OIL CHANGE rip off

[mattchapman]

Hi
I'm a bit of a newbie here. I recently bought a 2001 330Ci in a private sale which had only 10500 miles on it. Now I'm up to 12,500 miles and my oil service is due per the dash computer. I called San Francisco BMW and they said it's $250. Yikes!! They said the car had an annual service there in Feb 2003 but they still need to change to coolant as well as the oil change.

Is this "normal"?

Thanks

[CiscoKid]

sadly, yes.... i do mine myself now, beacuse the dealers are assholes. you can also change your e36 or e30 service lights if you search around on the forum

[gonzo499]

don't do it dude. the only thing you need to give a dealer that wants 250$ to change your oil is the finger. i was really amazed how easy it is to do myself. this is a handy link with a ton of do it youself info. i have it bookmarked and use it often. handy DIY link
make sure you use full synthetic! i believe its castrol syntec 5w-30
here is acutally another link to another thread here on the subject. oil change thread

[mattchapman]

OK thanks guys. I'm not sure if I have the required tools to do it myself, but I'll check out those links.
Cheers

[bearing01]

$250 is steep. Change the coolant? The Bentley service manual suggests changing the engine/rad coolant every 4 years. Your car is 3yrs and I would see the reasoning if you had 60k+ miles... but you have under 15k. I think they are ripping you! Rad coolant / antifreeze is anti-corrosive. As it ages it looses its anti-corrosiveness. It's a good idea but IMO it doesn't need to be done yet. There are DIY posts that illustrate how easy a flush is to do. You could also go to the stealer and get the BMW anti-freeze then run to a garage and get them to flush it for you... I think this would be cheaper.

Change the oil yourself. The last oil change I had done was at the dealer for $80us. there are many web sites and posts that illustrate how easy it is to change the oil... the only difference (compared to other cars) is the location and type of oil filter. On the 2001 you may be able to reset the oil indicator on your instrument cluster by pushing the left reset button... search the forum for more info on this.

[mattchapman]

Thanks for the info. I'll give it a go.

[hgachoka]

Take it to Jiffy Lube for about $60 - just make sure to tell them to use synthetic oil

[peterkulesza]

ok:

bmw puts castrol in there (syntech or whatever). this particular oil has a lot of ash, and an unnnecessarily high zinc content. i use mobil one, 5w30. no ash, best flow at all temps aside from redline synthetics. redline is NOT on the approved list by bmw (unlike mobil1), so i would not use it during warranty period. that aside, redline has probably the best synthetics...

peter

[2 Beeg]

because of your low miles, dont you have a service warranty left on it?
Mine is up to 60,000km and all oil changes and any services to the car
is paid by BMW. used

[Gulelin]

Hey Peter, what does the zinc content do? I don't know anything about synthetics oils so I don't know the ramifications of the ash or zinc contents.

[peterkulesza]

ash &*(^s everything up. this includes main bearings (VERY soft bronze) as well as cam bearings (some alloy i know nothin' about). it makes no difference for rings. so, no ash is best (i.e. only mobil 1), and low ash is almost as good (some valvoline petroleum-based non-synthetics, but since you are required by bmw to use synthetics, this is of no relevance).

zinc: some people (castrol, others) add zinc to prevent high temperature scoring of the cylinder wall. this usually entails overheating the piss out of the motor, and really does not do a good job anyway. the cylidner bore gets scored, cos the rings do not catch up to the piss poor sheer characteristics of the oil. i take this as an indication of failure on the part of the oil designer. if sheer flow characteristics were done well, zinc would not be necessary to compensate.

more on sheer: this is critical in thin film such as cam bearings, or cylinder wall. it is interesitng to note that the viscosity rating as indicated on the bottle has absolutely nothing to do with it. i.e. a 20w50 oil can become like water (0w0 or worse) in thin film sheer. some people (like redline) study this stuff cos they sell the oil to racers, who do it at revs exceeding 10k. so they know what works well.

i change my oil at around 7.5 k, and ask bmw dealer to use my mobil1. since they do it for free until 48k, makes no difference (i am out 7 quarts x $5 per quart). i DO NOT reset the oil counter, cos this just creates unnecessary questions from the stealer (so when did you last change the oil ???).

peter

[3Aims]

Originally posted by peterkulesza@May 5 2004, 07:17 PM
i change my oil at around 7.5 k, and ask bmw dealer to use my mobil1. since they do it for free until 48k, makes no difference (i am out 7 quarts x $5 per quart). i DO NOT reset the oil counter, cos this just creates unnecessary questions from the stealer (so when did you last change the oil ???).

What does the dealer charge you for the oil change with Mobil 1?

[peterkulesza]

nothing if it is warranty. they just use what i give them....

the first change on the current 330ipeepee (i did it at 4.5 k after buying the car) was done by myself.

peter

[mattchapman]

In response to your earlier question....even though the car has only 12500 miles, it is >3 years old and the service warranty has expired. I bought the car private...its a 2001 which was originally bought Sept 2000 (the guy must not have driven it much). The dealer said it still has mechanical warranty to August of this year (that one must have been 4 years).
Matt

[peterkulesza]

use synthetics. anyone can do oil change, you do not have to pay stealer prices.