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My car has finally hit the one year anniversary. And I have 12,000 miles on it and never an oil change. Now I know we get a free one at 15,000 miles, or is it every year?
For those of you who only change at 15K, any problems?
Anyway, I know what people will say and common sense tells that oil should be changed more often, maybe 5-7K interval, even for synthetic oil. What always mystifies me is if 15K interval is really harmful, why would BMW risk having to repair a bunch of engines under warranty, I mean, that is a WHOLE LOT MORE expenseive than maybe a few more oil changes to them. And even if it's out of warranty, owners who follow the maintenace schedule (i.e. 15K every service or what the computer says) and ended up with busted engine cannot be happy and nor will this be a good business image for the company. They must know something we don't, right?
Anyone care to give me some insight on these question?
The thing is even if not changing the oil regularly is bad for the engine...BMW knows their engines can take it.
As a result your engine will be fine up until the warrantee expires, then that extra wear will take effect when it is gonna come out of your pocket not theirs.
It is so easy to change your own oil...Do one change in between at 7500 miles.
Thats my advice.
Good luck
Get an oil extractor if you don't want to lift the car...
Originally posted by HawFlake@Aug 29 2005, 10:23 AM My car has finally hit the one year anniversary. And I have 12,000 miles on it and never an oil change. Now I know we get a free one at 15,000 miles, or is it every year?
For those of you who only change at 15K, any problems?
Anyway, I know what people will say and common sense tells that oil should be changed more often, maybe 5-7K interval, even for synthetic oil. What always mystifies me is if 15K interval is really harmful, why would BMW risk having to repair a bunch of engines under warranty, I mean, that is a WHOLE LOT MORE expenseive than maybe a few more oil changes to them. And even if it's out of warranty, owners who follow the maintenace schedule (i.e. 15K every service or what the computer says) and ended up with busted engine cannot be happy and nor will this be a good business image for the company. They must know something we don't, right?
Anyone care to give me some insight on these question?
[snapback]373136[/snapback]
I don't think BMW is trying to squeeze a few oil changes out of its customers wallet by lying about the required oil changes. I don't know why so many BMW-owners don't trust BMW. Yes, the company prints those service manual, not the stealer-dealerships or any other lunatic scientist.
The manual says, follow the board computer. It also states that if you don't drive much, change your oil before it's 2 years old. I'm one such driver and I'm gonna have oil changed every 18 months. That's 6,000 miles with my mileage.
so the only bad thing about keeping synthetic in the crank case long is that it does not absorb gasoline. apparently, it is not miscible.
you then end up with droplets and an emulsion, which screws up your bearings bad.
i do not knwo of this, and have not read about it anywhere. this info was communicated to me by an acura engineer, going to the gt racing. he services these, so i guess he knows.
i am not sure this is a problem in a car driven on highway, i 'd think gas would evaporate anyway, and get burned thru pcv.
Originally posted by AIO+Aug 29 2005, 01:57 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AIO @ Aug 29 2005, 01:57 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-HawFlake@Aug 29 2005, 10:23 AM My car has finally hit the one year anniversary.* And I have 12,000 miles on it and never an oil change.* Now I know we get a free one at 15,000 miles, or is it every year?
For those of you who only change at 15K, any problems?
Anyway, I know what people will say and common sense tells that oil should be changed more often, maybe 5-7K interval, even for synthetic oil.* What always mystifies me is if 15K interval is really harmful, why would BMW risk having to repair a bunch of engines under warranty, I mean, that is a WHOLE LOT MORE expenseive than maybe a few more oil changes to them.* And even if it's out of warranty, owners who follow the maintenace schedule (i.e. 15K every service or what the computer says) and ended up with busted engine cannot be happy and nor will this be a good business image for the company.* They must know something we don't, right?
Anyone care to give me some insight on these question?
[snapback]373136[/snapback]
I don't think BMW is trying to squeeze a few oil changes out of its customers wallet by lying about the required oil changes. I don't know why so many BMW-owners don't trust BMW. Yes, the company prints those service manual, not the stealer-dealerships or any other lunatic scientist.
The manual says, follow the board computer. It also states that if you don't drive much, change your oil before it's 2 years old. I'm one such driver and I'm gonna have oil changed every 18 months. That's 6,000 miles with my mileage.
Originally posted by peterkulesza@Aug 29 2005, 12:06 PM so the only bad thing about keeping synthetic in the crank case long is that it does not absorb gasoline. apparently, it is not miscible.
you then end up with droplets and an emulsion, which screws up your bearings bad.
i do not knwo of this, and have not read about it anywhere. this info was communicated to me by an acura engineer, going to the gt racing. he services these, so i guess he knows.
i am not sure this is a problem in a car driven on highway, i 'd think gas would evaporate anyway, and get burned thru pcv.
peter
[snapback]373168[/snapback]
Actually, synthetic oils have more stable additives in them then most less expensive conventional motor oils which allow them to neutralize H2SO4 and other byproducts of combustion better for longer periods of time without breaking down as much.. gasoline doesn't need to be able to be absorbed into you oil..
I'll read more into that, but keep in mind there are VERY few true synthetic oils out there. 98% of the synthetics out there aaren't technically synethics.
It does require a fair bit of chemistry knowledge to fully grasp, but it should be good reading for the more technical of you.
For those who don't want to bother, "synthetics" available on the market today are basically more purified stable versions of traditional oils which stand up to higher pressures and higher temperatures for longer and tend to be able to suspend particulates and other harmful agents for longer. Eventually, with a very pure synthetic, its actually the amount of particulates in the oil, not the oil going "bad" or getting old, which makes the oil change necessary.
Originally posted by nukeduster+Sep 1 2005, 11:02 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nukeduster @ Sep 1 2005, 11:02 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-peterkulesza@Aug 29 2005, 12:06 PM so the only bad thing about keeping synthetic in the crank case long is that it does not absorb gasoline.* apparently, it is not miscible.
you then end up with droplets and an emulsion, which screws up your bearings bad.
i do not knwo of this, and have not read about it anywhere. this info was communicated to me by an acura engineer, going to the gt racing.* he services these, so i guess he knows.
i am not sure this is a problem in a car driven on highway, i 'd think gas would evaporate anyway, and get burned thru pcv.
peter
[snapback]373168[/snapback]
Actually, synthetic oils have more stable additives in them then most less expensive conventional motor oils which allow them to neutralize H2SO4 and other byproducts of combustion better for longer periods of time without breaking down as much.. gasoline doesn't need to be able to be absorbed into you oil..
I'll read more into that, but keep in mind there are VERY few true synthetic oils out there. 98% of the synthetics out there aaren't technically synethics.
It does require a fair bit of chemistry knowledge to fully grasp, but it should be good reading for the more technical of you.
For those who don't want to bother, "synthetics" available on the market today are basically more purified stable versions of traditional oils which stand up to higher pressures and higher temperatures for longer and tend to be able to suspend particulates and other harmful agents for longer. Eventually, with a very pure synthetic, its actually the amount of particulates in the oil, not the oil going "bad" or getting old, which makes the oil change necessary.
I change my oil with Mann filters and Mobil1 0-30w when my indicator reaches 7500. When it reaches near 0, I take it to the dealer and they do the DOCUMENTED oil change. This way BMW(warranty) is happy, with the frequent changes, my car is happy.
My car has finally hit the one year anniversary. And I have 12,000 miles on it and never an oil change. Now I know we get a free one at 15,000 miles, or is it every year?
For those of you who only change at 15K, any problems?
Anyway, I know what people will say and common sense tells that oil should be changed more often, maybe 5-7K interval, even for synthetic oil. What always mystifies me is if 15K interval is really harmful, why would BMW risk having to repair a bunch of engines under warranty, I mean, that is a WHOLE LOT MORE expenseive than maybe a few more oil changes to them. And even if it's out of warranty, owners who follow the maintenace schedule (i.e. 15K every service or what the computer says) and ended up with busted engine cannot be happy and nor will this be a good business image for the company. They must know something we don't, right?
Anyone care to give me some insight on these question?
You can get the oil changed once a year per scheduled maint. regardless of the mileage!
I have a 2000 323ci with 124000 miles. I drive a lot. I change oil at 7500 miles and this is the reason why:
While it is true that synthetic oil is more stable over the long run and all the other great claims about synthetic oil are also probably true, oil filter technology has not significantly changed in the last 30 years. Sure the paper elements are better and to some degree are able to capture smaller particles than in the past but over all it's still a folded paper filter - like they have always been.
If you look at your oil at 7500 miles it is not the same clean color as it was when it was changed. That is because after 7500 miles there are contaminates in the oil that the filter cannot remove. The oil is fine but it contains millions of small particles (contaminates) that will, over time cause engine tolerances to change.
Yes, the engines can take the wear - but if I can reduce the wear or spread it out over a longer period of time by simply changing the oil at 7500 miles instead of 15K miles why not?
If you don't plan to keep the car more than a few years then this is not an issue but if you plan to keep it for 6 - 10 years then I say change at 7500. These engines will last 250k to 300k easily if maintained well and with more frequent oil changes - not because the oil won't last but because of the contaminates that the filter cannot remove.
Until filter technology catches up to the synthetic oil, the oil will become contaminated long befor the suggested 15k oil change interval.
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