'08 BMW 328xi, BMW 5W30, 10.5k OCI, 57k vehicle

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New poster here; been lurking for a while. I bought this vehicle used at 46k miles and drove it for 18 months & 10.5k miles before the computer told me I needed an oil change. I drive like a grandma, and when I reset the OCI indicator it told me to change it again in 21,000 miles.

High copper; any thoughts?
 
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Does it have a copper oil cooler? If so it could be normal, but the aluminum seems high, although the universal averages are 10 for that engine.
 
Originally Posted By: 2004tdigls
personally I never could understand these long drain intervals, interesting reading here. Their engines are full of sludge and varnish using the 10k to 15k oci

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=893748

http://www.munichmotorsport.com/wordpress/?page_id=416

oil is cheap, engines are really expensive, I would change it every 5-7 thousand miles




This UOA has no indicators that varnish or sludge is forming, plenty of active additive left after 10,000 miles. If owners stick with the proper LL01 oil the entire life of the car there should be no problem running the 15,000 mile intervals.

The pictures you posted are just random shots of sludged BMWs, with no history on each picture. The reason you see these pictures is people who get their oil life to 0% and THEN try to push it 2x longer and think they have time.

Personally though, 10-12k with LL01 would be my comfort zone.
 
I have 08 328Xi I bought from a fried at work. He followed the OLM and from hat I've seen his paperwork was usually around 12k. The top end I can see from the large fill port (love that!) it is spotless. I decided I would do a few short OCI's with M1 0-40 to clean anything out in case it needed it. It's my security blanket. UOA done at 4500k was excellent.

I think far to many people tend to run a lot farther on the oil and plenty don't use the correct oil and then blame the problem on the OCI. As same time I would not be going 15k. 12k past my comfort zone. The 3.0 I6 in mine will most likely see 7500k OCI's.
 
Thanks for the comments, everyone. I don't know if the oil cooler is copper. I'll have to do more digging to see where it could be coming from.

In general I agree that "oil is cheap, engines are expensive", but I'm also curious to see what is really required for OCIs. I'll do another UOA in another 2 years. I'm sure that won't be anywhere near 21k miles, as I just don't drive that much.

By the way, I put in Mobil1 0W-40 Euro Formula this time. It was easy to get & on the BMW LL-01 approved list.
 
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Originally Posted By: 901Memphis


Personally though, 10-12k with LL01 would be my comfort zone.


Every oil that I have run in the M54 in my E83 X3 has shown a TBN below 1.0 in as few as 7,700 miles. M1 0W-40, M1 TDT 5W-40, Rotella T6- all have produced the same results. I finally settled on M1 0W-40 and change it at 7,500 miles.
That said, I follow the OLM in my wife's E90 328i, primarily because it is so boring that I doubt we will keep it more than another year at most.
 
Originally Posted By: MCompact
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis


Personally though, 10-12k with LL01 would be my comfort zone.


Every oil that I have run in the M54 in my E83 X3 has shown a TBN below 1.0 in as few as 7,700 miles. M1 0W-40, M1 TDT 5W-40, Rotella T6- all have produced the same results. I finally settled on M1 0W-40 and change it at 7,500 miles.
That said, I follow the OLM in my wife's E90 328i, primarily because it is so boring that I doubt we will keep it more than another year at most.



E90 boring but E83 isn't? Vanilla is vanilla! Not being rude just wondering if the X3 is exciting compared to the E90 and what makes it that. I like my E90 but another 100HP would be welcomed :))
 
Originally Posted By: BISCUT

E90 boring but E83 isn't? Vanilla is vanilla! Not being rude just wondering if the X3 is exciting compared to the E90 and what makes it that. I like my E90 but another 100HP would be welcomed :))


We live on a large farm with a 2000 foot gravel driveway so we like to have a couple of AWD/4X4 vehicles in reserve. In any event, I'd say that the E83 is no more boring than the E90. I guess I should count my lucky stars I found a CPO E90 with RWD. Still, if given a choice, I usually pick any other car in the garage(s) over the 328i. I'd probably like it 100% better if it was an M Sport with three pedals, but it is what it is- unfortunately. I've owned 10 BMWs since 1983 and served at the local and national level of BMW CCA, but I'm becoming less and less enthralled by the newer Bimmers. You now have to get either the Sport or M Sport package to get a BMW that handles like a base E36 or E46 Hope springs eternal, however, we may take back the X3 from my son and give him the 328i while he's at the University of South Carolina. Then wwe can look for something at least borderline entertaining.
 
Thanks for the explanation. That is a loooong gravel driveway for sure! Must be hard to keep the cars clean!
 
Originally Posted By: BISCUT
Thanks for the explanation. That is a loooong gravel driveway for sure! Must be hard to keep the cars clean!


Yes, extremely hard. I had one black car and when it was clean it was gorgeous. Unfortunately, it was only clean for @15 minutes after washing it. I'd love to pave the thing, but that will have to wait until I hit Powerball...

How do you like your Armada? We had a 1993 Pathfinder for 8 years and we loved it. We almost bought an Xterra instead of the X3 and I'm thinking of looking at a new Xterra Pro-4X if Nissan were to sweeten the pot enough.
 
Originally Posted By: MCompact
Originally Posted By: BISCUT
Thanks for the explanation. That is a loooong gravel driveway for sure! Must be hard to keep the cars clean!


Yes, extremely hard. I had one black car and when it was clean it was gorgeous. Unfortunately, it was only clean for @15 minutes after washing it. I'd love to pave the thing, but that will have to wait until I hit Powerball...

How do you like your Armada? We had a 1993 Pathfinder for 8 years and we loved it. We almost bought an Xterra instead of the X3 and I'm thinking of looking at a new Xterra Pro-4X if Nissan were to sweeten the pot enough.


There are/were a few years of Armada to stay away from. The 10 in my sig had a mix valve for the heater repaired under recall. Other than that it has not seen a repair. Thing is a beast and has been stellar. Avg gas mileage mix is 14.x with highway at 75 gets you just around 18. Getting to 90k miles and worth every dollar so far. The string of UOA have been excellent with M1 7500k OCI. I keep up with it...front & rear diff & trans case fluid every 50k. I put on a PML oversize trans pan and drop 8qts every year (about 22k miles) because its so easy and cheap. Drain coolant every few years. Mention the coolant because I dont think enough people pay attention to it.

Armada very easy to work on as well. Fill and drain holes on diff's and trans case. Engine bay roomy compared to many modern bays. I can get to all the plugs for instance.
 
Caterham, I didn't check the oil level when I changed it out. All I know is that I checked it (the computer checked it--no dipstick) only a couple times in the 18 months, and it was never near the "min" level. (On this BMW you check it when the car is running at operating temperature, level ground, hit some "check oil" button, and wait for the display to show you a thermometer-like picture with markings for "min" and "max". I believe "min" is about a quart below max, but someone who knows more please feel free to correct me.) I'll try to pay more attention next time.
 
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