[OwnAge]

That free oil change that bmw gives is every year or 20k km right? I called them today, they told me its every 24k km.

[DESI4life10]

It is every 24 000 km. I change mines every 12 000km

[Cottage Dude]

Why is it that the computer tells you that you need an oil change, but the dealer says ... no no no, we only pay for it every 24k?? I have about 12km and my service light has just come on. Does this mean that they program the car to request a service every 12km, but they only pay for them every 24km. This doesn't make sense to me!!

[OwnAge]

Originally Posted by Cottage Dude

Why is it that the computer tells you that you need an oil change, but the dealer says ... no no no, we only pay for it every 24k?? I have about 12km and my service light has just come on. Does this mean that they program the car to request a service every 12km, but they only pay for them every 24km. This doesn't make sense to me!!

weird. dunno.

my car was made in march so my service shows up as 03/2011 thats why i thought we could change every year. I was hoping to. Other wise i would of change my oil at 17k and then at 24k km

[Steven L]

I am not following the dealers what they give me the instruction because the engine oil becomes diesel when your car runs 24000KM, it is not benefit for the engine, especially 335i or xi. For me, my 328i changes engine oil every 8000KM. The dealer gives us warranty is 4yrs/80000KM, so I can change the engine oil 10 times for free from dealership.

[halB]

Originally Posted by Steven L

I am not following the dealers what they give me the instruction because the engine oil becomes diesel when your car runs 24000KM, it is not benefit for the engine, especially 335i or xi. For me, my 328i changes engine oil every 8000KM. The dealer gives us warranty is 4yrs/80000KM, so I can change the engine oil 10 times for free from dealership.

You don't get 10 free oil changes. They do it for free during warranty period only when the oil change reminder lights up, or once a year, whichever happens first.

Edit: Actually I don't think they do it for free once a year anymore. I remember paying for my oil change last summer when the reached 2 years old but the odometer was only at 30,000km..

[Steven L]

Oh!! Really?? but I didn't suffer this problem, I hope is not!!

[mathu.bala]

Originally Posted by halB

You don't get 10 free oil changes. They do it for free during warranty period only when the oil change reminder lights up, or once a year, whichever happens first.

Edit: Actually I don't think they do it for free once a year anymore. I remember paying for my oil change last summer when the reached 2 years old but the odometer was only at 30,000km..

Actually they do both. They'll change oil once a year and when computer notifies. If they are less than 2k apart they may cancel one. This is the info I got in November 09 from Parkview BMW.

[OwnAge]

Originally Posted by mathu.bala

Actually they do both. They'll change oil once a year and when computer notifies. If they are less than 2k apart they may cancel one. This is the info I got in November 09 from Parkview BMW.

ima go there next week to fix my heated steering wheel problem

[CHCCubs]

When I bought my car I was told they will do an annual oil change if you haven't reached the interval shown on the car. My car is still less than a year old though, so I haven't done that first oil change yet.

[carz]

Originally Posted by mathu.bala

Actually they do both. They'll change oil once a year and when computer notifies. If they are less than 2k apart they may cancel one. This is the info I got in November 09 from Parkview BMW.

I don´t think so. Once they change the oil, they reset the computer, so you won´t get another oil change reminder anytime soon. Depending on your driving conditions you might get up to 30k kms or 2 years, whatever happens earlier.

[///M3Lover]

Originally Posted by Steven L

I am not following the dealers what they give me the instruction because the engine oil becomes diesel when your car runs 24000KM, it is not benefit for the engine, especially 335i or xi. For me, my 328i changes engine oil every 8000KM. The dealer gives us warranty is 4yrs/80000KM, so I can change the engine oil 10 times for free from dealership.

+1 on 8000km

Two weeks ago, I just changed at 10,000k. The oil was completely black, but I am going to try to change it at 9000km to see if the oil is black.

For the M3, I only did oil changes twice or three times at the dealerships.

After that, I am never going back there. I am paranoid about the fact if they don't have enough bottles to top it off, they'll put the old ones that just came out back into the engine again. This is just me. Somehow, it just hit me in the past. There's no proof to this fact or has anyone seen it.

But, to be safe, I always buy 7 Brand new bottles for my mechanic to change the oil.
The engine only takes 6.5Litres, and I pour the remaining oil into the engine again at 5500km.

Today, it still runs pretty strong!

[carz]

Hey guys, welcome to the XXI century, where syntetic oils last a lot longer than you think

If BMW advices you to change the oil every 24.000 kms, it is because it is safe to use it for at least 5.000 kms extra. BMW is the first one interested in changing your oil every 500 kms, so if they tell you 24.000 kms, trust them.

The oil gets black inmediately, but that doesn´t mean that it has lost its properties.

[shipill]

Originally Posted by carz

Hey guys, welcome to the XXI century, where syntetic oils last a lot longer than you think

If BMW advices you to change the oil every 24.000 kms, it is because it is safe to use it for at least 5.000 kms extra. BMW is the first one interested in changing your oil every 500 kms, so if they tell you 24.000 kms, trust them.

The oil gets black inmediately, but that doesn´t mean that it has lost its properties.

[halB]

If changing oil more often than needed makes you sleep better at night, by all means do it.

Food for thought: BMW stands behind their engine warranty (some of that go quite a but longer longer than 80,000km to cover CPO cars) if you change oil every 24,000km or once a year using their long life oil. Do you think they will risk having to ship out replacement engines by the truck loads just to save a few bucks by skimming on oil changes?

[bulldog_yyc]

Originally Posted by halB

If changing oil more often than needed makes you sleep better at night, by all means do it.

Food for thought: BMW stands behind their engine warranty (some of that go quite a but longer longer than 80,000km to cover CPO cars) if you change oil every 24,000km or once a year using their long life oil. Do you think they will risk having to ship out replacement engines by the truck loads just to save a few bucks by skimming on oil changes?

do you think the dealer will ever admit to an engine problem caused by their excessively long oil change interval? Plus, those problems don't surface until well after the cpo warranty ends

[///M3Lover]

Originally Posted by turkish335

do you think the dealer will ever admit to an engine problem caused by their excessively long oil change interval? Plus, those problems don't surface until well after the cpo warranty ends

+1

Dealers want owners to have problems. Com'on, they're out there to make customer's money.

I've driven other E46 M3's who changed their oil at 21-25,000km, and
their M3's don't run as solid as mine.

I'd rather spend money on oil changes and enjoy the smoothness.
It just means at every 9000-10,000km, I need to prepare $250 Tops.

[carz]

Originally Posted by turkish335

do you think the dealer will ever admit to an engine problem caused by their excessively long oil change interval? Plus, those problems don't surface until well after the cpo warranty ends

Do you think BMW is interested in having thousands of engines changed even if the owners pay for them? BMW's image will be seriously damaged.

Take a look at Toyota and their faulty accelerators. I am sure they are not very happy being on the news every other day, and on every forum on the internet.

[bulldog_yyc]

Originally Posted by carz

Do you think BMW is interested in having thousands of engines changed even if the owners pay for them? BMW's image will be seriously damaged.

Take a look at Toyota and their faulty accelerators. I am sure they are not very happy being on the news every other day, and on every forum on the internet.

Re-read what I wrote, how can the average customer win the argument against a dealership claiming engine failure? I'm sure most owners would pay out of pocket; consider how the average dealer treats you for a warranty claim, where they technically should get compensated from BMW NA. They deny everything and make you pay; on the flipside, once out of warranty, the dealer service becomes a high margin business.

BMW's long intervals are due to environmental regulations and cost reductions; its simple. Not at all comparable to Toyota, which got hyped up due to the safety issues. BMW already has a questionable image w/ respect to reliability (fuel pump), so what's really left to lose?

Assume for a second that the oil maintains its lubricating and heat exchanging abilities even after 24,000 kms; would the filter still be performing at an optimal level? Likely not. Numerous oil analysis tests have proved that the 24,000k interval is too long even for the typical BMW driver, who putts around town, and second, common sense leads me to believe that once the oil is contaminated with metal shavings, the filter will also quickly lose performance.

[Bimmer Al]

One questions. Where are all these 3 series owners with engine problems due to a lack of oil changes? Are the tens of thousands of E46's whose engines are blowing up at 100k?

BTW I changed mine at the half way point because I did not have faith in the filter as opposed to the oil.

Originally Posted by ///M3Lover

+1

Dealers want owners to have problems. Com'on, they're out there to make customer's money.

I've driven other E46 M3's who changed their oil at 21-25,000km, and
their M3's don't run as solid as mine.

I'd rather spend money on oil changes and enjoy the smoothness.
It just means at every 9000-10,000km, I need to prepare $250 Tops.

[yooooooo]

8000km, just phone them up and make sure its free.

just brought my car back for oil change. they will do a "light service" -free or charge
told me to come back again at 16km for the first "maintenance"- free of charge

and also they told me the didn't reset my service computer, will reset at first "maintenance"

[///M3Lover]

Originally Posted by ///M3Lover

+1

Dealers want owners to have problems. Com'on, they're out there to make customer's money.

I've driven other E46 M3's who changed their oil at 21-25,000km, and
their M3's don't run as solid as mine.

I'd rather spend money on oil changes and enjoy the smoothness.
It just means at every 9000-10,000km, I need to prepare $250 Tops.

Originally Posted by Bimmer Al

One questions. Where are all these 3 series owners with engine problems due to a lack of oil changes? Are the tens of thousands of E46's whose engines are blowing up at 100k?

BTW I changed mine at the half way point because I did not have faith in the filter as opposed to the oil.

I typed their M3's dont run as solid as mine. Meaning, their M3's don't run as smooth. I never said they would blow up. I've driven a E46 M3 who had only two oil changes in 60,000km. That car drove like garbage, compared to my 85,000km back then.

Right now, I am sitting at 100,560km and still running very strong. Lots of people love driving my M3 because I maintain it regularly.

Every 2 years, I do a LSD fluid change and engine flush. At every, 70,000km, I would change my gasket and spark plugs. BMW said to change my park plugs at 84,000km, but all my spark plugs were almost gone when I took them out at 70,000km. In fact, two of them were almost completely gone. If I had followed BMW's instruction, I would've had failed spark plugs in my engine.

I am not trying to argue or anything. Everyone has their own opinions. I am just sharing my thoughts with all BMW owners. That is all. Nevertheless, I want to keep my car for another 7-8 years, and maybe even keeping it for the sake of it for my children to drive it.

This is possible. Look at E30 M3 owners who kept their cars in mint condition.