How often to change Oil on car

DMGACC

Quick question for ye lads:

How often should oil be changed n an 05 BMW 320. I was told when buying to service every 18,000 miles. I have 10,000 done since and checked oil the other day and seems a bit black to me (but I don't know much about these things).

Should I be changing oil between services? I wouldn't know too much about these things.

Stevie Dakota

Normal intervals (as dictated by your service indicator would be fine), however if you love your car, and want to keep it for a while then I would do oil and filter changes at half intervals, say every 6K.

voxpop

Your car will probably tell you. Plus it will be in the service manual.

I do mine every year or 10k miles

--Kaiser--

To be honest 18,000 miles is way too seldom for any car, every 10,000 should be the very least it should be serviced

voxpop

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

To be honest 18,000 miles is way too seldom for any car, every 10,000 should be the very least it should be serviced

It really depends on the type of driving the OP is doing and what type of servicing the car is setup for (interval vs variable). Long life variable servicing is for ppl doing alot of motorway mileage and can range up to 20k miles - i think. The car's computer will work out when the variable servicing is due and bring up a notice on the dash (long life oil must be used for the service).

Interval servicing is the every year/10k miles. Best for city driving cars.


There was a big thread on servicing intervals/timing belt intervals a while ago.

beachlife

DMGACC wrote: »

Quick question for ye lads:

How often should oil be changed n an 05 BMW 320. I was told when buying to service every 18,000 miles. I have 10,000 done since and checked oil the other day and seems a bit black to me (but I don't know much about these things).

Should I be changing oil between services? I wouldn't know too much about these things.

i would change it every 12months or 18,000 which ever comes first. if you do very low milage(all short trips) the change every 6 months. remember at 60 mph in top thats a mile a minute or an oil change in 200 hours!!

johndaman66

DMGACC wrote: »

How often should oil be changed n an 05 BMW 320. I was told when buying to service every 18,000 miles.

I believe that manufacturers nowdays quite often (if not always) quote service intervals of longer than is ideal in an attempt to keep the cost of running per mile figure as low as possible. I'd be inclined to change oil and filter much more frequent than this. Possibly up to 10,000 miles if you are eating up the miles quickly on motorways and as low as 5,000 miles for infrequent and short journey use. Not now but as the vehicle gets older and the miles start to clock up you would more than likely see a difference in terms of the smooth running of the car and eventually repairs.

I think if you can see the oil getting very heavy and black at 10,000 miles it sort of answers your own question.

--Kaiser--

There are an awful lot of threads on the net of people with engines full of gunk and seizing because they were following the manufacturers recommended service intervals, they do this to sell cars but it is in no way ideal for the engine

Nforce

I change the oil and filters every 5k on my 320d....though my car is now only used for short journeys and covers only 10k a year.

smcgiff

I've a manufacturer's recommended interval of 30,000 miles! :eek:

Wibbs

I'd be the same as Nforce, every 5K (kms). My dad always changed the oil very regularly and far more than the manufacturers suggested. He personally reckoned it was one of the best things you could do for an engines longevity(he was an engineer too). Same with an uncle of mine who is a major car nut with a stable of classics.

Of the people I've know who have put huge mileages up on cars, changing the oil very regularly was a common thing to all of them. The hyper high mileage car guys who have million plus miles on their cars also say the same. Oil breaks down quite quickly, depending on the quality of the oil itself, on the usage and the type of engine. Yes the engine will keep going, but not as well.

My 2 cents anyway.

MarkR

I suppose it's one thing that won't do any harm, and can be done fairly cheaply yourself. I've a diesel avensis, and do about 30k miles a year. Usually I change it every 10k miles.

mick.fr

Oil can last over 20k not a problem, the problem is the filter itself, as it is paper.
Myself I change every 7500 miles, which is half of what BMW used to recommed.

Ideally 5000 miles if you are a Taxi driver or do a lot of short distance travels only.

Repolho

I have a 1.6TDCi ford focus ('05). My mechanic always puts down 10,000 kms as the interval for the next service / oil change. Is this right? It seems very frequent to me as I do mainly (about 75%) motorway miles and very few short hop journeys (30,000 km per year).

Incidently, my last car was a 1.6 petrol megane and he always put down 10,000 miles for the next service / oil change?

Also, does aanyone know when the timing belt needs to be changed in this model focus; its the newer belt & chain driven version?

Nforce

Wibbs wrote: »

I'd be the same as Nforce, every 5K (kms). My dad always changed the oil very regularly and far more than the manufacturers suggested. He personally reckoned it was one of the best things you could do for an engines longevity(he was an engineer too). Same with an uncle of mine who is a major car nut with a stable of classics.

Of the people I've know who have put huge mileages up on cars, changing the oil very regularly was a common thing to all of them. The hyper high mileage car guys who have million plus miles on their cars also say the same. Oil breaks down quite quickly, depending on the quality of the oil itself, on the usage and the type of engine. Yes the engine will keep going, but not as well.

My 2 cents anyway.

I restored a couple of old classics myself back in the early 90's. One of these was a 1977 VW Beetle...California look with early panels,slammed suspension etc and a 1641cc engine. I used to change the oil in that every 500 miles!:o
In my defence, I was given the oil for free and the car covered less than 2k miles a year.:D