New Oil Change Interval 22k?

[LouSig]

I'm new to the world of BMW's however we also have a Mini Copper. From everything that I've read the oil changes on my 2007 328i should be at 15,000 mile intervals, just like the Mini Cooper. Today I just had my first oil change since purchasing the car (CPO'd) and low and behold the service indicator says 22,000 for the next oil change. Am I missing something?
Thanks
Lou

[floydr]

Drive it a while; it most likely will change. The mileage between changes varies depending upon #starts, temps, fuel consumption, etc (BMW won't give out the algorithm.)

[LouSig]

Thanks, I’ll drive it a while and see what happens to the service indicator. Hopefully it'll go down over the next couple of months. It almost seemed like they had set it for exactly one year though.
Thanks
Lou

[ElRedOne]

They didn't change the settings to kilometers, did they?

[LouSig]

They didn't change the settings to kilometers, did they?

It says MLS 22000
07/2012

As soon as I can post an attachemnt I'll throw up the picture.
Thanks
Joe

[maxell0405]

I believe the service indicator alternates between showing the mileage until the next "service" and the mileage until the next "oil service." The 22k may be mileage until the next inspection. With 15k OCI's already straining credulity, I can't imagine that they are stretching it more than that. What's the mileage on your car?

[LouSig]

Right now it's ~32500 miles with 6 year 100,000 warrenty and maintenance. I've got to think BMW finance for the extended maintenance.

They were running specials on financing the car, I was going to be paying cash but, I fininanced part of it for 2 years.

Here's a link to the picture of the oil change service indicator.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/3876/oilchange.jpg

[Bortson]

My car has gone from 12 months 12k miles or so to 18 months 14k miles over the course of driving it. The car is 11 months old and has 88xx miles on it. I dont need to go in till March 2/11 with 6k miles to go but Im going in anyway

[spitpilot]

What's interesting about all this is that the Bentley shop manual says that BMW reccomends oil changes at "7500 miles or annually, whichever comes first"...me thinks that is the correct info and the "indicator" is set up to minimize BMW's expense for their four years of "free" maintenance..not preservation of the motor's performance and longevity..afterall a large % of BMW "owners" are just 3 'n out leasors..who don't care about how the car performs..or not...5 or more years down the line. I'm changin 2X year..once by BMW and once DIY! I intend to keep this car for a good while..I'm enjoyin it so far!

[vrbaba]

I just got my oil change last month and the interval showed 22k. After about 400 miles, it went to 20k.

[Rocket99]

. . . the "indicator" is set up to minimize BMW's expense for their four years of "free" maintenance..not preservation of the motor's performance and longevity..

Exactly. Some service advisors will tell you after the free maintenance period expires that you should bring it in for oil service every 7,500, not 14k.

[acmaui]

My car has gone from 12 months 12k miles or so to 18 months 14k miles over the course of driving it. The car is 11 months old and has 88xx miles on it. I dont need to go in till March 2/11 with 6k miles to go but Im going in anyway


Mine has about 10k miles on it, it's two years and one month old exactly, and the dealer has changed oil three times. First was at one year old and then two months later I got a email notice that it needed an oil change, took it in and they did it again (I didn't tell them they had just done it two months earlier). Last month I took it in and they changed the oil again. I never noticed what the display said. Each time I got a comprehensive four page print out of all the things they did, along with a vacuum, car wash, and wax job.

[bstahl]

We bought my wife's 2006 330i/S/P/6AT as a CPO in September 2009 with 36,000 miles. She drives a little over 1000 miles/month, mainly highway cruising. The dealership put fresh oil in right before we took delivery and reset the service indicator, and right now the car has 48,000 miles and the service indicator says we need to take it in in another 7000 miles, which is after the 4 years/50,000 miles free maintenance expires. If we don't shell out the ~$2500 for the extra 2 years/50,000 miles of maintenance, we basically get cheated out of the "45,000 mile service" we were told about when we bought it. I don't trust the 15,000 mile oil change intervals, so around 44,000 miles I paid for an oil change and told them not to reset the service interval indicator and plan to go ~7000-8000 miles between changes in the future.

Should I shell out $2500 for the extended maintenance plan? Will we get our money's worth if the miles are predominantly highway? I'm on the fence about this thing as we have to buy it before the car rolls 50,000 miles, but I'm not sure if it will be worth it. Any advice/suggestions? How many of you purchased the extended maintenance plan?

[floydr]

We bought my wife's 2006 330i/S/P/6AT as a CPO in September 2009 with 36,000 miles. She drives a little over 1000 miles/month, mainly highway cruising. The dealership put fresh oil in right before we took delivery and reset the service indicator, and right now the car has 48,000 miles and the service indicator says we need to take it in in another 7000 miles, which is after the 4 years/50,000 miles free maintenance expires
...
Should I shell out $2500 for the extended maintenance plan? Will we get our money's worth if the miles are predominantly highway? I'm on the fence about this thing as we have to buy it before the car rolls 50,000 miles, but I'm not sure if it will be worth it. Any advice/suggestions? How many of you purchased the extended maintenance plan?

The free maintenance includes one oil change per year or xxx miles. Take it in in Sept and make them change it.

Extended warranty _might_ be worth it, but the extended maintenance is almost certainly not worth it.

[LouSig]

We bought my wife's 2006 330i/S/P/6AT as a CPO in September 2009 with 36,000 miles. She drives a little over 1000 miles/month, mainly highway cruising. The dealership put fresh oil in right before we took delivery and reset the service indicator, and right now the car has 48,000 miles and the service indicator says we need to take it in in another 7000 miles, which is after the 4 years/50,000 miles free maintenance expires. If we don't shell out the ~$2500 for the extra 2 years/50,000 miles of maintenance, we basically get cheated out of the "45,000 mile service" we were told about when we bought it. I don't trust the 15,000 mile oil change intervals, so around 44,000 miles I paid for an oil change and told them not to reset the service interval indicator and plan to go ~7000-8000 miles between changes in the future.

Should I shell out $2500 for the extended maintenance plan? Will we get our money's worth if the miles are predominantly highway? I'm on the fence about this thing as we have to buy it before the car rolls 50,000 miles, but I'm not sure if it will be worth it. Any advice/suggestions? How many of you purchased the extended maintenance plan?

I normally would not have purchased it. The only reason that I have the extended maintenance is BMW Finance give it to me for financing the car. I'll pay the car off in the fifth month of the 2 year loan, the rate was 4.39%. I'll have paid about $135.00 in interest to get the extended maintenance. I think that’s very reasonable.
Thanks
Lou

[bstahl]

I normally would not have purchased it. The only reason that I have the extended maintenance is BMW Finance give it to me for financing the car. I'll pay the car off in the fifth month of the 2 year loan, the rate was 4.39%. I'll have paid about $135.00 in interest to get the extended maintenance. I think that’s very reasonable.
Thanks
Lou

You got a really sweet deal. We weren't offered the extended maintenance plan as incentive to finance, but we did get a 2.9% rate on our 5-year finance plan. We were offered the choice of purchasing the extended maintenance and financing it at the time of purchase, but after tax and title and everything our cost was over $30k so we didn't want to add any more to it. I think based on our driving habits (mostly freeway miles, no aggressive driving) and the condition-based-service system, we probably won't get our money's worth out of the extended maintenance plan. We'll just take it to an independent shop when the service light comes on (one nice thing about living in Santa Barbara is there are plenty of shops that specialize in BMW), I think there's a local one that is a BIMRS member. I tried looking through our owner's manual/documentation for some description of a maintenance schedule but found absolutely nothing - BMW really just wants to sell you the car and have you take it to a dealership for service whenever the car tells you to.

Thanks for everyone's input!

[camplou]

Drive it a while; it most likely will change. The mileage between changes varies depending upon #starts, temps, fuel consumption, etc (BMW won't give out the algorithm.)
It is just fuel burn, according to the folks at Dinan, and that was verrified by my local dealer as well. Data is gathered from the fuel injectors and it sets the change interval based on that, however, for what would be probably considered "normal driving, it is going to take between 15 and 18 thousand miles to come on. I personally got my first oil service indicator on a 2008 335 ix at 18,200 miles. Way too long in my opinion, so now going to 7500 on my new 328i.

[mcmcallister]

i change mine every 5K, dont care what the experts say, its 5K with my baby