Reduce Your Service Intervals!
Save yourself thousands in the long run by changing your engine oil & filter every 5,000 - 10,000 miles!
Written by James Redish
Owner and engineer with 25-years BMW experience
BMW make some great engines now a days - but you only have to google 'BMW Engine Problems' to see the endless amounts of BMW engine failures.
The majority of premature engine failures are due to poor oil lubrication which can often be avoided!
We want to help you avoid or at least delay the inevitable onset of mechanical engine wear.
What causes this?
Over-fuelling by the engine's computer to hit emissions targets, plus extremely long service intervals.
Short version:
Every manufacturer is obsessed (and forced) to chase low emission targets and that means fitting DPF or OPF's, amongst other things, to collect harmful exhaust particles.
Couple that with crazy service intervals of around 20,000 miles and soon the engine oil becomes contaminated with soot based particles that turn the oil into a thicker and grittier substance which kills engines!
Long version:
The engine combustion process produces extremely fine carbon soot particles.
DPF's and OPF's soon become blocked with all these harmful exhaust particles.
The only way they can clean themselves is via an automated regeneration process.
Your engine's computer sends excessive amounts of fuel into the engine to heat up the DPF / OPF.
However, if parameters are not met (like a short drive, or too cold, or fault codes present) the generation fails.
The regenerations tries again and again and sometimes can never complete a regeneration of the DPF / OPF.
This results in the excess fuel often seeping past the piston rings into the oil sump and mixing with the oil.
The fuel dilutes the engine oil and thins it meaning it has less lubrication and cooling properties.
The thinned engine oil now cannot support the high temperatures or stresses of the engine components.
This thinner oil is less effective at lubricating metal on metal parts which in turn produces fine metal dust.
The oil cannot collect and store the carbon soot particles (which are designed to be suspended in the oil).
Therefore the oil cannot stop the sulphur and hydrocarbon waste (from the combustion cycle) from joining together to form a paste.
Therefore the engine oil looses it's core function (lubricating & cooling) and starts to feel sandy/gritty.
Once this oil breakdown occurs, there is a runaway scenario where it gets worse and worse quite quickly.
This grit-like oil becomes extremely dark and discoloured unlike the gold colour oil starts life like.
It then clings to virtually all internal engine components regardless of what material they are.
This not only stains the critical engine parts but also collects as a build up of sludge and contamination.
This collection of non-oil is basically a gritty/sandy mixture which cannot pass through the oil pump.
If the engine oil pump cannot push oil around the engine then the engine becomes starved of oil.
This leads to the moving parts inside the engine to have no lubrication and far less cooling.
These moving parts (regardless of material) create friction which keeps increasing (due to lack of oil).
Oil is the only thing which stops friction building up and turning into heat.
If oil is not lubricating these moving components then a thermal runaway incident occurs.
A thermal runaway incident is when one or more components gets so hot that the material breaks.
This results in one or more moving part failing which usually results in a big problem inside the engine.
Common engine parts we see failing:
BMW Timing Chains:
If it's a plastic timing chain guide then the engine will likely continue running for thousands of miles more.
(but the timing chain will rattle and become stretched and more slack due to no guide to run against).
BMW Oil Filters:
If an oil filter becomes clogged it will physically collapse in on itself which not only restricts oil flow (causing oil starvation), but also risks splitting under increased oil pressure build up which then allows the collected dirt to re-enter the oil system in large clumps which often causes engine failure in a short time.
BMW Conrod Bearings:
If it's a conrod bearing then the engine will potentially continue running for a few hundred miles if you're lucky.
BMW Oil Pumps:
If it's the oil pump which cannot push heavy sludge-like oil then the engine will likely fail within tens of miles.
Facts:
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Oil degrades from day one.
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Oil becomes abrasive by 'collecting' soot particles.
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Oil looses it's lubricating & cooling properties as it ages.
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Oil eventually contains enough dirt to damage engine components.
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Oil filters don't stop oil degradation.
THE ONLY WAY TO REMOVE THIS SOOT/DIRT IS TO REPLACE THE DIRTY OIL WITH NEW OIL.
Our recommendations:
Continue to follow the official BMW service interval which is around 20,000 miles (or 2 years).
BUT simply change the engine oil & filter at least once more during that time frame.
For example:
You could carry out an simple engine oil & filter change at 10,000 miles (or 1 year).
For older engines you could even change the oil & filter at 7,000 miles.
For performance engines we change our own oil & filter at 5,000 miles.
Final thoughts
I appreciate many people reading this may conclude that our recommendation of changing your engine oil & filter more frequently simply increases business for us.
Although that is one effect, that is not the primary reason for writing this page.
We simply want to advise of the risks involved with following the manufacturer's recommended 20,000 mile changes which are far too long and not healthy for engine longevity.
You cannot rely on an engine to survive indefinitely with extremely long service intervals like that.
"As complexity goes up, reliability goes down".
Solution:
Call us to book in for a simply Oil & Filter change to prolong the life of your engine.
01179 781 883
FAQ:
Will this replace my regular servicing schedule?