No oil change for 7 years!

[Fred Smith]

Personally I wouldn’t walk away from this if the rest of the car is right, a 3.0 bmw engine can stand this oil issue. If it’s running well with no blue smoke then if the price is fair I’d change the oil asap and don’t worry about it.

That is my understanding.

I would love to have some hard data, or even a really solid anecdotal. Is there anyone out there who has stripped at least two N52s, with one being an engine that has definitely been maintained to the highest standards, and one that definitely hasn't, and compared engine wear on the two of them?

[tomscott]

Always a gamble and low milage cars arent always the gift they seem. Start using it and a few other issues may crop up.

That being said if the price is right and the car is the spec you want then... just need to get more information from the owner. Call him, otherwise the thread is just a load of posts of what ifs and do this do that.

[Beerman]

Always a gamble and low milage cars arent always the gift they seem. Start using it and a few other issues may crop up.

That being said if the price is right and the car is the spec you want then... just need to get more information from the owner. Call him, otherwise the thread is just a load of posts of what ifs and do this do that.

My reading of the OP is the car has travelled 17,000 over the 7 years between oil changes rather than a very low mileage car.

[2k35is]

Owned a 2003 e46 330ci convertible for 17 years. service recommendations were "condition based" with display of how many miles to next service. A time limit was not introduced until the E9x series. S depending how car ws driven it would show how many miles to next oil change. Dont know how it was measured but could be anything between about 13k to 20k miles. Mine only did about 3k miles per year. so east to get to double or triple time period.. My thoughts at time E9X series time limit to 2 years was introduced was just to make more money for dealers so that oil and filters etc were changed more often. Never had any problems with the engine (apart from water pump).
Don't think you are going to get any evidence that will show difference in wear between engine that has been changed every two years and one that hasn't.
Go and view it and ask owner- lots of reasons why it may not have been driven but on face of it oil changes could have been within BMW recommendations at time.

[tomscott]

Always a gamble and low milage cars arent always the gift they seem. Start using it and a few other issues may crop up.

That being said if the price is right and the car is the spec you want then... just need to get more information from the owner. Call him, otherwise the thread is just a load of posts of what ifs and do this do that.

My reading of the OP is the car has travelled 17,000 over the 7 years between oil changes rather than a very low mileage car.

Oh, I see. In that case, there are plenty of cars available so I would probably keep searching

[enuff_zed]

Thing is, I could sell you car, tell you I've serviced it religiously every year/3000 miles and show you a comprehensive spreadsheet I've kept for the last 20 years. But that would take me five minutes to knock up and provided I stuck fresh oil in it a week before you turned up, you'd never know the difference.
If the car runs well, has no knocks or rattles then you take a risk whichever one you buy.

[Mike6]

I am assuming your car has a dipstick. A lot of newer models don't so how on earth you can check condition of oil when purchasing would seemingly be impossible .

[kis]

7 years is a long time IMO. Oil degrades over time as we all now. Just makes you wonder why? Has anything else been skimped on?

[TIMMOS29]

Oil degrades over time.

17,000 miles is already quite a long time with the same oil. If it is the same oil and thousands of miles have been done with the oil well past its best, I'd walk away.

With cars of this age and value there will often be holes in the service history. A 7 year gap is too long for me.

No date stamp on oil filter housing or air filter?