Ferrari Mailing List: Re: NY Times on frequency of oil changes

[christianscott [at] juno.com (christianscott]

Several years ago I had a Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan.  It consumed as much oil as my 1980 GTBi did.  On top of that it came with free scheduled maintenance but the dealers would not do an oil change until the sensor tripped the service light.  Given that Saab 9-5 engines were known for sludge issues this was particularly frustrating.

Christian

Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 12:51:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: CMLF1 <cmlf1 [at] optonline.net>
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] NY Times on frequency of oil changes
To: coyote [at] acme-ltd.com
Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
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15,000 miles is the recommended oil change interval for BMW. Keep in
mind these extended service intervals were put in place when the
manufacturers needed to reduce the advertised cost of maintenance, or in
BMW's case, they pay for all maintenance for 3 years. They will perform
an oil change at 15,000 free of charge, but not before. Amazingly, the
oil change interval went from 7,500 miles to 15,000 miles and the manual
gearbox and differential oil change went from (if I recall correctly)
60,000 miles to lifetime, never change once BMW started to to pay for
maintenence. Same lubricants magically last longer!

Carl

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 12:44 PM, Jeff Greenfield wrote:

  Britt ?

I think it?s a little of both. The modern synthetic oils have improved,
the mfr?s are pushing the service intervals because people don?t want to
have to bring their cars in for service often.

Most BMW?s and many other cars (VW/Audi comes to mind) have gone to full
synthetic oil for the last 10 years or so. This helps to prolong the
maintenance interval.

That being said, some mfr?s have had problems with oil sludging in their
engines. VW/Audi had a service campaign where they were replacing long
blocks well past the warranty period if the owner could prove that
service (oil changes) were performed at the recommended intervals.

Several other makes were affected by this problem as well. I know Toyota
was one, I don?t recall the others.

I think the reality lies somewhere between the old school 3,000 miles,
and the extended intervals that are being recommended. If you buy a new
car and only plan to keep it 3-4 years or up to about 100,000 miles you
will probably have no problems following either the mfr?s service
schedule or the computer that tells you when it is time to change the
oil.

But, if you plan to keep the car longer and expect it to make it to the
200,000 mile mark or beyond, I feel more frequent oil changes will help
achieve that goal.

The BMW service indicator primarily keeps track of fuel consumed, and
bases the interval on this. Figuring more fuel will be consumed in
traffic, short trips, etc, and less on pure highway driving.

Also, most service schedules have a footnote regarding ?severe? use.
Although the word ?severe? may not be the correct term, probably 80-90%
of owners fall into this category which calls for more frequent oil
changes.

Theoretically, they say you can go 15,000 miles between oil changes with
synthetic. Personally I feel more comfortable with half that, but that?s
me.



From: Britt2Asa [at] aol.com [mailto:Britt2Asa [at] aol.com]
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2010 11:25 AM
To: Jeff Greenfield
Cc: ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] NY Times on frequency of oil changes

I find this quite interesting. I was working in the fleet business when
I moved to the UK in 1995. Immediately Inoticed that cars here would
require an oil change every 7500 miles while in the US at the time it
was normal every 3000 miles. That slowly grew to be around 10k-12k miles
or once a year by 2000. This was for the majority of cars here.

The blonde's 2002 BMW petrol engine had a computer that determined
servicing. It lit the service light at around 12k miles. The car never
used more than 1qt oil every 12k miles and after 100k miles was still
perfect. She now has a 2003 3 series with the same engine and it has
similar requirements.

My 530d BMW clicked on the service light at around 20,000 miles. My
current new 320d just had its first service at 23,000 miles. I wonder
what BMW requires in the USA regarding oil changes on these same
engines?

Either the oil companies/service garages are lying about the need for
frequent oil changes or the car manufacturers are pushing up the miles
between oil changes to make their cars more appealing here in what is a
very competitive market.

Britt
Interesting read.

Vty,

--Dennis

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