I have about 6300 miles at the moment and indicator for servicing the oil continues to drop.

Am I hurting the longevity of the car at all by driving it hard?

 

I thought we are supposed to change every 10K miles? My is 6.7K and my e60 isnot complaining.

 

Each car is different. It all depends on how you drive your vehicle. If you are really hard on it then your service will come up due sooner than others. IF you are very easy it will take a while by mileage or kilometers. You may have to take it in on a scheduled date.

 

Isn't the indicator telling you the time left before the change? That is, 6,300 + 7,000 left = 13,300 when it's currently estimated to be due.

That's a bit less than the 15,000 average, but only about 11% less. So, if it's based on fuel consumption like the E39 was, it'd basically be telling you you're getting 11% less economy than average.

So, if you're averaging, for example, 18 MPG, and I'm averaging 20 MPG, then that would work out about right, and I can't imagine that that kind of differential in driving style would prematurely end the life of the car. Maybe if you're averaging 14 - 16 MPG and driving like mad . . .

Am I off-base here?

 

I think it's service due at 7000miles. So I have about 700 miles before taking the car in.

 

What kind of mileage have you been getting? That would be a clue.

 

Me, umm not to sure. I've stopped using the MPG counter and don't really tally it up at the gas station.

For a full tank of gas, maybe 350 miles, more or less. This figure could be off as I just fill up whenever it's convenient.

 

From page 66 of the manual:

The remaining distance to be driven, the
date for the next maintenance as well as
the date entered for the state emission or
vehicle inspection are displayed briefly as
of ignition key position 2, if the date is
imminent

So, yours would have to say 700 miles to be due at 7,000. Maybe it's clearer in the Service menu in iDrive.

 

Hmm, that makes sense.

I was planning to take care of a bunch of recalls, service updates and what not while doing the oil change. I guess I'll just make another appointment.

 

Me, umm not to sure. I've stopped using the MPG counter and don't really tally it up at the gas station.

For a full tank of gas, maybe 350 miles, more or less. This figure could be off as I just fill up whenever it's convenient. [/quote]
Then I would bet that you are not but halfway to your first oil change service. You are not driving that hard to warrant a 7000 mile change.