Oil Change after 15K km.

[Mcbruges]

My X3 is now 3.5 months old and I had just reached 15 000 Km so I thought it be wise to replace the oil and filter.

I live in the rockies and mainly do highway kilometers on my way into the city. Thus thanks to the lack of traffic jams and over populated roads the engine really doesn't see much abuse at all.

I followed Hayaku's DIY oil change post here on the forum and everything was super easy. Thanks to Hayaku for this .

Now the verdict about the old oil and filter: The oil itself did not look too bad and neither did the filter (I did not do an oil analysis so take it for what its worth). Will I keep on doing oil changes half way through the BMW suggested intervals? Absolutely. I'm planning on keeping this X3 a while, I am not sure if the oil and filter would have lasted another 12K and the engine does sound a little quieter again. If I were to listen to the service interval my car would have seen its first oil change at close to 29K km and that is just too long.

So next up for me is looking for some decent winter tires. The snow will likely start to fall soon here in Calgary and those Turanza's don't really seem adequate.

Fred

[B&DCalgary]

What oil did you use for the change?

My dealer (Calgary BMW) insisted no change was required until we hit 20,000 KM, so it's good to hear your oil looked so clean after 15K. We only have about 2,500 KM on ours so far (6 weeks old).

[Mcbruges]

I used the BMW high performance oil aka Castrol 5W-30.
I will probably hit the BMW first service interval by mid-december and depending on the temperature I might have BMW put in the 0W-30 for the cold winter months.

[B&DCalgary]

The "Synthetic" stuff, right?

I used to switch to 0W-30 in the winter when I lived in Winnipeg, but that's overkill for Calgary where the winters are mild. Unless the car is left unplugged for several days in -40 weather (which doesn't happen in Calgary), I wouldn't go below 5W-30.