Oil change between service visits

[Wagner]

Emo - please call your dealer and ask him if you get 80000 km or 4 years Maintenance Free.

[Emo]

Originally Posted by WagnerX5

Emo - please call your dealer and ask him if you get 80000 km or 4 years Maintenance Free.

WagnerX5,

My cars are no longer in the UK, and irc it was 36000mi or 3yrs Maintenance Free. When I arrived in the states my new dealership just continued my maintenance plan as normal.

[X5Flyboy]

Boy, this is one topic everybody has a different opinion on! Alot's been said on this and quite afew other threads. If you will allow me, I'll try and sum some of this up.

First, oil is the life blood of your engine. It cools, lubricates, removes dirt(that comes in with the air) & metal particles (that occur with all the moving, rubbing engine parts) from your engine. Ignore oil changes and the result is a seizedup engine (which my sister did to a BMW2002, Ouch!)

Filters filter(duh!) out the particles from the oil. When filters become clogged, there is a bypass that will allow the oil to continue to circulate, but now the oil will become thicker and thicker with contaminents, not lubricate properly, resulting in excess wear on the engine parts, overheating, etc, etc, etc...

Now you know what it's supposed to do. Forgive me, those of you who know more and can tell it in greater detail. I'm just trying to Keep It Simple, Stupid (K.I.S.S.)

BMW has oil change indicators that, on average, show an oil change at 15K miles. It varies based upon your driving habits. ie, with all my interstate miles, my indicator averages 20K miles. You have to decide, based on your driving habits (jackrabbit starts, Driving Miss Daisy, Mario Andretti wantabe, soccer mom, etc) and your environment (clean mountain air, smoggy commuter traffic, dusty desert, Sand Storms even!) what interval is YOUR comfort level. For desert desert, I'd be changing mine every 5K or after every sand storm, whichever comes first! As it is, I do mine every 10K since I don't trust the oil filter to be at peak efficiency beyond that (and it does get dusty out here in farmland Idaho during planting & harvest)

There are some of us that are skeptical of the new oil change intervals, now that the manufacturers are picking up the tab. It's been also pointed out that the oils and filters are much better than what they used to be. Again, it's subjective. You decide what you are comfortable with. Personnally, I think they put the indicators in so a certain gender would remember to at least ask, "What's this?" But that's just my opinion.

Hope this helped clarify the subject abit.

[kevinx5]

It is good idea to change oil every six month if you want to keep your car for a long term.

[Thunder22]

Originally Posted by woodranch

Is it a waste to do an oil change between scheduled services on my 03 4.6 or is the synthetic oil used nowadays that good.What do some of you do?

yes, it's a waste.

[sprocket1200]

jcl,

i recently brought in an '04 x5 and am searching for the documentation on coolant service. i have read that in '04 coolant was a 'lifetime' fluid (not covered under service agreement), but you say it is NOT lifetime (BMW recommends changing it). Do you have a service manual that would confirm this for me? I would like it covered if possible.

Anyone else have '04 service documentation they can share?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Cory

[Boston X5 4.4]

Originally Posted by sprocket1200

jcl,

i recently brought in an '04 x5 and am searching for the documentation on coolant service. i have read that in '04 coolant was a 'lifetime' fluid (not covered under service agreement), but you say it is NOT lifetime (BMW recommends changing it). Do you have a service manual that would confirm this for me? I would like it covered if possible.

Anyone else have '04 service documentation they can share?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Cory

Mines an '04 and it says lifetime for coolant (FWIW) in the manual. However, during the last service at the dealership they changed the coolant also.........just to confuse the issue even more.

[Hallatauer]

Personally I change the oil every 7500k whether BMW likes it or not. The ease is that both my X5 and Z4 are 3.0l engines. Same filter, same amount of oil. I get the oil and filter at the dealer, they give BMWCCA members 10% off on parts so that helps a bit. It's easy to do and gives me peace of mind since I tend to keep cars along time. I love going years without a car payment! JMHO

[primetime]

Wow, I'm changing mine every 5000 or so. Maybe i'm changing it too often?

[Boston X5 4.4]

Originally Posted by primetime

Wow, I'm changing mine every 5000 or so. Maybe i'm changing it too often?

Yes, waste of money and oil.

This topic has been flogged to death over the years on every car forum ......so to each their own.