Quote:
Originally Posted by o3x5e53
I can't believe jcl changes his engine oil at 20,000km and claims no sludge build up. Ridiculous.....
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You can claim it is ridiculous if you like. I base my personal assessment on having grown up in a family owned independent automotive shop back in the 70's, having earned a mechanical engineering degree, and then spending a few decades in a (non BMW) dealership heavy equipment business, with responsibility for managing long term maintenance contacts, scheduled oil sampling labs, national warranty programs, shop and field service delivery, and so on.
With respect to BMWs, the current one is our 6th, not counting a motorcycle. I track oil consumption, and all repairs, and have records for every vehicle back to 1976. I manage service costs for the lowest total lifetime cost of ownership. I do my own work when I can, use a family owned shop when it is handy to have a hoist, and use the dealer for most routine servicing because it is convenient.
You reference sludge, but don't qualify if you mean oil sludge, ie dark brown, with byproducts of combustion, or condensate paste (not really sludge, occurs due to not getting the oil warm enough to burn off the moisture, and often mistakenly called sludge here and elsewhere).
I don't agree that BMWs have a bad reputation for reliability. They have a reputation for not being particularly tolerant of neglect and abuse, whether in operation or maintenance. Vehicles with low reliability often experienced that neglect. Buying older vehicles with unknown operation and service history, that may be all that some have experienced.
I agree that regular servicing is important. Being conservative, I do my services before they are due. When I change the oil at 20,000 km on a vehicle designed for a 28,000 km OCI that is early, not extended. Running it to 40,000 would be extended. Posters regularly refer to following the manufacturer's recommendations as extended, when they would have to go back to the nineties to find a maintenance schedule for shorter intervals. 10,000 mile intervals came out in 1992, and 15,000 miles intervals cameout in 1999. That is a lot of years of experience. Neither vehicles, nor oils, are the same as in past decades, when we routinely changed oil at 3000 miles.
With respect, I think I do know what the condition of my vehicle is.
Jeff