krusir

If you are follow folk's suggest here and change it every 7.5K .... I'd say save the bulks and use Mobile one 5-30w .... or any synthetic you can easily get.

i have 170K miles in my previous 540i with Costco 5-30w and change it every 7.5K .... no engine problem at all.

Allen

I think that with modern engines, which brand of oil you use really isn't an issue...especially considering how relatively short the vast majority of people keep their cars. Probably the last thing you will ever have is a major problem with engine...you need to be much more concerned about computer problems, electrical problems, fuel pumps, water pumps, turbos, alternators, leaks/seals, transmission/clutch, etc. When was the last time you heard of a BMW...or any other modern engine...having any kind of failure that could be remotely traced to the brand of oil used.

As to the question...if you change the oil as specified by BMW, and use oil as specified by BMW....you will VERY likely never have an oil related issue. Something else or a combination of things will kill your car far sooner.

txag_530i

+1 on that!

I used the BMW oil last time purely for price reasons. The Mobil1 0W40 at Autozone was priced at $6.99/quart. My dealer gave me a 20% discount off of the BMW oil when i showed him my BMWCCA membership card, which made the price ~$5.50/quart. What's wrong with that?

I change my oil at 7500 mile intervals because I plan on keeping the car a long time. It is purely for peace of mind, plus I don't put any credence in BMW's oil monitoring system. I just changed the oil and iDrive indicates that I have only 4900 miles to go until the next oil change. Prior to changing the oil iDrive indicated 6,000 miles. How can that be?

PanPanks

Absolutely. I've spoken with 3 seperate SAs and at least 2 certified BMW mechanics at my local dealer and they all tell me that if I chose to perform oil changes outside of the schedule, simply use a good name brand, fully synthetic oil in 5w30; all of them mentioned Castrol Syntec and Mobile1.

Allen

When my car goes out of warranty, I will implement a 10,000 mile (since it's synthetic) oil change program. I did that on my '95 E34 and it lasted 250K miles with NO engine issues....that is, before someone rear-ended me and totalled it...what a sad day that was.

As kind of a side note.....with my E60, for some reason I just don't get the feeling that it will hold up nearly as good as my E34 did. On that car, if it broke I fixed/replaced it....because I planned to keep it forever....and it felt like it would last forever. On the E60, it just doesn't feel like it will last as long. It seems overly complicated, with lots of things to go wrong that could be prohibitivly (sp?) expensive to fix. I hope I'm wrong.