I own a 2006 530i Automatic Sports Premium with about 52K miles. I had my oil change done at Sears Automotive last week in Austin TX. They replaced oil per BMW specs with syth. valvoline and put in a new oil filter. Immediately after I drove off from Sears, I started to hear a louder exhaust note at high rpms, specially when the the transmission shifts from 2nd to 3rd gear under normal acceleration. I took the car to Sears and they lifed the car to check the muffler/exhaust and could not find anything wrong.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

 

Hi.Was your car the first one BMW what Sears Automotive saw in there shop?

 

oh my, why would you ever go to sears? they used to be on the news about ripping people off. :thumbsdown:

 

Perhaps the engine air filter / intake silencer was very dirty and you're hearing a new engine air filter? Maybe they tossed out the charcoal filter? Is the engine air filter installed properly?

Have shop verify oil type:
Valvoline SynPower SAE 5W-30

http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Conte...ngineOils.aspx

 

They did indeed use Valvoline SynPower per the invoice. They told me that the air filter was fine. Now I am wondering if they put it back the way it should be

To the previous comments, this is my first time taking the car outside a BMW dealership. I thought oil change is very basic stuff and I could avoid the long wait time at the dealership... Lesson learned.

Cheers.

 

This sounds like what happens when they remove the "second" air filter.

 

You might as well pull in to Jiffy Lube next time. Don't ever go to those kind of places unless you are watching their every move as they drain, fill, and remove your filter. I would take my car to an indy and have them check whatever Sears screwed up.

To give you an example........ one time I pulled my car into a Midas to change out a battery and the mechanics were in awe like "Wow, I get to work on a BMW" /end quote. Needless to say, if it wasn't for the fact that I was just having a simple battery changed I would have been very worried.

 

Took the car to BMW dealership and they checked the air filter. Nothing came up. Perhaps, as someone suggested, I am hearing the notes I could not hear with the clogged filter before.

At any rate, I would not take my car again to a shop that does not regularly service BMWs. The Sears mechanic had no idea about the location of the dip stick in my car. I had to pull out the manual to find out the oil measurement in now all electronic via iDrive. He was, shall we say, surprised!