[blackpepper]

Hi
I have just gotten to 1900 miles on my 335i coupe. I have heard that some guys do their break-in oil change so i went and talked to my service-adviser who said that this is not part of BMW recommendation for regular maintenance.
How solid is your observation/recommendation to do this, shall i insist on doing this ? is there anything wrong if I don't ? just wanna do the right thing for this car !!!!
Thanks
BP

[742]

Originally Posted by blackpepper

Hi
I have just gotten to 1900 miles on my 335i coupe. I have heard that some guys do their break-in oil change so i went and talked to my service-adviser who said that this is not part of BMW recommendation for regular maintenance.
How solid is your observation/recommendation to do this, shall i insist on doing this ? is there anything wrong if I don't ? just wanna do the right thing for this car !!!!
Thanks
BP

If you want to do it fine. But BMW won't pay for it. On one hand there have been some oil analysis results that support an break-in oil change (IMO), on the other these engines are clearly running just fine past 50k on the BMW schedule.

For what it is worth, which is nothing since this is the Internet, I did mine at 2,000 miles. But then I am planning to keep the car for 10 years/ 200k.

[iheartsole]

its only recommended for the M3 to have they're oil changed.

[simsimi1004]

im at 12k KM. right now and still havent changed yet.
the computer says to change at 24K km i think but i wanna do it earlier...
will bmw do it free? i have that v6 service package or something

[Delta0311]

Originally Posted by simsimi1004

im at 12k KM. right now and still havent changed yet.
the computer says to change at 24K km i think but i wanna do it earlier...
will bmw do it free? i have that v6 service package or something

It depends, you are technically entitled to one free oil change a year. Honestly, you can change the oil yourself and it only take about 15min to do. Change your oil every 5,000 miles and then go in for your free oil change at 15,000 miles.

[GMWNashville]

id suggest doing it. it making a difference is debatable...but id personally never go 15k between oil changes..but what do i know? i just work on em every day...

[Joeb427]

Originally Posted by simsimi1004

im at 12k KM. right now and still havent changed yet.
the computer says to change at 24K km i think but i wanna do it earlier...
will bmw do it free? i have that v6 service package or something

Delta is correct.
I'll only do about 7K if that a year and don't want to wait till 15K miles.
I called my dealer's service and was told I can get a free oil change and filter once a year which works for me.
Although,I'm not crazy about Castrol BMW synthetic oil.
I'm going to change the oil myself at 1000-1200 miles and use the BMW oil.

[mackaikai]

i bought my car and i got a break-in oilchange.
if i leased my car, then it's another story =p

[NaTuReB0Y]

Originally Posted by Delta0311

It depends, you are technically entitled to one free oil change a year. Honestly, you can change the oil yourself and it only take about 15min to do. Change your oil every 5,000 miles and then go in for your free oil change at 20,000 miles.

FIXED!

[Andy M]

Do the oil change. The argument for doing one is that during the break-in period, the parts are being worn down to their proper fits so there will be small pieces of metal in the oil which needs to be flushed out. After a certain number of km's, the car's parts will be worn down sufficiently and so the oil will be clean after the change.

Those who argue against the oil change say that modern engineering has gotten so precise that everything will be a perfect fit and so there won't be much of anything worn down at all.

In my opinion, from my background as an engineer and quality control, modern engineering may be that good but no one ever gets it 100% perfect. We can come close but we'll never get that good. On an assembly line, random sampling is done to determine if the batch is good or not. There's still a chance that we pick one good one out of the batch and the rest are actually bad.

Just think of it this way. Doing an oil change is faster and cheaper than having to fix something that goes wrong later.

[mtechnik3]

If you don't care about the car or are just leasing and plan on turning it in, then it's up to you. If I owned it I wouldn't skip. Oil analysis proves these engines show high aluminum content during break in. You think it's good to let that junk sit in there for 7000 to 15000 mile, depending on when the next oil/filter change is?? BMW used to do a 1200 mile service on all new cars...now miraculously these new engines don't need it. Any car will benefit from a break in oil change.

[jimk]

Originally Posted by Andy M

Do the oil change. The argument for doing one is that during the break-in period, the parts are being worn down to their proper fits so there will be small pieces of metal in the oil which needs to be flushed out. After a certain number of km's, the car's parts will be worn down sufficiently and so the oil will be clean after the change.

Those who argue against the oil change say that modern engineering has gotten so precise that everything will be a perfect fit and so there won't be much of anything worn down at all.

In my opinion, from my background as an engineer and quality control, modern engineering may be that good but no one ever gets it 100% perfect. We can come close but we'll never get that good. On an assembly line, random sampling is done to determine if the batch is good or not. There's still a chance that we pick one good one out of the batch and the rest are actually bad.

Just think of it this way. Doing an oil change is faster and cheaper than having to fix something that goes wrong later.

I'm thinking we should replace all fluids (except coolant) at 1500 miles. I know in my 2003 M5, BMW recommended diff fluid change at 1200 mi. I plan to change them all, from the manual tranny to all the diffs and transfer case.