How Often Does a BMW really needs its oil changed?

I just bought a new BMW and since its a nicer car than i had before im wondering if needs more maintenance. (Or more frequent maintenance) How often do you really need to get its oil changed?|||In your new BMW there's a service indicator, which takes into account your driving habits, will call for an oil change approximately every 15,000 miles or so. In practice, if you intend to keep the car, then it's a good idea to perform an intermediate oil change, approximately 7,500 miles after the previous one. Your new BMW includes free scheduled maintenance, but since this intermediate oil change isn't scheduled, you should expect to pay for it.





Regarding oil, BMW requires an oil that meets their LL-04 standard to maintain warranty. They don't require BMW oil (that would be illegal, in accordance with the Moss-Magnusson act), but you should know that relatively few oils meet that standard.





My recommendation, for the longevity of your car, and the preservation of your warranty, is to take the car to the BMW dealer, or a qualified BMW-specialised independent service station, to perform an intermediate oil and filter change after 7,500 miles, using a BMW-approved oil.





If you're driving fewer miles than this, then the oil should be changed at least annually.|||Unless your owners manual specifies a semi-synthetic or synthetic oil - some turbocharged engines do require it - you may use any oil, synthetic or otherwise which carries the SL or SM marking and I believe that your engine recommends the use of a 5W-30 oil for year around use. Check your manual!





You can check the oil cold or warm, the car needs to be parked on a reasonably level surface when you do so. If warm when you check it, you need to wait between one and two minutes for the oil to drain back into the pan to get an accurate reading. You need to add oil any time the level drops to the add mark on the dipstick.





You should always warm the engine to normal operating temperature before changing the engine oil, this will ensure that the dirty stuff is thoroughly mixed with the oil to ensure that it is removed from the engine when the oil is drained, and it will also drain much faster when it is hot.





After an oil change the only requirement before driving is to make sure that the engine is generating normal oil pressure and there are no leaks around the filter or drain plug.





If you choose to change your own oil, please do not pour used oil down any water, sewer or storm drain. Used motor needs to be properly recycled to protect the environment! Any automotive dealership or oil change facility will be happy to receive your used oil and see that it is properly recycled.





Normal oil change intervals:


Short trips, Less than 10 miles typical drive per engine warm up - Change Oil every 3000 miles or 3 months.


Long trips, Over 10 miles average drive per engine warm up - Change Oil every 5000 miles or 3 months.


Continuous extended driving, 100+ miles per warm up -


Change Oil every 7000 miles or the maximum permitted oil change interval recommended by the vehicle manufacturer.





A full synthetic oil is capable of at least doubling these intervals, but do not do it until your engine is out of warranty!





A Synthetic oil is one which has been chemically reprocessed to create more consistent molecular chain length which results in greater oil stability and longer life.





A Semi-Synthetic oil is, as its name implies a blend of synthetic and non-synthetic oils.





Conventional (mineral) oil is a straight petroleum distillate product.





All motor oils are treated with additives which improve the viscosity and the ability of the oil to suspend contaminants and resist thermal and moisture induced breakdown.|||Not a single person (at time of this post) has asked anything about the year of BMW Molly owns.





Age of the car plays a part on whether your should use organic or synthetic oil.





After you choose the best in that decision... organic oil needs to be changed SOONER than synthetic.





Around 4k - 5k miles (depending on how you drive the car) for organic and around 10k for synthetic.|||It probably depends on the make you have, what year it is etc. but the place that i go to in order to get the oil changed for my BMW recommends every 6,000 miles (and they have been very good to me). You can definitely do some damage if you dont stick to that. If you happen to live in the Seattle are this place has two locations, Elite Auto Care in Ballard and Eastside European in Kirkland. They are awesome! Also they do some videos about maintenance things like this, i posted one below...





http://www.eastsideeuropean.com


http://www.eliteautocareinc.com|||Just do what the manual says, they may be different car to car. The new M5 is a scheduled 12,500 between oil changes which I thought was too long except that it actually EATS oil...no joke..you add about 1 quart every 5k miles and this is totally normal for this car. The new oil being added probably allows it to go longer between oil changes.|||If you use the full synthetic oil you can get away with 15,000 miles between oil changes. I don't typically do this but changing it every 3,000 miles is overkill and a waste of time and money if you are using the synthetic stuff.|||one word and forget all of that writing written by people every 10,000 km change oil thats it|||3 months or 3000 miles. BMW's should be using synthetic oil.