New BMW Owner

[Mark_Walk]

After buying 4 consecutive Mazdas we decided to go a different route. Last week we purchased a Certified Preowned BMW 328i XDrive sedan. Love how the car drives and it will be the wife's daily driver.

It's a 2011 with 27,300 on the odometer. Carfax was clean and we got a good deal. Yesterday I requested a printout of the service records...did not think of this when purchasing. Anyway, with the computer based service intervals it surprised me to see that this car has only had two oil changes. The first was not until 12,500 miles. The last was right before we bought it at 27,300 miles. The car was first put into service July 2011 and we bought April 2013 so less than 2 years old.

Any reason to be concerned about the OCI's?

On a side note, was checking around at local AutoZones and have found GC 0w30 at two of them. Bought 9 qts. at hometown store today at $4 per qt. and the next town over said they have 20 qts. so will hit them up in a few days. Of the 9 I bought, 6 are the green oil and 3 reg. color. All 9 say made in Germany. They are all SM. So, I'll have a small stock of GC for future. Car is still under warranty and running the BMW HP Synthetic 5w30. Will change it myself using GC after about 7,000 then get the next free oil change when the light comes on.

 

[sleddriver]

First, congratulations on your new ride!

Second, you can extend the drain levels with syn. oil HOWEVER I'd recommend a filter change at the halfway point.

Lots of BMW owners here, so I'm sure they'll be chiming in on oils, filters, OCI's, etc.

 

[Chris142]

Hopefully they had walmart change the oil a couple of times

 

[Fleetmon]

Nice car and congrats! I change mine at the midpoint of their interval. We had a 528i prior to our new ride, a X5 35d.

No doubt you're going to love the 328.....very sporty and fast! Sign up on Bimmerfest when you get a chance....lots of good info in there and friendly folks.

Don't worry about the extended drains for now....low miles and you'll make sure it gets changed on time now....besides you've got the CPO warranty which is actually better than new in some ways.

 

[2004tdigls]

http://www.munichmotorsport.com/wordpress/?page_id=416

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Mark_Walk
They are all SM.

Umm... there is no SM-rated GC. It should be API SL.

 

[Mark_Walk]

You are correct....SL. Owners manual said use SM if you can't find the BMW-LL01.

 

[147_Grain]

IF the vehicle's oil was not recently changed, I'd do a 3K LOF change, then 5K, and then on to a regular OCI.

 

[Audios]

We always recommend one oil change in between the factory 15k intervals. I would also change your air filter, since theres no recommended interval in the service manual most are never changed. Become familiar with the idrive/instrument cluster menus to find out whats coming up for next service. Many people think the red car in the service indicator automatically means oil change, when theres about 9 inputs that would set it off. Brake fluid, microfilters, service check, oil, front brakes, rear brakes, and smog tests. I would not own this car without a warranty, its a good thing its CPO, well worth it in these vehicles. Most of my customers also complain about the runflats, so we switch them out with standard tires, and Bavarian Autosport sells a donut spare kit. I wont lie, around half of our customers who owned an E90/91/92/93 model 3 Series ended up dumping it because of the issues it has. Youll have no issues at all especially with the warranty, drop it off and give me my loaner!!! Congrats.

 

[OVERKILL]

There are currently two SN-rated oils on the market for this application:

1. Mobil 1 0w-40
2. Pennzoil Ultra 5w-40

Both of which are LL-01 approved.

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: 2004tdigls
http://www.munichmotorsport.com/wordpress/?page_id=416



Nice article; although syn can go a long way, this would explain all the sludged BMW pics we see on here...and in the article.

Mark_Walk, IMHO a few 5000 mile OCIs will go a long way for you. I was as surprised as you that the oil had only been changed twice in 27k!

 

[john_pifer]

Love the on-paper specs of these machines, and the reviews of how well they drive.

I'd love to have a few-year-old, naturally-aspirated example with a manual trans...but I'm scared of maintenance issues.

 

[Fleetmon]

BMW's are actually very simple to work on....in my experiences, and unfortunately, a fair amount of dealerships have very few really qualified technicians. I'm not condemning them by any means but a lot of times repairs mean parts changes rather than true troubleshooting. Good indys can make your BMW experience truly enjoyable after the warranty ends.

 

[Ibrahim]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
There are currently two SN-rated oils on the market for this application:

1. Mobil 1 0w-40
2. Pennzoil Ultra 5w-40

Both of which are LL-01 approved.

3. Castrol 0W-40

 

[Mark_Walk]

I have found a great independent mechanic who worked on my sons subaru. This guy drives a BMW so should be set once warrantee runs out.

The oil was changed during the certification process so I'm going to wait a few thousand then change it. I need to find an oil filter wrench that fits the cartridge filter holder.

 

[Mark_Walk]

I've spent the past week reading over the owners manual and have scrolled through the maintenance menu to see when various items are due for check/change.

Interesting thing...this car has no dip stick!

Just check the oil while your driving down the road.

 

[m6pwr]

Hmmm. Where's the sludge?

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1143203&fpart=1

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1196764#Post1196764

The naturally aspirated port injected BMWs (like yours) are very easy on oil. You've got about 2 years /23k mi of free maintenance at BMW dealers. If you don't put enough miles on the car to set off the ecu cbs (condition based service) in one year from last oil change, BMW will give you a free one in between (in between the other free ones at cbs-dictated changes). BMW calls this the low-mileage annual oil change service.

BMW uses a good oil life monitor in the sump, made by Continental Temic. It's used in virtually all late model BMWs. Check it out: http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/562/oil-change-filter-sensors. BMW began using these about the same time the dip sticks disappeared.

I've owned 18 BMWs and found them to be very durable cars, requiring no more than average maintenance (maybe less) than the other cars we've owned (variety of Detroit iron, with a few VWs thrown in). And maybe I've been lucky but I've found the BMW dealer service in areas where I've lived to be excellent. The only time I've used "indies" has been to do aftermarket performance mods which most dealers won't touch. As far as indies are concerned, some are very good, some not so much. Look for ones that have BMW-trained Master techs. A personal anecdote: I gave my daughter a '88 528 at about 150k miles. In spite of my every effort she didn't understand the concept of periodic maintenance. After many years, I finally sat down with her and tried to sort out the service invoices she had kept to try to figure out what had been done and what needed to be done. I noticed that many of the invoices showed the same mileage: 356k. Turns out the odo had gone south at 356k mi. I think she had close to 500k on the car with minimum and sporadic service.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Ibrahim
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
There are currently two SN-rated oils on the market for this application:

1. Mobil 1 0w-40
2. Pennzoil Ultra 5w-40

Both of which are LL-01 approved.

3. Castrol 0W-40


True! I haven't seen that lubricant around yet however.

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: Ibrahim
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
There are currently two SN-rated oils on the market for this application:

1. Mobil 1 0w-40
2. Pennzoil Ultra 5w-40

Both of which are LL-01 approved.

3. Castrol 0W-40


True! I haven't seen that lubricant around yet however.

Walmarts got it if you want to try it. 12 bucks a quart puts it out of my price range.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Clevy
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: Ibrahim
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
There are currently two SN-rated oils on the market for this application:

1. Mobil 1 0w-40
2. Pennzoil Ultra 5w-40

Both of which are LL-01 approved.

3. Castrol 0W-40


True! I haven't seen that lubricant around yet however.

Walmarts got it if you want to try it. 12 bucks a quart puts it out of my price range.


Ahhh, Walmart. I don't go to Walmart, LOL