Seeking Advice! OCI on 2013 BMW 328i N52 (with Under Cover pics)

[exacerbated]

New here and seeking a bit of advice based on some experience.

2013 BMW 328i xDrive w/ 3.0 N52; 78k miles now; averaging 13k per year for past 3 years.
Not consuming oil, near as I can tell...
No warranty. No service. Just a man and his wife's car.
Liqui Moly Special Tec LL 5W30 & Mann filter.

We live in Minnesota. Winter driving includes many 8-mile trips in Actually Cold™ weather.

The Condition Based Service dummy light had me running a 12k-15k interval. This makes me squirm.
So I switched to an old-fashioned 5k interval: oil & filter.
But that feels excessively frequent, even for a guy raised on 3k intervals, dead dinos, and orange filters.

Where's the middle ground?
How often should I change the oil in this car?

I had to replace the Eccentric Shaft Position Sensor, so the valve covers came off at 70k. Photos attached.
Trouble is, I have no idea what the oil or OCI was for the first 40k... So the pics are not super useful.
Replaced the OE plugs at the same time.

 

[Titan]

Nothing wrong with 5000 mile intervals. With good oils (meeting or exceeding the recommendations from BMW), you could easily go twice a year...once in the Spring, once in the Fall. Run one less month over the winter due to the cold temps, one more over the warm part of the year perhaps?

 

[jeepman3071]

The engine looks very clean, and it appears the oil change intervals have been working well. BMW engines are expensive, I change the oil and filter on my 328i every 5k miles regardless just because I do short trips (8 mile commute).

 

[fantastic]

I have no experience with this engine so sorry if this isn't helpful. That under valve cover pic appears to be very clean so that's great news. Since your max is up to 15k annually you could split the oil change at 7,500 miles with your favorite Euro 5w-30. The flip side would be a quality 5w-40 for the full annual miles. Of course you need to match this with a decent extended mileage oil filter.

 

[drtyler]

I have similar, and change the oil between 7k and 8k miles with any BMW LL-01. I typically use Mobil 1 0W-40, Castrol Edge 5W-40 or 0W-40 - depends on which has the best deal at WM when I need it. Your choice is fine as well, as I believe it has the LL-01 approval.

Valve cover was off last summer for gasket replacement, and it was nice and clean under there at 135k miles.

This is one engine that tolerates extended intervals, so long as LL-01 oil is used and you keep an eye on the oil levels. I've seen pictures with 10k-15k intervals, and they typically look pretty good as well.

 

[JavierH19]

5k is conservative and It's pretty clean, Keep doing 5k but if you push it a few thousand i wouldn't worry. What's your trans and diff intervals.

 

[exacerbated]

5k is conservative and It's pretty clean, Keep doing 5k but if you push it a few thousand i wouldn't worry. What's your trans and diff intervals.

Quite embarrassing, but I'll confess: I haven't gotten in there yet! I'm at 78k, so it's time. Eek.

I'll solicit advice on this one as well: How often for trans & diff on this little AT/AWD machine?

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Quite embarrassing, but I'll confess: I haven't gotten in there yet! I'm at 78k, so it's time. Eek.

I'll solicit advice on this one as well: How often for trans & diff on this little AT/AWD machine?

This engine is very easy on oil and as long as you use a quality oil (ex, LL01) it'll remain sludge/varnish free even at the factory interval. At the time many BMW enthusiast would change the oil on these cars every 7,500 miles before BMW moved to the 10k mile OCI on F-Chassis turbo engines.

I would change the transmission and diff fluid just based on age. ATF fluid can go 75k-100k miles unless you're tracking the car.

 

[wavinwayne]

I would keep using the same oil/filter combo, and change it twice a year.

 

[exacerbated]

This has been helpful and civilized. Thank you!

I think I'll head toward twice a year, which is about 6,500k under current driving conditions. If driving habits change and "twice a year" yields intervals greater than 7.5k, I'll probably cap it there.

 

[mr_boring]

I like 7500. Nice round number - generally speaking in regular conditions that's down to around 25% on the IOLM. I look at it like this - oil life is like bread. If it's a little moldy you can eat it and not get catastrophic colon failure. By the time the IOLM says it's bad, it's too moldy for my colon.

At 5k, it's still bakery fresh. If you like 6500, go with 6500.

@drtyler - nice data that shows that plain old oil at a decent interval doesn't send motors to the bone yard.
@exacerbated - did a carfax show regular oil changes for the first 40k? Either way, good looking bones.

 

[jeepman3071]

At 78k miles I'd change the transmission and differentials/transfer case fluid.

I change my transmission every 40k miles, and my rear diff every 50k. I'd do transfer case and both diffs at 50k if I had an XDrive car.

Your car likely has the 6L45 GM transmission like most 328i's, some had a ZF 6HP. I use MaxLife trans fluid in mine, and RedLine 75w90 in the differential. Any 75w90 will really work fine in the differentials. For the transfer cases I only use the BMW fluid or equivalent. It is expensive, but you only need one quart.

 

[bigjl]

If you are using decent oil that meets the BMW LL spec (I assume LL04 for a 2013) for your engine then a service at 7.5k intervals makes sense.

Most BMWs can run 5w40 and it’s freely available in LL04.

 

[bigjl]

At 78k miles I'd change the transmission and differentials/transfer case fluid.

I change my transmission every 40k miles, and my rear diff every 50k. I'd do transfer case and both diffs at 50k if I had an XDrive car.

Your car likely has the 6L45 GM transmission like most 328i's, some had a ZF 6HP. I use MaxLife trans fluid in mine, and RedLine 75w90 in the differential. Any 75w90 will really work fine in the differentials. For the transfer cases I only use the BMW fluid or equivalent. It is expensive, but you only need one quart.

Are you sure they still used the GM Autobox in 2013?

I haven’t seen a BMW with anything but a ZF Autobox in decades.

Maybe because I don’t have much to do with the 3 Series, but I am fairly certain the F30 328i had the 8 speed ZF Autobox since model introduction in 2011, you may have got the model a year later in 2012.

 

[svenson]

The engine looks very clean, and it appears the oil change intervals have been working well. BMW engines are expensive, I change the oil and filter on my 328i every 5k miles regardless just because I do short trips (8 mile commute).

5k regardless time? 5k in a year or 6 months?

 

[jeepman3071]

Are you sure they still used the GM Autobox in 2013?

I haven’t seen a BMW with anything but a ZF Autobox in decades.

Maybe because I don’t have much to do with the 3 Series, but I am fairly certain the F30 328i had the 8 speed ZF Autobox since model introduction in 2011, you may have got the model a year later in 2012.

It's dependent on platform.

The F30 generation 328i sedan had the 2.0L turbo 4 with the ZF8 and came out in 2012. They made the 328i E92 coupe, E93 convertible, and E91 wagon versions with the NA inline 6 for another year. I believe 2013 was the last year. They came with either a 6 speed ZF box or GM 6L45. Mine has the GM trans, and a friend's 2011 E91 wagon also has the GM transmission.

 

[jeepman3071]

5k regardless time? 5k in a year or 6 months?

I do a year or every 5k miles. There was a point where I was driving 100 miles per day, now depending on my work schedule and which campuses I need to go to I can drive only 5,000 miles in 10 months. The car is also not my only vehicle.

 

[exacerbated]

How do I tell the difference between the transmissions?

The FCP Euro pull-down was my first clue that more than one 6-sp auto was delivered with these cars, but I never got any further than that. I welcome some guidance here.

 

[jeepman3071]

How do I tell the difference between the transmissions?

The FCP Euro pull-down was my first clue that more than one 6-sp auto was delivered with these cars, but I never got any further than that. I welcome some guidance here.

View attachment 187570

If you can squeeze under the car a bit with a flashlight, a metal transmission pan is the GM transmission, plastic pan is the ZF.

 

[exacerbated]

How do I tell the difference between the transmissions?

The FCP Euro pull-down was my first clue that more than one 6-sp auto was delivered with these cars, but I never got any further than that. I welcome some guidance here.

Reply to self: Old threads on bimmerfest.com overwhelmingly point toward the GM trans and this jives with jeepman3071's experience. They also provide guidance on how to tell for sure when in doubt. I'll confirm before I spend money, but I'm satisfied with that answer for now.