Every 30k oil change haha thats like "abuse"...

 

I do own a '99 BMW 328i and follow the 15k recommended schedule using synthetic BMW oil. My car now has 160K miles and running as strong as when it was new. The 3K intervals are just a waste of time and money.

 

MY04 manual suggests oil changes every 7500 miles - or 3750 for the "severe" schedule.

since the S is my fun car - only gets driven one or twice a week - do you guys think that i should follow the severe schedule? since the car isn't driven all the time - i tend to "get on it" a good bit when i do drive it -- plus it gets a fair amount of stop n' go driving too.

as a result - i've been changing the oil every 3750...just to be safe.

 

very few cars would actually HAVE to follow the "severe" schedule if they are using conventional oil. If you REALLY want to know, get a UOA of your oil from www.blackstonelabs.com when you are at 3500 miles, and see for yourself. I'm willing to bet that even if you fall under the "severe" category, your test will show you have a decent amount of oil life left.

On conventional oil, the majority of S2000 owners should be able to go 5000 miles IMO. On synthetic? Even if you are on the "severe" schedule, you can go 7500 no problem.

Of course, all of this is covered in the oil journals in the technical forum.



and for those who are balking at 15k or 30k oil changes, or even 7500 mile oil changes, you need to get your head out of 1964 as someone already said. Oil and engines have come a LONG LONG way since the 3000 mile oil change mantra.

 

In law's own an 03 5 series in Florida and the only change it when the "oil change meter" tells them to which turns out to be about every 12000 miles.
Florida weather really has no impact on this as 90 degree weather really has no impact on your engine internals which are used to much hotter temps.

 

I had an Audi A4 a turboed 1.8L engine. Great sedan. The manufactuer change recomendation was 5k, and every 10 there after. The result was oil would cook in the jacket around the turbo. Then the oil pickup pump screen filter clogged with crystals that formed in the oil. Audi picked up the cost of the rebuild almost $2000.00. A TSB was issued 'change at 5k'. I did not have a turbo timer or syn oil.
My guess is 3000 for Dino and 5000 for Syn.
I love to pinch pennies but it just does not seem like the best place to skimp.
You think a race team goes 2 races with the same oil?

 

i feel changing the oil at bout 3500 or 4000 usually works for me....i do use syn tho, if i was using normal oil i would prob change it every 2500-3000, but thats just me...im pretty anal about oil changes.....by the way, when is it a good time to change to syn on the s2000???

 

well, for the first 4 years, you won't be paying shit.....

BMW's have free scheduled maintenance for the first 4 years.

an oil change for my 7-series is $100 (BMW synthetic recommended).

 

Turbocharged engines are a different kettle of fish.
Without a turbo timer, you might have done the damage by shutting off the engine too soon after a hard run, without an adequate cool off period. This results in the oil being "cooked" around the turbo and speaks of poor cooling system design for the turbo. This could happen even with fresh oil...

 

The reason behind BMW's 15,000 mile oil change interval is because BMW's come with free "scheduled maintenance" for the first few years. The longer the specified interval, the less free maintenance they need to provide.

Remember, the warranty on a BMW is 4 years or 50,000 miles. Any engine will last at least this long with 15,000 mile oil change intervals. It's only up at higher mileages that you will begin to see the long term effects of this.

BMW also specifies that both their transmission fluid and their differential fluid are "lifetime" fluids. That's right, they actually inform their customers not to change those fluids, EVER. This is also because of their free scheduled maintenance scheme. By specifying that these fluids are lifetime fill, they do not need to change them for you on a regular basis. Now I'm sure they're not seeing too many transmission or differential failures within their warranty periods, but I would not purchase a pre-owned BMW with 50,000+ miles on it that has never had those fluids serviced. This is the same advice offered through the various BMW publications (Bimmer, Roundel, etc...).

Many BMW owners are smart enough to have their fluids changed in shorter intervals.