First oil change...

P

plantkiller

Member
 Virginia
Greetings,
Newbie here... I just hit my first 1,000 miles.
I was thinking about flushing the factory oil out and replacing with Mobil-1 synthetic.

I have never worked on a German car before (all Japanse and domestics)...
Is there any tricks or gotchas that I should be aware of before I attempt my first oil change?

Thanks in advance.
 
Hey plantkiller, welcome to the forum!

If you've ever changed your own oil before, you'll be very pleased with how simple it is for your Z4. And I'm guessing that your '07 is laid out the same as my '05.

Your drain plug should be centrally located underneath the engine (and toward the back of the car a bit) behind a little door in the skid plate. It's easy enough to find, and someone here may have a picture. The oil filter element is just to the left of the air filter box (when you're facing the front of the car). The oil filter housing is permanent, so you only need to change the filter element and the o-ring for the cap. Removing the old o-ring is easy enough, and just make sure to put a little new oil on the new o-ring before you tighten down the cap (just like you would on a traditional oil filter, basically). I believe you'll need either a 35 or 36mm socket to remove the cap on the oil filter housing, but this is easy enough to measure for confirmation.

If you get your filter from your BMW dealer, it is a kit which will include the filter element, new o-ring for the filter housing cap, and a new crush washer for the drain plug.

As long as your '07 has the traditional oil dip stick, changing your oil will be a pretty quick job (if you've done it on your previous cars)

Does this answer your questions?

Not sure if 1k miles is the right time to change out the factory oil (I did my first change somewhere between 3k and 5k), but if there's a good known reason not to do it this soon, I'm sure one of the other good folks here will bring it to light.

Cheers :thumbsup:
 
Thanks for the reponses... I'll give it a shot this weekened...
Citation - "holy bat, cr@pman!" :o That's one scary pic - and it's not even Halloween yet! <chills>
I am a firm believer in changing the oil & filter at 5K and with Mobil-1.
 
Yeah I remember that sludge pic on z4um. I still have to agree, not waiting for 15000, but I think due to the fact that the car is new to me i'll change the oil early (probably around the 5k mark) I just want to put whatever oil bmw recommends for those 15k miles.
 
plantkiller: love your screen name, reminds me of my mom...couldn't keep a damn cactus alive to save her! :lol:
Still though, love 'templed's' avatar, it's awesome: damn I love Beaker!
Sorry: :hijacked:; we've got a bad habit of that around here
 
It isn't hijacked yet....
Just like the car needs TLC, you also have to make sure she's well lubed before you ride her hard
 
The 06 and I suspect the 07's do not have a dip stick. What I did is drain the old oil out and take your time about it, take the oil filter element and have some old rags or something like that to get any oil remaining in the oil filter casting out. Make sure you have exactly the amount your engine calls out. With some of that oil I pre-soak the oil filter element before installing. To tighten the oil filter cap you will need either a strap or a oil filter cap wrench. Bavarian Auto sells them (http://www.bavauto.com): Tool - Oil Filter Housing Cap with 17mm hex head: Part # : 05348 $ 14.95 plus shipping and handling. Have fun and remember to dispose of any of these petrochemical products without damaging our environment.
 
20ducks said:
The 06 and I suspect the 07's do not have a dip stick. What I did is drain the old oil out and take your time about it, take the oil filter element and have some old rags or something like that to get any oil remaining in the oil filter casting out. Make sure you have exactly the amount your engine calls out. With some of that oil I pre-soak the oil filter element before installing. To tighten the oil filter cap you will need either a strap or a oil filter cap wrench. Bavarian Auto sells them (http://www.bavauto.com): Tool - Oil Filter Housing Cap with 17mm hex head: Part # : 05348 $ 14.95 plus shipping and handling. Have fun and remember to dispose of any of these petrochemical products without damaging our environment.
Click to expand...
No dip stick? That seems absurd - does BMW have some other way of checking the level vs. measuring what came out?
 
Citation 650 said:
As a side point, here's what your oil can look like at BMW's recommended 15,000 mile change.
The 15,000 mile oil change
Click to expand...

that picture has been copied and pasted in a number of forums for different make cars from fords to BMWs. It is not a picture of a BMW that followed the recommended service intervals or any other brand that followed the manufactures guidlines. :thumbsdown: it was a worse case picture of some sort of engine sludge, no one knows the real cause of it. It is virtually impossible to create that type of sludge in 15,000 or 50,000 miles under normal conditions. I still don't know of anyone that has ruined their motor using the manufacturers recommendations :fuelfire:
 
It’s obvious that you’ve given the matter a great deal of thought and we appreciate your opinion. :poke:
 
:rofl:

Actually I do agree with him. I really doubt that BMW or any car manufacturer would of not done the proper testing on an engine and it's oil system. If one would of caused that much damage/sludge then IMO there'd be more.
Like the other feller said, follow the manufacterer's recommendations and your G2G
 
Citation 650 said:
It’s obvious that you’ve given the matter a great deal of thought and we appreciate your opinion. :poke:
Click to expand...

Hey get that stick out my eye! Seriously though, its not to BMWs benefit or any other manufacturer to have their engine fall apart after the warranty expires. BMW is counting on repeat buyers, they love buyers that go from a 3, 5, to a 6 or 7 series thats their favorite customer, but a bad expirence can turn a repeat buyer off for very long time, thats what happened to the domestic car market from about 1980 to 1993...
 
Longevity seems to be the forte of BMW so it seems to me it would behoove them to continue on that tradition. But with all the new conveniences that make driving life easier for all of us, there are bound to be issues. The more crap a car has, the more that can go wrong with it. It would give up my Z in a second if forced to choose between it and my truck, which I can still work on without much help.
And Zeefour: You know that stick isn't poking in your eye, right?! :fingertap:
T.
 
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