How often do you service your X5?

[kvc]

Prompted by another thread regarding oil level light and a picture of a motor with sludge and gunk in the oil valleys, I thought it may be interesting to discover how often forum members service their cars. I believe the original BMW suggested service interval was 15,000 miles or 25,000 kms when the X5 was first marketed(?) - who does it more or less frequently, and what is your reasoning behind this?
Please post a time or mileage / km frequency, with the type of oil/filter used and your car's mileage too. Do you use any additives (to deal with leaking valve stem seals maybe)? Perhaps we can learn something from the results?

I'll start by adding my details:

I service my car every 10,000 kms with Mobil1 0W 30 and genuine BMW filter. My car has 133,000 kms on odometer (owned since 112,000 kms) no additives except injector cleaner once every 4 or 5 fills at the fuel bowser. I've serviced all my vehicles at this frequency or more often (diesel motors) and have had no dramas with valves, seals or engines burning excessive amounts of oil (touch wood). The oldest vehicle in my 'stable' is a 1966 Valiant with a 225 c.i. slant 6 motor and 328,000 miles (original) that uses less than a cup of oil between changes (every 6000 miles).

[o3x5e53]

I never follow BMW's bullshit service intervals. I service mine at 3000-4000km with MANN oil filter. 5-40 Castrol Titanium.

I'm servicing the BMW more regularly due to the fact the previous owner of the car, and the nature of the original Service intervals. I can tell the motor is getting better and better everytime I drop the oil. Its breaking down all of the gunk build up from the service every "10,000-15,000km" intervals. 244,000kms At the moment.. and motor getting stronger than ever. Need to replace VANOS though.

[thrillcat]

I go about 5000 miles between services, which comes out to twice a year. If it's in at a 3-month mark for something else I wouldn't hesitate to have them give it an extra change but I don't necessarily make a point of scheduling it.


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[Qsilver7]

Just posting for FYI...since many owers assume thhe SI display is still operating under SIA II where there was other criteria like engine starts, RPM, egine temp, & mileage that determined the SI inspection lights.

Since the introduction of SIA III...the SI display interval is only determined by fuel consumption...the faster you go thru the predetermined amount of fuel for your engine/model...the quicker the green LEDs go off on your way to the INSPECTION or OIL SERVICE light:

[David.X5]

Wait? What?

Something always breaks on mine long before I get to a service interval... Just drained oil (2500 miles on it) to fix a leak.

Before that, drained fairly new coolant while swapping out heater valve.

Do use pennzoil euro platinum 5W-40 oil and Hengst oil filters (after seeing that is what is in the BMW box when I've bought those).

[maharaj1]

Between 5,00 and 6,000 miles, Castrol Syntec 0W-40 or 10W-40 depending on the time of year with Hengst filter kit. Can of LubroMoly Jectron halfway between oil changes along with giving the vehicle a once over to make sure everything is in proper order.

For me the reasoning is fairly simple. I'd rather spend $50-$60 on an oil change every 5,000 miles than try and stretch it. in particular with the N62. I work at a shop while I am home between assignments and have worked on a lot of N62s in the past couple years. The ones with failing valve stem seals are the ones that also have sludge in them when we pull it apart from using cheap oil or failure to keep up with oil changes. The ones that are still running well are the ones we see every 5,000 miles for an oil change with a quality oil. Guy I work for has a 4.8is and both myself and his brother have 4.4i's all N62 motors, each of them have over 150k on the clock and they are all still going strong, no smoking, knock on wood.

I count on my vehicles to be there when I need them so I take care of them like they should be. I drove my X5 from Atlanta Georgia to Wichita Kansas to Ft. Worth Texas and then back to Atlanta. The only thing that went wrong was the Final Stage Resistor, over 150k on my X5 and it was the original resistor, common failure item on the E53 as well as other BMWs. Sorry if I am rambling but I tell all our customers this, generally speaking when it comes to BMWs they can be pricey to maintain, but if you take care of them they will treat you well in return and also put a smile on your face.

[crystalworks]

All of my bimmers get LOF services every 5000 - 7500 miles using Valvoline VR1 or a full synthetic that might have happened to be on sale. Try to do brake fluid every 2 (though has been 3 as of late) years, and coolant every 2 years.

I second the above. Regular maintenance prevents some costly repairs and can hold off inevitable ones for some time (valve stem seals).

[jopecasa]

Oil and filters are cheap!

Do it regularly whenever possible!

I also clear errors code on a regular basis with PA soft.

Reason being, I want to make sure none of the modules are reporting faults and making sure "Betsy" (X5) and "Bianca" (E39) are both running healthy every time!

[cn90]

Originally Posted by jopecasa

Oil and filters are cheap!...

I don't think we should approach this as "cheap".
This needs to be done with "scientific proof".

- Take oil sample at 3K, 5K, and send to the lab for analysis. This will give you a baseline analysis of "your" engine, and not others' engine.

- Even the car gurus (Larry Carley et al) say most people belong to the "severe service cyle" and this is what they say:
* Standard oil: every 3K-4K
* Synthetic oil: every 5K-6K

[JCL]

Originally Posted by cn90

- Even the car gurus (Larry Carley et al) say most people belong to the "severe service cycle" and this is what they say:
* Standard oil: every 3K-4K
* Synthetic oil: every 5K-6K

If that is his generic recommendation (and it sounds like he would apply it to a wide range of vehicles) then how does he modify it based on sump capacity?

With heavy duty industrial engines, our customers often wanted extended oil change intervals. The way to do that most effectively was to double the sump capacity; that way the manufacturer supported a doubling of the oil change interval. More fluids could hold more contaminants in suspension, and the additives lasted longer. BMW vehicles have oil sumps that are generally twice the size of many other vehicles (8 litres vs 4, for example). That is part of the longer change interval design spec.

What I am not clear on is why the recommendation would be to extend the interval with synthetic fluids. There are too many other variables in play, and it sounds a little like a synthetic oil commercial. One of the variables is filter life; if you get a longer oil change interval without using an appropriate filter you may need to do an extra filter change at half the oil change interval.

When we were extending oil change intervals beyond the manufacturer's spec due to special service requirements (ie engines in remote areas) we would try to establish whether we could go 1.2 or 1.5 or 2 times the scheduled interval. We did a lot of extra oil sampling, typically 5 or ten extra samples on each engine. And don't start at the scheduled interval, you need a baseline sample of new oil, and then throughout the test period, as you want to see where TBN is dropping off, and not just get a figure at the scheduled interval. For most customers, it was more trouble than they wanted, but if you were flying crews in to do services then it could pay. Those engines were running continuously, in either power generation or pumping applications, with scheduled overhauls at 15k, 30k, or 60k hours depending on the engine series, load factors, and fuel source.