Let it Ride?? Or change it?

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Originally Posted By: Dyusik
Time doesn't matter.


What if you last changed the oil 10 years ago and you only drive 300 miles a year. Still think that time doesn't matter? Filter media and rubber anti-drainback valve will be shot to heck and back.
 
Originally Posted By: Pesca
You can find my UOA in the UOA section, on the dealership oil that I run 9000 miles for 16 months with no ill effect. I got quite some short trips and two winters on it.

That may help you decide what to do.

By comparison, you can also find my UOA after 6K miles and 16 months (two winters) with lots of short tripping, where the oil got beat up pretty good.

Not the exact same engine, but fairly close.

But since the OP is not short tripping, then this would not be of concern to him. I am just pointing out that time does in fact matter under certain circumstances.
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
Filter media and rubber anti-drainback valve will be shot to heck and back.

These BMW engines use cartridge filters that don't have ADBV in them.
 
It probably could go longer but an oil analysis covers a good part of the oil change so change it.
 
I just went 18 months and 7686 Km (4800 miles) with my 2000 528i. I couldn't bear to dump all that good oil at a year.

For what it's worth the oil still looked quite clean.

By the way I now change filters every other change. They come out looking really good after 2 years (or 2 1/2 years in this case).
 
Originally Posted By: OtisBlkR1
forget time, go 7,500 miles and dump it. unless your testing limits.. then pull a sample at 7,500 and send it off and see what Blackstone labs has to say..


+1......7500 should be a good test....and if your keeping the vehicle, do a UOA.

IMO....time is not an issue if within reason, even though some of the oil producers (Mobil) state X amount of miles OR one year. Nonesense IMO.... M-1 0w40 is a top shelf oil, well regarded on this site, and most likely could go to 10,000.
 
We need to keep in mind that this veicle requires 6 1/2 liters of high quality synthetic oil (BMW LL-01 rated) and that the oil monitoring system only wants a change at 22 - 24,000 Km (13,750 - 15,000 miles).

I change mine at half that distance. I use Castrol 0w-30 but I'd be equally confident using Mobil 1 0w-40. In my opinion, 7500 miles on a change is quite conservative.

My original reason for changing the oil filter every second change is that the oil monitoring system only trips at 22,000 to 24,000 Km. So I'm actually running the filter for the recommended interval. These are some beautiful filters, and other than being dark stained, look as good as new.
 
I am going to run it a little longer....how much I just haven't figured out yet. 7500 and a UOA might be the route to go.
 
Originally Posted By: ecotourist
We need to keep in mind that this veicle requires 6 1/2 liters of high quality synthetic oil (BMW LL-01 rated) and that the oil monitoring system only wants a change at 22 - 24,000 Km (13,750 - 15,000 miles).

BTW, starting with 2013 model year, BMW (at least in the US) has reprogrammed the OLM to not go longer than 1 year or 10K miles. However, this is not retroactive, so prior model years are still on longer intervals.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: ecotourist
We need to keep in mind that this veicle requires 6 1/2 liters of high quality synthetic oil (BMW LL-01 rated) and that the oil monitoring system only wants a change at 22 - 24,000 Km (13,750 - 15,000 miles).

BTW, starting with 2013 model year, BMW (at least in the US) has reprogrammed the OLM to not go longer than 1 year or 10K miles. However, this is not retroactive, so prior model years are still on longer intervals.


And if your Bimmer has an N63 under the hood, you get to replace the battery at the same interval...
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I wouldn't have believed it...

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/...ons-bmw-n63-v8/

BMW is also quietly dropping the V8's oil-service interval from 15,000 to 10,000 miles. Not because of oil-life concerns, but to smokescreen the N63's appetite for motor oil. By shortening the time between oil changes (and sneaking an additional quart into the sump), there's less chance customers will get a low-oil-level warning. Insiders at BMW in Germany say the oil consumption happens to customers who don't ever flog their powerful, turbocharged V8s hard enough to fully break them in. Ironic.

Finally, the CCP offers a way to cover up the N63's habit of chewing through batteries: It contains a technical service bulletin to replace them at every oil change. This is where things get confusing. Why not just fix the underlying electrical problem? As it turns out, BMW can't.
 
More and more of my fellow Bimwads are beginning to understand why my next "toy" will almost certainly be a Mustang GT, Challenger R/T, or SRT8. Even my 1988 M6-which had what was for all intents and purposes a detuned DTM motor-was reasonably easy to work on and only needed a minor service at @15k miles...
 
Conclusion Mercedes builds a better V8.

I can't wait until all the owners start to cry foul when those electric water pumps start to fail and toast engines.

My business partners 428I has that plastic POS pump on the front, good thing its just a lease.
 
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Originally Posted By: wemay
Finally, the CCP offers a way to cover up the N63's habit of chewing through batteries: It contains a technical service bulletin to replace them at every oil change. This is where things get confusing. Why not just fix the underlying electrical problem? As it turns out, BMW can't.

That's nuts. What is happening? Are they overheating? Being overused? I wonder if a battery tender on them each night might be of some use, at least from a perspective based upon curiosity.
 
Thanks, I skimmed it the first time and missed that, but I have heard of that smart charging before. The cooling system after-run isn't the only one in the world, either, but it could be a nasty draw, I see. Maybe a nightly maintenance charge like I have on my F-150 could do the trick then. But, that's a kludge to fix what the factory isn't doing quite right. If it works, it would be better than a new battery every OCI.
 
Lol thats easy. Change the filter not the oil. The question was about oil. I personally have two totally independent intervals for oil and filter.
 
Originally Posted By: Garak
The cooling system after-run isn't the only one in the world, either, but it could be a nasty draw, I see.

Right, but in BMW's case it's a combination of this along with how selective they are in when to allow the battery to charge in order to squeeze out that last bit of MPG. Those two things combined result in a problem.

Quote:
Maybe a nightly maintenance charge

Yes, this would likely help, but as the article said, who wants to dish out $80K on a brand new BMW only to have to hook it up to a battery charger every night?
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Garak
The cooling system after-run isn't the only one in the world, either, but it could be a nasty draw, I see.

Right, but in BMW's case it's a combination of this along with how selective they are in when to allow the battery to charge in order to squeeze out that last bit of MPG. Those two things combined result in a problem.

Quote:
Maybe a nightly maintenance charge

Yes, this would likely help, but as the article said, who wants to dish out $80K on a brand new BMW only to have to hook it up to a battery charger every night?

Those who buy the new battery powered sports car.
 
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