Quote:
Originally Posted by ashtaron14
I change my oil every 5000-6000KM (3100-3700 miles) or half a year, whichever comes first.
Neither my mechanic or I believe in the long life oil bs. If you drive hard, take care of your car, there's not going to be problems. If you don't drive hard, please drive harder.  |
3100 miles?!? I'm not surprised in the least that your mechanic doesn't believe in "long life" oil since he/she probably gets paid to change oil! The whole "change your oil every 3000-5000" miles was peddled by companies like Oil Changers and Jiffy Lube, or from ancient advice based on mineral oils (which do need changing more often). Even Ferrari purportedly changed their interval to make it shorter purely because US dealers wanted to make more money from people that didn't drive their cars much (Rest of the world intervals stayed the same).
The only way to know how your oil is faring is to run an chemical oil analysis. I've done that many times on different cars, and almost every time the analysis comes back with something like "oil good for another 5000 miles". On break-in when anything inside the engine has been changed (from just cams or bearings to a full rebuild), yes, oil should be changed very soon after to get rid of any residual metal and/or assembly lube, but under normal circumstances, oil is good for at least 10,000 miles. Changing it more often is actually likely to cause more issues (oil starvation at startup, errors by the mechanic, etc). Personally the following schedule is what I would recommend, with or without supercharger (SC oil is self-contained, and the extra power you're using extremely rarely is not changing your oil change requirements):
- Break-in - 500 miles, and again at 2500 miles.
- Street driven - 10,000 miles or 12 months (this is the official BMW recommendation), but no less than 7,500 miles.
- Track driven - Every 4-5 track days (due to the extreme heat on track that can break down some of the additives in the oil)
If it makes you feel better changing it more often and spending hundreds on the 9L of 10W60 spec oil, then that's your choice, but as I said you run higher risks of damage caused by actually changing it, and it does nothing for the longevity of your engine (especially at 3100 miles!).
For longevity it's better to focus on changing those rod bearings. In fact I believe ESS now strongly recommend changing bearings when adding their SC, but with or without the SC, you should change those bearings to BE Bearings!
Thanks!
S.