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 â
I think itâs a little of both. The modern synthetic oils have
improved, the mfrâs are pushing the service intervals because people donât
want to have to bring their cars in for service often.
Most BMWâs 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 mfrâs 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 donât 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 mfrâs 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 âsevereâ
use. Although the word âsevereâ 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 thatâs me.
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2010 11:25 AM
To: Jeff Greenfield
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