Oil change ??

N

Neil CR

Member
 Surrey/ hants border
So have almost had my Z4 fir 12 months, it had a service 2 a few weeks after I got it at RBM
It’s showing next service is due in 10,000 miles
Should I get the oil changed in the next month or so or wait another year / 2 years before I hit the 10,000 miles for the service indicator
As you can see it’s not driven that much apart from a blast out at weekends and a bit of local pottering about
 
As a matter of course I change oil every year or every 8000km, whichever comes first. In my case, that means every 6 months.

Even when not used, oil quality can degrade over time (due to water and other contaminants). So for peace of mind, just refresh the oil and get a proper MANN filter to go with it. Happy motoring :driving:
 
Don't leave it too long, all my vehicles have a service every 12 months what ever the mileage, usually less that 5,000 miles and never more that 8,000.
 
At the risk of being controversial, there’s absolutely no need to change the oil every 12 months if your car is doing typical weekend mileage and not being trashed around a track. It’s good practise and won’t do your car any harm, but if your oil is a nice golden colour (wipe off the dipstick onto a piece of kitchen paper) and no mayo under the filler cap, then leaving it another year is not going to do your engine any harm at all. It’s highly unlikely that your 20 year old car has had even half that many oil services in its lifetime, although some will have, and it’s still going strong.

I’m not saying don’t do it, just you don’t need to. :D
 
Decent modern oil won't degrade after a year. Changing oil annually regardless of mileage is a habit held over from the 1980s when lubricant technology was very different.
 
I had the bearing shells replaced on my M Coupe in 2019 and it didn't get an oil service for 2 years, but it had only done 6,000 miles!

For such limited use changing it every year seems excessive to me as mine also only tends to get a weekend blast now and again.
 
I only ever change oil as per the SI. That's 18k intervals on my 320d which works for its keep and it makes the oil black immediately. I only buy the cheapest oil that meets LL04 (usually Triple QX or Halfords.) It's now on 278k and still on the original turbo. Someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Changing oil early on a petrol, of all things, is hilariously ridiculous; the oil comes out looking much like it went in for non-tracked cars (do a track day; that'll show what properly worn out oil looks like.)

Some things never change tho. Twenty plus years ago it was always "oil will never last 10000 miles, 3000 mile intervals are more than enough" on newsgroups and proto-forums. "It's cheap insurance" was another as if the oil had some influence on the non-reciprocating parts. Back in the depths of time when carburettors were king, there was value in early changes as rich running due to a worn carb or stuck auto-choke would effectively dump petrol into the sump which would dilute the oil and allow, notably, piston ring wear. Remember the days of Cavaliers chucking out blue smoke by 10 years old? But fuel injection killed all that stone dead at the beginning of the 1990s. There's the odd exception to all this (600cc Smart cars anyone?) but I don't recall ever hearing of an oil related failure in BMWs in non M engines (the S52 probably wants a word at this point.)

Long story short: change it as per schedule/computer. It's a waste of time and money doing anything else.
 
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