As a follow up to my post from a couple weeks ago...

I did an oil change on the car at my neighbor?s house with his hydraulic lift (in his garage). Wow was it easy (and I don't usually do this type of stuff)...little flap in the plastic belly pan of the car that has the drain plug behind it...out comes the screw...out comes the oil...screw back in....car down from lift...canister style oil filter easily accessible right at the top of the engine compartment...off with the top of the canister...out with the old filter...drop in the new filter...top back on...pour oil in...start motor, check level and drive away.

This should be the same 525/530?as for you 8 cylinder guys??


As for the oil I stuck with the Castrol

 

I would be to nervous to do the oil change myself. :'( I would let BMW do this for me since we get the free service (which we paid for anyway in the price of these cars). I would rather have them responsible for it.

 

Oh they will be responsible for it at the 15K mile intervals...but I'll be doing my oil every 5k (I know there are different schools of thought on the intervals...but for me it'll be every 5k).

Had I taken the the car to the dealer for this VERY simple (as long as you have a neighbor like mine)...procedure the amount of time and money it would have taken would have been insulting (to me) . And it's really more about the time to me, I don't know about where you're at but here in SoCal...to do something as simple as an oil change would take a scheduled appointment and then I'd have to wait quite some time. Granted I could fire up the lap-top, VPN into the office and get work done...but it's just too much of a production.

I'm in a unique situation though with my neighbor and his garage (set-up to support his BMW racing habit)...I know my car is getting better (more careful) treatment with my neighbor vs. my dealer

 

You did a BMW filter, too, right? Does anyone know what brand would be the equivalent?

 

Yes...went to the dealer and purchased a BMW filter...which came with all the necessary gaskets etc...

 

Are you using synthetic oil? Because I am with the school of changing the oil at every 5k miles. I did speak with service and they told me that synthetic oil can be changed in longer intervals and it does not break down like the conventional oils. He did mention to me that I might have to top off the oil after I while, because I might experience a low oil warning. Since these engines burn some oil after a while.

 

Yes synthetic....and I'm sure it can go longer (and some here will say it should go longer)...with BMW handing out 15k oil change intervals I would expect the company line (from the service advisors) to be that the oil can go 15k with no problem. The 15k interval may be sufficient or it may not...I really don't know but for me it's going to be every 5k

 

I hope you lubed the seal of the gasket on the new filter with a little oil. Also synthetic supposedly can go 25k miles or more between changes because it does not break down, however there is still the metal deposits, but that should not be a prob on engines under 100k miles.

I ran a FORD Taurus SHO up to 376,000 miles on synthetic with oil changes once a year.