I feel as though my first duty to everyone is to get them on the right track as far as maintenance is concerned. Let’s talk about Oil Changes. BMW is now telling it’s customers that they only need to change their oil every 15,000 miles. DO NOT follow this maintenance schedule!!! You must change your oil every 5,000 miles, or twice a year if you put fewer than 10,000 miles on your BMW. My first encounter with the end result of this program came on a 2001 BMW 525it with 86,000 miles. It had a leaking valve cover gasket, so we removed the valve cover and uncovered what is now a growing problem:
What you are seeing is a substantial amount of build-up, or gunk as some call it. This car had its oil changed approximately every 15,000 miles, mostly at BMW of San Diego, and is now in big trouble. The synthetic oil has basically turned into a plastic film, clogging many important oil passages and is now choking the engine. If you have a BMW and you have been following the 15,000 mile oil change policy, or you simply wait for the car to tell you to change the oil, break this habit now! I’ll speak more on proper car care in the future as well as the thoughts behind today’s “Recommended Service Intervals” throughout this blog, but I feel as though this would be a good first step to getting on the right track for everyone.
If you are in the San Diego Area, and want your BMW’s oil changed :), you need no appointment at our shop for this service!
Chris Keefer
Independent Motorcars
5836 Autoport Mall
San Diego CA 92121
858-455-5836
www.independentmotorcars.com
What’s the best/recommended oil for BMW’s M3’s?
For the e46 or newer m3 you should be using only Castrol TWS 10-60, it is available at your local dealership and comes in a gold bottle, remember it MUST be TWS 10-60.
If you have an e36 or older M3, use 10-30 full synthetic, or 10-40W full synthetic in hotter climates.
Exactly.
Elf/Total 10w50 has also been approved for the newer M3 engine as an alternative.
In Southern California we use 5w30 factory full synthetic for the e36 M3. For an e30 M3 it is specified for non-synthetic and depends on your climate (we use 20/50)