I’m not having any issues but I do use high saps LL01 oils and my OCI’s have generally been around 7k miles. Like with hair loss, my thinking is that it would be easier to manage the earlier you get on it. Perhaps Valvoline Restore and Protect from time to time would keep sludge or carbon at bay while it’s still at a minimum.
That is fair, in terms of reasoning - I am not being critical - but in my experience over-complicating things when they are going well (the reason for my original question) often adds cost and / or risk with little in the way of benefit. Stated differently, sometimes people read things on the internet and convince themselves they need to make a change when in reality it is not warranted. Valvoline Restore and Protect has kind of become the flavor of the month here, but I wonder how many pitching it have every disassembled an engine and understand that while yes, you want the internals clean, some carbon buildup is inevitable over time and does no real harm. It reminds me of the nonsense 20 something years ago when someone posted a photo of the top end of what I think was a BMW M50 and it was horribly sludged up and internet lore was born was this is what happened when you followed BMW oil change intervals. Complete nonsense but that photo was around forever.
It's your car at the end of the proverbial day, but having driven BMWs since the late 1980s, I can tell you that while the cars can be a pain in the proverbial rear (all cars can), the engine oil specs are conservative and if followed you will not have lubrication related failures with the motors. There may be other failures, but it won't be because of engine oil brand or what-not. Follow the BMW specs on motor oil, perhaps if it makes you sleep better at night, up the interval a bit.
Final thought is this: may years ago, early in my career I did a lot of work for the auto companies and their suppliers. It was interesting to me that each part on a car has a tested lifespan. I think the term is average time to failure or something like that. (It's been 30 years, so my memory may be a bit off on the term.) But the point is that the automakers don't engineer any part on the car to last forever. (Mercedes used to try, but then the game changed in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Lexus came on the scene.) Point is that your engine, transmission, and everything else have a lifespan. It's engineered to go about 200k-250k max under ideal circumstances. So even if you figure out the magic elixir that makes your engine last forever and change the oil every 15 minutes, the transmission will fail, the suspension will wear out, the paint will start to oxidize, the body will corrode, the padding in teh seats will be worn out, the AC and climate control will malfunction, etc. This is why you don't see 20-30 year old cars as daily drivers.
Now I am sure someone on here will show up and say the car they drive has 500k on the original motor. Certainly possible, I don't doubt it. But my next question would be to ask to see the rest of the car in detail, on a lift, the interior, the floors - the kind of detailed photo shoots they do on Bring A Trailer. I would bet you a good dinner of your choice that unless a fortune has been spent to essentially rebuild the car, or the guy is the type who has a lift in his garage and a very permissive wife, spends hours every weekend making it perfect. That's the reality. So drive and enjoy the car. When it wears out, and it will, find something else that you like. That doesn't mean trade cars every 15 minutes either, I tend to keep drivers for about 10 years, but there is no magic potion that will stop Fr. Time.
Have a good day.
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