[donnyfontaine]

Obviously book recommended is around 10-11k, but longer oil change intervals are both a) an appealing thing when buying and b) something that may cause more maintenance trips down the line (ie more $$ for them on both fronts)

Not a gear head compared to many enthusiasts - so I’m curious, is being proactive about the service interval enough? Or is it worth it to find a good shop to do it every 5-6k miles? Seeing this will prob be my last pure ICE car I want to do what I can to keep it in good shape, and wasn’t sure if there were tangible benefits to do more frequent intervals, or if synthetic stuff is good enough that that would be overkill

[Coconut]

10k miles or 1 year, whichever comes first. Sure you can do it sooner as in <1 year or around 5-6k miles but its really up to you. It doesnt hurt to do it earlier.

For me, I drive ~6k miles a year, so I do my oil changes yearly.

[MPR]

I do them myself every 5K miles. This worked well for my BRZ which is now clocking in at 200K miles.

[danallxt]

[QUOTE=donnyfontaine;30425402]Obviously book recommended is around 10-11k, but longer oil change intervals are both a) an appealing thing when buying and b) something that may cause more maintenance trips down the line (ie more $$ for them on both fronts)
/QUOTE]

I'm not sure what was meant by "more maintenance trips down the line". No more maintenance would be required by less frequent oil changes down the line. On the extreme side (say no oil changes) you may/will be wearing out the engine sooner but maintenance ain't gonna fix that.

I will come out here on the side of BMW, i do not think they would risk the negative impact on the company reputation if it became common for the engines to fail after 50,000 miles or so due to only annual or 10-11K oil change intervals.

Keep in mind (as you mentioned) the quality of oil has vastly improved from the days of 3,000 mile recommended oil changes, also the quality of combustion of these FI computer managed engines is far superior to older carbed engines. And as a previous lister mentioned, many folks drive less than 10K a year and thus get oil changed at lower mileage at the annual change. Folks that do drive a car pretty hard, those folks are likely to do more frequent oil changes (and perhaps a different spec oil).

[Wasp_Factory]

Mine is a UK M240iX and the service schedule is telling me that engine oil change is in May 2025 (ie 2 years from new) or another 19k miles (I have around 350 miles on it at the moment).

I agree that oil is better these days, but would anybody else be worried about the first oil change being after 19k miles or 2 years?

[JoeyJoeJo]

I'm of an age where I remember new cars having early oil change and then maximum of a year so my natural reaction is horror but as someone pointed out, BMW will have zero interest in multiple issues down the line, or having a fleet of 5/10 year old cars that are unsellable due to multiple repeated oil related failures and the brand being tarnished so they must have a fair degree of confidence in the oil and condition based servicing.

It would be an extremely easy and lucrative revenue stream for them to shorten intervals but they leave them long.

I am likely however to go with annual lol (I am viewing this one as long term final ICE so an annual visual inspection and change makes sense in my head)

[Aramis1919]

Originally Posted by Wasp_Factory

Mine is a UK M240iX and the service schedule is telling me that engine oil change is in May 2025 (ie 2 years from new) or another 19k miles (I have around 350 miles on it at the moment).

I agree that oil is better these days, but would anybody else be worried about the first oil change being after 19k miles or 2 years?

Exactly the same as my M240i X-drive. Registered new on June 9th 2023 and now showing around 1300 miles.

I agree that 2 years and 19000 miles is a concern.

[Pentland]

Originally Posted by Wasp_Factory

I agree that oil is better these days, but would anybody else be worried about the first oil change being after 19k miles or 2 years?

Nope.

[Aramis1919]

Why nope?

[German1967]

Once a year or every 10k (in the U.S.) is totally sufficient for engine oil - may want to throw in one earlier one for “break in”. Lots of progress has been made in oil quality over the last decades. So the change every 3-5k miles is bogus and not environmentally friendly. But everyone as they please.

What is more critical is the “lifetime” liquids (auto transmission, transfer case, front and rear differential). BMW makes you believe that they are “lifetime”: yes, when it fails, it was liftetime. Those should be changed every 60k miles.

[Pentland]

Originally Posted by Aramis1919

Why nope?

Used to work for a company that specialised in condition based monitoring and engineering of bearings, specifically with experience of longevity of greases and oils in bearings.

I’m perfectly content that a quality engine oil has that kind of service life.

[Aramis1919]

Originally Posted by Pentland

Used to work for a company that specialised in condition based monitoring and engineering of bearings, specifically with experience of longevity of greases and oils in bearings.

I’m perfectly content that a quality engine oil has that kind of service life.

OK...fair enough.

Presumably engine oil has come a long way since the days of Castrol GTX 20/50.

[Pentland]

Originally Posted by Aramis1919

OK...fair enough.

Presumably engine oil has come a long way since the days of Castrol GTX 20/50.

In the days when Castrol GTX was the liquid engineering king, people used to change cars every 5-6 years - when they rusted. Technology has moved on.

[Wasp_Factory]

Thanks Pentland. Is there not normally additional wear as new engines bed in with the potential for more debris in the oil? Would that not be reason enough to consider an oil change earlier than 19k miles or 2 years? Many performance cars (including M) have services at 1200 miles or so. Why the difference between UK M240is (2 years, 19k miles) and US M240is (1 year, 10k miles). UK oil is no different to US oil! The only difference is that US law makes it easier for the consumer to take the manufacturer to task.

[MPR]

The stats can say whatever they want, ~$100 every 5K miles for peace of mind is worth it to me.