Synthetic Oil

jake993 · 2007-11-08T05:30:04+00:00

Hi guys,Earlier this year I bought a brand new 550i. I know, I know....spoiled brat. My last car was 1993 MB 400e and I bought it a year oldwith 12k miles on it and changed the oil every 3k without fail. It wasthe best car I ever owned and still ran great when I sold it with 200kmiles on it. I'm still kicking myself for getting rid of it. But Idigress.The new car uses synthetic oil like many cars these days. It's thefirst car I have had that takes synthetic lube oil and BMW is tellingme I don't need to change the oil until it hits 11,000 miles (orsomething like that). This just seems wrong. I know this new syntheticstuff is supposed to pretty slick stuff (no pun intended) but it makesyou wonder so I asked my old MB mechanic what he thought about it.Now, this guy is a Master Technician for MB who has been on his ownfor 15+ years and seems to know his stuff. He says that BMW is leadingyou down a primrose path. Since routine maintenance in included, theyhave a say in how often you change your oil. My old mechanic advisedme to pay for additional oil changes (at $105 a pop) at least oncebetween every BMW scheduled oil change. While the new synthetic stuffis pretty amazing, he says that while getting double the regular dutycycle of conventional oil is reasonable, pushing it from 3k milesbetween changes to 10k+ miles is just asking for trouble. He thinksit's a plot by BMW to make you trade in the car for a new one once theincluded maintenance is done.Any opinions on this topic?Thanks,Jake

Nov 08, 2007 41 Replies

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John Carrier 18 years ago

SNIP

FYI I'm actually driving 30 miles to work each day, 60m round trip but it's mainly cruising at 80. Ahem I mean 70.mph (At least one benefit to the UK)

With all the photo-radars in th UK? Generally, you can cruise around 80 in most of the US if the trucks and the left-lane nazi's don't clog things up.

R / John

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Pete 18 years ago

"roy" wrote

Interesting. I guess the service calculator on your car is more complex than on mine. In my case, it only takes into account the amount of fuel burned.

So usually, how many miles can you go before the service light comes on?

Pete

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