[instalher]

a good friend of mine owns a german repair shop in Abbotsford, the shop is the best one in the lower mainland and the techs are all German specialists, He sends me some pics of two IN SERVICE bmws one a 335 and one a x5, both customers came in with complaints so Derrick looked a bit into it and this is what he found.. I know the oilchange interval is stupid high on our cars, but no matter what bmw, Mercedes, porche and vw, well who cares about vw, say, 10000km MAX befor an oil change,. its on your dime but its cheap and will keep your engine sparking clean. And never, ever use regular oil, stick with mobil one, or a top rated oil.

[Marshalltj]

Any details available regarding what led to the buildup in the engine pictured?

[tjlees]

Wow!

How frequently were the services?

[F32Fleet]

I'm sorry but I have to call BS.

The BIG unknown with photos like this is whether or not the owner maintained the vehicle as required. Most of the time the owner did not (i.e ignored the computer telling them a change was due or used cheap dino oil).

[435MSport6Speed]

Originally Posted by F32Fleet

I'm sorry but I have to call BS.

The BIG unknown with photos like this is whether or not the owner maintained the vehicle as required. Most of the time the owner did not (i.e ignored the computer telling them a change was due or used cheap dino oil).

Agree 100%.

[Vegetable]

Originally Posted by F32Fleet

I'm sorry but I have to call BS.

The BIG unknown with photos like this is whether or not the owner maintained the vehicle as required. Most of the time the owner did not (i.e ignored the computer telling them a change was due or used cheap dino oil).

+1 .. Although BMW did have a ridiculous 21,000 mile oil service interval not too long ago..

[dreamspeed]

Even if we assume the car has 49999 miles on it (since its "in service") and the oil change interval was 15k, I find it hard to believe that amount of sludge has built up.

[tjlees]

Originally Posted by Vegetable

+1 .. Although BMW did have a ridiculous 21,000 mile oil service interval not too long ago..

Still is - mine showing 22k miles at the mo.

[Vegetable]

Originally Posted by tjlees

Still is - mine showing 22k miles at the mo.

Crazy.. My 435i is every 11K

[tjlees]

Originally Posted by Vegetable

Crazy.. My 435i is every 11K

Yes, too long for me, especially for the filter. I changed at 11kish

[KGB_123_99]

This is an M54 engine on my old E39. I was changing the valve cover gasket in my garage at 110k miles.

The engine had only scheduled dealer oil changes and subsequently I did the changes myself with Mobil 1 0w40 whenever the car told me to.

Looked clean!

[tjlees]

Originally Posted by KGB_123_99

This is an M54 engine on my old E39. I was changing the valve cover gasket in my garage at 110k miles.

The engine had only scheduled dealer oil changes and subsequently I did the changes myself with Mobil 1 0w40 whenever the car told me to.

Looked clean!

[snipnoob86]

my previous audi a6 3.0 was on a LL 20k service. had it done from new between 18 and 25k miles depending how busy or where i was. sold the car with 192k on the clock and it was still driving a dream felt more powerfull at that muleage than it was when new.

think it had some injectors replaced and a turbo and 1 or 2 sensors and the usual suspension bushes in that time.

ive told myself ill be changing my 335 oil every 5 to 7k or so. but because of my experiance with the audi i do wonder how good modern oils are

[tjlees]

Originally Posted by snipnoob86

my previous audi a6 3.0 was on a LL 20k service. had it done from new between 18 and 25k miles depending how busy or where i was. sold the car with 192k on the clock and it was still driving a dream felt more powerfull at that muleage than it was when new.

think it had some injectors replaced and a turbo and 1 or 2 sensors and the usual suspension bushes in that time.

ive told myself ill be changing my 335 oil every 5 to 7k or so. but because of my experiance with the audi i do wonder how good modern oils are

As I've said before, changing the oil too frequently causes more damage than allowing the oil to bed in. The oil filter is probably the part that needs changing more often than every 20k miles. The oil filters efficiency drops quite significantly after a while of filtering.

If I get back to my desk computer, I post the links from various studies.

[Dog Face Pony Soldier]

Originally Posted by instalher

a good friend of mine owns a german repair shop in Abbotsford, the shop is the best one in the lower mainland and the techs are all German specialists, He sends me some pics of two IN SERVICE bmws one a 335 and one a x5, both customers came in with complaints so Derrick looked a bit into it and this is what he found.. I know the oilchange interval is stupid high on our cars, but no matter what bmw, Mercedes, porche and vw, well who cares about vw, say, 10000km MAX befor an oil change,. its on your dime but its cheap and will keep your engine sparking clean. And never, ever use regular oil, stick with mobil one, or a top rated oil.

Are we supposed to believe that is how an engine will look when adhering to regularly scheduled maintenance?

[instalher]

no this is an extream example of what happens to oil when not changed. that's all. nothing more. this would happen in any engine without proper oilchanges...

[jsouth]

I have been using only synthetics in my cars for about 15 years. I change the oil filter every 5,000 miles, and oil + filter at 10,000 miles. Engine internals ALWAYS look clean when I peer through the oil cap or do a valve cover gasket. Data from multiple sources shows that synthetics can *easily* last 10,000 miles.

I personally think BMWs schedule is too long for an oil filter, especially in dusty conditions. I also believe in using manufacturer specified oils ONLY. So for my 2013 328i that means only LL-01 stamped oils.

[spitpilot]

These vehicles could have suffered from "short run itis" sludge formation.
I'm another skeptic on BMW's "conditioned based service"...we do a lot of short runs where the engine never really gets up to full operating temp....so I know moisture and contamination from piston ring blow by aren't effectively being driven off the oil.
Never the less...the magic computer had my 328I's next oil change out in late 2018 time frame early in this year. I ignore that and change oil 2X year using Mobil 1 0W-40. Been doing time based oil changes for "putzing around town" cars in the family for years and have opened up a few of the motors and seen glistening innards...Oil is cheap...a plugged oil line to your turbo is $$$$...so I'm sticking with frequent changes.