Quote:
Originally Posted by i-want-in
Like I said, NO oil change till 100k would probably be fine. Cylinder wear, bearing wear, valve guide wear, lifter wear, cam lobe wear(which affects duration and lift), blah blah, not to mention internal corrosion is NOT going to be "MINIMIZED" with extended intervals.
Why don't you show me data that says it DOESN'T make it last longer?
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I do not agree that 100K oil change interval would be fine. A motor might make it to 100K miles without an oil change, or it may not - hard to say. But it would certainly be trashed by that point either way. Once the oil breaks down the wear is going to skyrocket.
And there really isn't much benefit to changing oil before it breaks down. One can argue how long that will take in a given engine with a given oil formulation, but only oil analysis from a lab will really tell you the truth. I have no reason to doubt BMW's analysis in this area. That said, 15K feels a bit longish to me. Audi recommends 10K for example using similar oil formulations and very similar engines. On my Corvette it works out to aprox 10K as well which is determined by a computer algorithm analyzing driving patterns - more steadystate driving extends the interval for example.
So personally I follow a 10K schedule on my BMW's, which works out to about once a year. That seems about right to me.
But 10K or 15K I don't think will make a huge difference. These BMW engines should last beyond 200K miles if properly cared for. The rest of the vehicle is less likely to make it that long before causing too many problems to make it worthwhile to keep driving it.
Plus you never know what is going to happen. I bought a 2003 Mazda for my wife and maintained it very well - typically changing oil using standard non synth every 5-7K miles. The radiator blew at 120K miles and the motor overheated and blew a headgasket and likely warped the head. So I ended up replacing the motor with a take-out from a Japanese market car with 40K miles on it. Could that engine have gone to 200K? Probably so. But it's life was cut short due to factors completely unrelated to oil and component wear. With the new engine I decided I would run synth and stick to the same 10K change intervals I use on my BMW's. which works out to twice a year on that car. Fingers crossed that something else doesn't take it out prematurely. But even if it does, the replacement motor was only $1K. Too bad there is no such supply of cheap replacement motors for our BMW's, eh?