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BMW 5-Series (G30) Forum 2017+ BMW 5 Series (G30) General Discussions M550XI Oil intervals

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      05-18-2020, 08:30 PM   #1
MLIFEM550
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M550XI Oil intervals

Hello,

I was just wondering what are you guys doing as far as oil change. I get mine done every 5 to 6 months. I don't follow the recommended every 10K or one year which ever comes first. I think that is just way too long. What are your thoughts.
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      05-18-2020, 11:02 PM   #2
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I follow the condition based indicator although if I did lots of stop and go driving then I might change the oil more often. BMW uses synthetic oil so I don't think more frequent changes are needed.
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      05-19-2020, 07:47 AM   #3
GTFISH
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How long do you plan to keep the car? If you are leasing and will turn it in I see no reason to do more frequent oil changes. If you are going to keep the car for a long time then I would change the frequency, especially if you live in a hot climate and do a lot of stop and go driving. I used to do half of what the indicator would show in my 335d or about every 6-7k miles do a oil and filter change.
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      05-19-2020, 10:57 AM   #4
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Yeah my local specialty mechanic recommended every 5K, not to wait for the mftr service intervals of 10k.
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      05-19-2020, 11:17 AM   #5
MLIFEM550
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yeah I think its just crazy to do it every 10k or 12m. This is not my daily driver and last time I go the service done was roughly 500 miles ago and 6 moths. I have a maintenance plan so its cost me 200 bucks every 5-6 months money very well spent and BMW picks up the next one.
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      05-19-2020, 11:20 AM   #6
MLIFEM550
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not a lease its a purchase. not my daily either. I put on maybe 700 miles since I purchased it 6 months ago and already changed oil twice. Basically I change oil once in winter and once in spring/summer.
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      05-19-2020, 03:29 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MLIFEM550 View Post
Hello,

I was just wondering what are you guys doing as far as oil change. I get mine done every 5 to 6 months. I don't follow the recommended every 10K or one year which ever comes first. I think that is just way too long. What are your thoughts.
Modern synthetic oil is really good and a 10K/1y service interval is extremely reasonable and won't do any harm. Changing it faster is just a waste of money and oil. Of course, the mechanic will suggest you change it more frequently because they'll make more money selling you an oil change

Cars have been using 10K/1Y synthetic intervals for what 2 decades now or so? There is a good body of data on this being reasonable.

I do 10K/1Y changes as BMW recommends. Did the same thing on my MB I had previously. People suggest that the 10K/1Y interval is only to get you out of the 4Y/50K warranty period, but those theories ignore the unlimited mileage CPO warranties that can easily stretch cars beyond 100K miles with the OEM still on the hook...

But cars are one of those things... People develop habits and they hold to them. They also develop conspiracy theories around why service intervals are setup and they focus on "preventive maintenance" to get ahead of issues they think may hit them.

The semi-good news is more frequent oil changes aren't harmful to the car just wasteful to the wallet and environment. After all, you could replace your wiper blades daily without harming anything more than your wallet and the environment...
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      05-19-2020, 09:10 PM   #8
GTFISH
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MLIFEM550 View Post
not a lease its a purchase. not my daily either. I put on maybe 700 miles since I purchased it 6 months ago and already changed oil twice. Basically I change oil once in winter and once in spring/summer.
I wouldn't change it that often with such little mileage. My Cayman has an interval of something like 10k miles or one year. I put 4-5k miles a year on the car so I just change it once a year. If you are driving 2-3k miles a year I would just change it annually.
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      05-22-2020, 03:38 PM   #9
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I've been using this change interval, with synthetic oil, in every car I've owned since 2001. Never had a problem. My wife's E350 has 150K miles on it now. We waste so much oil with the unnecessaryly frequent changes, IMHO. If you are not tracking your car, it will be fine.
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