Quote:
Originally Posted by XXX555
While I cannot cite an article, changing oil and filter every xxxx miles or annually has been recommended up until the manufacturor had to pay for it.
If you have a reference proving that regularly changing oil and filter does not extend the life of an engine please post it.
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Your first statement isn't true. Remember that the prepaid maintenance is in the US, not the rest of the world. You are taking your US experience and correlating it to maintenance practices world wide. Prepaid maintenance came in over a series of years, while maintenance intervals were extended over a different series of years. The timelines didn't necessariliy match up.
The SIB on free annual oil changes from 2001 (contained in the thread link that MD put up) only ever applied in the US. It didn't apply in Canada, for example, where we also have prepaid scheduled maintenance.
BMWNA in the US has let this go for years, probably not wanting to antagonize the relatively small % of owners who do want annual oil changes. They seem to have finally just decided that enough was enough.
I think that your request for proof that regularly changing oil and filter isn't beneficial is too broad. Seems like you are putting up a strawman that is easy to knock down. Instead, I would say that exceeding the maintenance frequency recommended by the manufacturer has little to no benefit.
Here is a link for you. It is a 100,000 mile engine that followed the BMW recommendations of 15,000 miles for oil and filter. Photos look pretty good. Seems to me that qualifies as proof. Now how about that proof that doing 7500 mile intervals or annual oil changes makes the vehicle last longer?
http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...intervals.html
As a side note, I wouldn't worry about buying a CPO that followed the manufacturer's maintenance recommendations. BMW's own CPO guidelines will accept a vehicle in to the CPO program that has 5 years/60,000 miles and only two oil changes in that time. If it has two oil changes in 48 months/60,000 miles they don't even open the valve cover to look at it. Then they warrant the engine for the term of the CPO, and carry that risk themselves. I suggest that they know very well what the cost of not doing annual oil changes is in terms of engine wear, and that it is essentially non-existent. We are so far past requiring annual oil changes that I am not surprised that they are going to take the heat for not doing them in the US any longer.
It seems to me that their willingness to carry the financial risk relating to oil change intervals carries more weight that any suggestion that they are just trying to save money by not doing annual oil changes. Sure they are saving money, but it doesn't mean owners are being disadvantaged by the change in policy.
Link here:
http://www.xoutpost.com/585947-post14.html