I run everything on the 5,000 to 6,000 mile cycle of O&F changes or once every year regardless of mileage as some of the cars only see 500 to 2,500 miles. Mobil One 0-40 or BMW Castrol 10W60 for M cars. I use Mann filters. The X5 sees mostly what I would call severe drive cycles of trips less than 25 miles, hence oil is changed every 12 months or 2,500 miles. (The Dodge Minivan gets Mobil One 10W-30 every 6 months or every 5,000 miles whichever comes first). If I follow the BMW idiot lights, I would be doing oil services every 3 years or so.....

This service is inexpensive and should be treated as critical for long life. Hell they are over 10 years old now, so what is long life now days? My personal goal is to never have an issue by doing all scheduled maintenance and service checks before required. Tends to resolve "incidents" on the vacation trips.

Most of the posters here on the site are following similar patterns of "better than recommended" maintenance on our X5s with results that speak for themselves. Unfortunately, I like others have seen cars with up to 30K with the original filters still in the car. They are not functioning real well, but they are still where the factory left them. I am always amazed that BMW builds them so well that they will still run with that type of abuse. Lights on all over but the driver just ignores them. Now I would not recommend buying one of these vehicles as the lack of care extends all over from trashed interiors to exterior lack of washing/waxing. Dents and scrapes

__________________

2005 X5 4.8IS
The Blue ones are always FASTER....

Current Garage:
2005 X5 4.8is
2002 M5 TiSilver
2003 525iT
1998 528i
Former Garage Stable Highlights
2004 325XiT Sport
1973 De Tomaso Pantera, L Model
1970 Dodge Challenger T/A 4 sp Alpine White
1970 Dodge Challenger T/A 4 sp GoManGo Green
1971 Dart Sport, “Dart Light” package
1969 Road Runner 383
1968 Ply Barracuda 340S FB Sea-foam Green