Actually I had a friend who had an old bug-eyed sprite who did just that (replace every 1000 miles). Say what you like but one of the purposes of oil is to suspend dirt and other contaminents. If you want those floating in your engine then change it every 15k.
Most auto manufacturers of that era (1950's) called for oil changes every
1,000 or 2,000 miles as well as greasing some 20 or so chassis fittings every 1,000 miles. But aren't we discussing a contemporary BMW and modern, synthetic oil?
It's just common sense Larry. Filters don't catch everything as evidenced by the data in the web page mentioned in an earlier post. BTW, just returned from having it changed. Will do so every 5k from now on as per the shop's owner's recommendation.
Yes. While the oil will hold it's viscosity much better than oils in that era and the filters are much improved, dirt will get into the oil via a number of different sources in addition to particles resulting from engine wear. I prefer to eliminate these suspended particles by changing the oil.
So long as they are changed regularly (i.e., not forced into using the overflow) they catch everything down to some number of microns in diameter, depending upon the individual filter's design and quality. I would think your concern -- and your money -- would be more rewardingly applied to studying available filter evaluations and picking a particularly effective oil filter.
Or maybe you need to install a dry sump system with additional filtering or a design which will allow those suspended particles to fall out of circulation.
Not to mention the fact that you might also need to obtain purity information on the particular oil you're using, since it might already contain suspended particles approaching your size of concern. 8;)
I happen to change my oil and filters every 3-5K myself, but my cars also spend considerable time at autocrosses and racetrack days, and I'm a fussbudget. But I acknowledge that that is probably a great waste of money.
Because he is probably American and Americans like to change oil every 3000 miles.
It is clear from this and one or two other car NGs I follow that it is primarily North Americans who can't get to grips with modern oil change intervals, especially not those calculated by the OBC.
DAS
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
And I'll bet the sprite still needed a re-bore at around 60,000 miles. There's absolutely no hard scientific evidence that changing oil early extends engine life.
Makes good sense. I have a X5 that I put less than 10K miles a year. Mostly stop and go driving. The Oil Service Indicator never goes to orange; however BMW does an interim "low usage" oil change. Even so, the oil (after about five months and 2K miles) looks dirty. I realize "looks dirty" does not mean anything technical. However, I am tempted to do an oil change anyway. Yes, I realize it is my money and if I want I could go ahead and change the air in the tires too.
On that note, I read about a service station that is pumping pure nitrogen (99%). Charges $7 per tire. Is that also another gimmick or is there any sense to it?
Actually, Dave, that's not accurate. If you go Google "Toyota oil gel" you'll find a bunch of stuff. Now, Toyota says it's people going beyond the oil change intervals. However, Toyota also says 5K miles for heavy-duty use and 7500 miles for light-duty so owners often don't know which regime to follow. It's clear that oil change intervals matter, but what the interval should be is a matter of conjecture.
BMW is conjecturing (with good reason IMO) that 15K miles synthetic changes in their engines is adequate. If you could answer the question: "why 5/7.5K for Toyota and 15K for BMW", you would have my attention.
Of course, one reason would be the quantity of oil used: Toyota uses only 3-5 quarts while BMW uses 7-8. But that's probably not the only reason; the Toyota critics allege that since the gel problem only occurs in specific engines it's a design fault that can be masked by frequent changes.
Bottom line: there's no hard scientific evidence that changing oil at 15K intervals in BMWs is best for long engine life.
So where's your evidence that cars serviced by the indicator suffer reduced engine life? Despite reading a lot about BMWs I've not read anyone reporting engine problems down to worn out or contaminated oil. Which would surely be common if it *were* three times the 'correct' amount. And the BMW service indicator does take into account the type of usage which fixed intervals don't.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.