[mikefern]

This is probably stupid and I could read the manual and find out but I'm at work (bored) and was hoping I could get some quick answers. 5K+ miles on my 08 335 coupe and I want to get an oil change (don't trust the 15K recommendation) but don't want to go to the dealer b/c they are a friggin ripoff. Can the jiffy lubes of the world change the oil on these cars? Do they know what type oil to use, etc.? BTW what is the correct oil? I think I heard my SA once mention Castrol synthetic but I forget what type (ie 5w-30 etc.). Sorry for the noobish questions but this isn't as easy as my prior car. Just took the Honda to jiffy and its a done deal. Not much of a grease monkey.

[john0213]

ripoff? i thought the oil change is free, isn't it?

[ganeil]

Do not bring your car to Jiffy Lube! If, for some reason, you do not trust the guys who designed and built your engine to determine when it needs an oil change, do not be cheap about it. Do it yourself with oil and filter from the dealer or have them do it.

[satakal]

I have done the change myself but here's one option... Get filter plus oil from the dealership. That is around $70. Go to the quick lube place and hand them the stuff and they'll add on like $30 of labor. All quick lube places should have the know-how. I doubt that most places would have the correct oil filter. And the oil... I want to say that all full synthetic oils are the same but so far I have only used BMW oil.

You may want to do this and save a few dollars:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ht=tischer+oil
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Teen Webcams

[MorpheIS]

Originally Posted by john0213

ripoff? i thought the oil change is free, isn't it?

Any oil change before the recommended 15k interval won't be covered by the dealership.

[stooken]

Originally Posted by ganeil

Do not bring your car to Jiffy Lube! If, for some reason, you do not trust the guys who designed and built your engine to determine when it needs an oil change, do not be cheap about it. Do it yourself with oil and filter from the dealer or have them do it.

jiffy lube made it on the news for bad practices. they were charging people for things they never did. i'm surprised they're still around especially since they already charge an arm and a leg.

i think they quoted me $40 for an oil change on my 98 honda accord when i still had it. BS!

[kmoy2002]

Dealer won't change unless you're near the 15k mark. Best choice is to buy the oil and filter; and do it yourself. BMW is I think castrol 5w-30

[satakal]

Originally Posted by kmoy2002

Dealer won't change unless you're near the 15k mark. Best choice is to buy the oil and filter; and do it yourself. BMW is I think castrol 5w-30

^ dealer won't change for *free*
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Park Lane Jomtien Resort

[aznshrek88]

Get the parts from Tischer BMW. Its only 50 for the oil change kit and it includes everything you need except the wrenches. I think shipping is included in the price 2.

[mikefern]

Originally Posted by satakal

I have done the change myself but here's one option... Get filter plus oil from the dealership. That is around $70. Go to the quick lube place and hand them the stuff and they'll add on like $30 of labor. All quick lube places should have the know-how. I doubt that most places would have the correct oil filter. And the oil... I want to say that all full synthetic oils are the same but so far I have only used BMW oil.

You may want to do this and save a few dollars:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ht=tischer+oil

Sounds like a good idea. I'll visit a couple places and see what they say about the labor. I really don't feel like doing it myself. I'd rather just pay someone 30-40 bucks. Thanks for the link too...tischer sounds like a great deal.

[Haywire]

Originally Posted by satakal

^ dealer won't change for *free*

the dealership doesnt cover oil changes? are you kidding me... i thought those were covered for sure. i have a new 2oo8 and im almost positive they told me that scheduled maint / oil changes were covered.

[mikefern]

Originally Posted by Haywire

the dealership doesnt cover oil changes? are you kidding me... i thought those were covered for sure. i have a new 2oo8 and im almost positive they told me that scheduled maint / oil changes were covered.

Scheduled, yes...but I want to do an early oil change. 15k miles for an oil change seems to me (and many others on these boards) to be just asking for trouble. Matter of fact, I should have done this 3k miles ago after break-in. But I guess better now than at 15k.

[Haywire]

ok, now im no expert... but im guessing MOST get their oil changes at 15ooo when scheduled, im not saying its the BEST way to go...but im pretty sure its the most common. from what i can see on the roads, there are a LOT of bmws driving around...i dont know how much time they have spent in the garages, but they are one of the best cars for longevity.

ive heard all the hoopla about the shiat in the oil when breaking in a new engine and so forth...but i dont know how important it really is. I think of it this way, BMW leases their vehicles more than people by where im from, if they thought it was in their best interest to maintain the vehicles...they would have the leases come in for an oil change after the first 3-5ooo k's, dontcha think?

thats the only reason why i havent been runnin around to get mine changed, im at 35oo k's right now, im in canada...so according to many on here, im due for a change shortly. If i can get in somewhere cheap, or do it myself for 1oo bucks or so, ill go for it...if not, fu@k it. Ill ask them if i can come in 5oook early or something, they fu@ked up some shiat on my car a few weeks back, they can do the change and we can call it even. i hope

[UFOGUY]

Originally Posted by MorpheIS

Any oil change before the recommended 15k interval won't be covered by the dealership.

or at one year, irrespective of mileage. my oil change was done at 8,200 miles at one year, and was covered by warranty. the tech had the computer set to 8k for the next change. this is a good deal as i will end up with more frequent oil changes under warranty.

[Staszek]

Originally Posted by Haywire

ok, now im no expert... but im guessing MOST get their oil changes at 15ooo when scheduled, im not saying its the BEST way to go...but im pretty sure its the most common. from what i can see on the roads, there are a LOT of bmws driving around...i dont know how much time they have spent in the garages, but they are one of the best cars for longevity.

ive heard all the hoopla about the shiat in the oil when breaking in a new engine and so forth...but i dont know how important it really is. I think of it this way, BMW leases their vehicles more than people by where im from, if they thought it was in their best interest to maintain the vehicles...they would have the leases come in for an oil change after the first 3-5ooo k's, dontcha think?

thats the only reason why i havent been runnin around to get mine changed, im at 35oo k's right now, im in canada...so according to many on here, im due for a change shortly. If i can get in somewhere cheap, or do it myself for 1oo bucks or so, ill go for it...if not, fu@k it. Ill ask them if i can come in 5oook early or something, they fu@ked up some shiat on my car a few weeks back, they can do the change and we can call it even. i hope

BMW uses a algorithm with several variables to determine when the oil needs to be change. EX: engine starts, fuel burned, engine temps etc.

It is not just 15k ok change the oil. 15k is under optimal conditions in perfect driving.

Most of the time at least on my E46 it was never even close to 15k when the scheduled maintenance came up usually between 8-10k of actual mileage.

That being said I just like changing my oil at 7500, synthetic oil can go 15k without much breakdown, I have done several oil analysis on my e46 over the years. My problem is I dont like the filters going that long. I at one time considered just changing the filter at 7500 and the oil at 15k but since I do the changes myself and buy in bulk it doesnt take me that much longer to just do the whole thing.

If you want to do it at 5k that is fine but not necessary, really my 7500 is probably not necessary but its an old habit to break and my E46 runs like a top, if you can see the pic in my sig that is what the engine looked like when I pulled the valve cover at 170,000 miles doing mostly 7500 oil changes, I had a few 10k oil changes in there as well.

As for the Oil BMW 5w30 is good which is a form of european castrol, not the US stuff.

Also Mobil one 0w40 meets BMW requirements, now I am not sure if the 335 is different like the M3 but I dont think it is.

[JTBurn]

Originally Posted by mikefern

Scheduled, yes...but I want to do an early oil change. 15k miles for an oil change seems to me (and many others on these boards) to be just asking for trouble. Matter of fact, I should have done this 3k miles ago after break-in. But I guess better now than at 15k.

BMW used to recommend oil changes every 3,000. That was before they had to pay for them, i.e, when you had to pay them for it. So now they recommend them every 15,000 miles. Pretty funny actually.

[ganeil]

Originally Posted by JTBurn

BMW used to recommend oil changes every 3,000. That was before they had to pay for them, i.e, when you had to pay them for it. So now they recommend them every 15,000 miles. Pretty funny actually.

Were the 3Kmile changes ever recommended after they switched to synthetic?

[satakal]

Originally Posted by ganeil

Were the 3Kmile changes ever recommended after they switched to synthetic?

even manufacturers that don't do the "all maintenence covered" reccomend oil change intervals somewhere between 3k and 15k. Some on synthetic, others not. I'm familiar with the owners manual having an asterisk for "depending on driving conditions and habits."

Ask the guys in the racing sub-forum what they think about fluid changes. They're likely to say once per 5 or so track days. So, once per 1000 miles?
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Just4Hard live

[ganeil]

Originally Posted by satakal

even manufacturers that don't do the "all maintenence covered" reccomend oil change intervals somewhere between 3k and 15k. Some on synthetic, others not. I'm familiar with the owners manual having an asterisk for "depending on driving conditions and habits."

Ask the guys in the racing sub-forum what they think about fluid changes. They're likely to say once per 5 or so track days. So, once per 1000 miles?

Am not sure what the relevance of what the racers believe is since BMW does not base their service intervals on track usage.

BMW designed, tested, and built the engines in our cars. They put their reputation and money on the line with each and every one for 50,000 miles and possibly longer with the CPO program. If you want to change your oil in your car more often then recommended, have at it but to suggest that BMW is motivated by a few bucks just does not make sense.

[UFOGUY]

as noted above, get the required castrol BMW spec oil and filter from the dealer (or internet) and head to jiffy lube or even better, a local oil shop and have them drop the oil and change the filter. then you will feel better.

as for future oil service, i plan to go with the BMW 15k or earlier (depending upon driving habits, whatever the computer says).

keep in mind that we are running 7 quarts of oil versus 4.5 or so typically used in 3.0 liter engines. that provides a 40% increase in oil capacity and therefore dilutes any contaminants that collect in the oil. that is, for each stroke of the piston and turn of the cam there is far more clean oil available for lubrication.

also, it has been shown in many oil studies (search the net) that full synthetic oils are capable of being used well beyond 15,000 miles. BMW specs use the long life formula.

i like the idea of dropping break-in oil but i think frequent changes in the future are a waste of good synthetic oil. just my two cents worth...

[yoyeewee]

i've been driving BMWs for the last 11 years. the highest miles that i went was 70k miles on my E36. another friend of mine has 210k miles on his E39. we just followed the recommended service intervals and the cars ran fine.

[yoyeewee]

and with oil prices going up, lets not waste oil and do unnecessary oil changes. and chances are, we don't keep the cars long enough for the benefits of 5k miles oil changes to have any benefits on us.