+ year old or 100k+ mile BMW, so again, BMW doesn't have to worry about it....and still saves $$$.

I plan on keeping my BMW for quite a long time, so going more than 10k miles withOUT an oil change seems ridiculous to me, so I will spend the $50-60 bucks and do my own oil change every 7500 miles. Then again, I suspect the actual engine is the least of my worries on a BMW, especially one with an HPFP. Ha. Knock on wood, but I've yet to have an engine blow on any of my cars....3k mile oil changes or 10k mile oil changes (thank you Honda), and engines are so well built nowadays you are probably doing something pretty nutty to blow them.

As for the analysis of your oil, I had one done and there was no "fear-mongering" at all from the company I used and actually told me to extend my drain interval and try again. I will do one more and then go from there, but pretty sure I'll be sticking with 7500 miles at most.

Good Luck!!

ctuna said:

How did you get the dipstick in?
Is that standard with an M car?

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S54 has a built-in dipstick, see to the left of the intake elbow. It "was" standard for the S engines, yes, but I believe the S65 uses the sensor and has removed the dipstick, which is a damn shame.