Post break in oil change?

[imported_Maurice]

Hey everybody! Just picked up my 135 yesterday evening!
I've got 46 miles on it so far, so this won't be an issue for a while, but...
Will any of you be changing the oil after the first 1000 miles or so, or just wait until the service indicator asks for it? I have read that some will change the oil every 3-4K miles, but will anyone do the first change earlier?

[Robert]

I am doing my right after break in.

[ichiban]

yea, right after break in, for me as well.

[M3_Dust]

I would definitely do an oil change at 1200 miles on any new BMW, especially one with turbos. The ///M cars still get a 1200mi break-in service, and it also includes changing the transmission and differential fluid, it would be a scheduled maintenance item on all new BMW's, but they decided to get cheap and double recommended service intervals when they started including maintenance with the cars.

[Robert]

You can do a transmission flush on the 6MT? I read somewhere saying the transmission is sealed and the fuild is for lifetime now? If this is so I want a transmission flush as well since I am extra hard on the tranny from learning manual.

[M3_Dust]

Originally Posted by robert

You can do a transmission flush on the 6MT? I read somewhere saying the transmission is sealed and the fuild is for lifetime now? If this is so I want a transmission flush as well since I am extra hard on the tranny from learning manual.

I'm not sure about the transmission on the 135i, they have tried to say that tranny fluid is lifetime for a while but you can still change it on many of their cars.

I just posted a new thread about real maintenance intervals: http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6608

[E82tt6]

I change ALL the fluids after 1200-1500, generally speaking. That'll be the first thing I do when the car gets back to the US. Diff oil, and engine oil are the most important too, but I like changing the tranny oil also, just to be old fashioned ;-)

[asv]

I have an oil and brake fluid change scheduled for the middle of the month. I need to do it before my track weekend at the end of the month. I'm already at 1250.

[imported_135Driver]

After break-in period, get rid of that nasty factory oil.

[joelk]

I'm doing mine at 1200 for sure.

[ramair311]

When I picked up my car yesterday - my SA told me that they put synthetic in from the factory - hopefully they had non-synthetic in during engine testing.

[joelk]

Originally Posted by E82TT6

I change ALL the fluids after 1200-1500, generally speaking. That'll be the first thing I do when the car gets back to the US. Diff oil, and engine oil are the most important too, but I like changing the tranny oil also, just to be old fashioned ;-)

That's a really good point. I hadn't thought of the Diff oil. I should probably change the transmission oil too.

[imported_Maurice]

Thanks for the responses. This forum rocks!
When I originally started this thread, I was only thinking about engine oil, but the discussion brings a few other questions to mind:
1. will any owners with automatics have the tranny fluid changed after break in?
2. I saw that E82TT6 said they will change all fluids after break in. Does this include brakes and coolant? I had assumed those would be OK until 1 year.

[ichiban]

I think you only need to worry about diff, tranny and engine oil. brake and coolant are alright at least untill 30k, unless u beat the crap out of the brakes.

I also had a question, what kind of engine oil should i use? I was thinking on getting royal purple 5w40 (for our hot lil engine), but my concern is when i go into the dealer and get the "free" oil change at 15k, would they be using synthetic as well? And is switching between oil brands like this okay even if they are both synthetic?

[TrojanBMW]

Originally Posted by E82TT6

I change ALL the fluids after 1200-1500, generally speaking. That'll be the first thing I do when the car gets back to the US. Diff oil, and engine oil are the most important too, but I like changing the tranny oil also, just to be old fashioned ;-)

If I remember correctly, I think they do an oil change before they ship your car back.

I remember them saying something along those lines when I picked up my 330i.

[e90_m3]

How much would it cost to change all the oil?

[ichiban]

for mobil 1, probably around 40 bucks?

[Mad Dragon]

There is no need to change any of the fluids after only 1000 miles, but changing the oil will neither help or hurt anything. It's your money. I'm not changing mine that soon, but I will do it before 15k.Changing ATF is not only unnecessary, it can void the warranty on the transmission. You do not want to pay for a BMW automatic transmission. Same with manuals. If the transmission acts up, it will be covered by warranty.Brake fluid gets changed every 2 years, no matter what kind of car you drive. If you beat the brakes on the track, it makes sense to flush them a lot more often. For daily driving, have the fluid changed when the car tells you.

[M3_Dust]

Originally Posted by Mad Dragon

There is no need to change any of the fluids after only 1000 miles, but changing the oil will neither help or hurt anything. It's your money. I'm not changing mine that soon, but I will do it before 15k.Changing ATF is not only unnecessary, it can void the warranty on the transmission. You do not want to pay for a BMW automatic transmission. Same with manuals. If the transmission acts up, it will be covered by warranty.Brake fluid gets changed every 2 years, no matter what kind of car you drive. If you beat the brakes on the track, it makes sense to flush them a lot more often. For daily driving, have the fluid changed when the car tells you.

sorry, but that's bad advice, though you are entitled to your opinion and maybe you only plan on owning your car within the warranty period, some people want to continue to have a reliable car past 100k miles.

I believe that the BMW included maintenance schedule is actually setting up future owners for higher maintenance and repair costs outside of the warranty period by only maintaining the car to the minimum required standards while it is within the warranty period. Also keep in mind that 80% of new BMW's in the USA are leased so they will be turned-in and re-sold as a CPO car, likely in the 30-50k mi range. The maximum BMW warranty coverage period is 100k mi and their maintenance schedule has been carefully designed to get the car through this period, after that the customer will be paying out of pocket for everything.

Changing fluids, including the fluid in the transmission, is not going to void any warranty.

There is a reason they call it preventative maintenance. :smile:

[Mad Dragon]

Originally Posted by M3_Dust

Changing fluids, including the fluid in the transmission, is not going to void any warranty.

A dealership is not going to change transmission fluid before it's due. If you come into a dealership with transmission problems, and it's full of non-OEM fluid, it's not going to be covered. If I (as a tech) change the oil pan on a transmission, I have to reuse the old fluid. If I use new fluid, the claim will be kicked back.

I filled a transmission after its cooler lines blew off, and the fluid alone was over $300. Are you going to drop that kind of cash on something you don't even need?

BMW isn't setting their cars up to fail after the warranty expires, nor are they setting the consumer up for ridiculous maintenance costs. They're not going to sever all ties to their product once it hits a magical mileage. That's just poor business practice.

[M3_Dust]

if you can afford a $40k car then you can afford to replace the transmission fluid in that car, and yes, I am willing to drop cash on maintenance that I do not necessarily "need" according to the maintenance schedule.

You know you can buy OEM fluids from a BMW dealer, right? I guess you are a tech at a dealer from what you are implying in your last post.

[bimmertech]

i personally wouldn't change auto trans fluid at 1200. it's a damn pain in the ass if you don't have a lift. guaranteed if you do it yourself you'll wear more of the fluid than goes into the trans. as far as other fluids, no one's gonna stop you but i think it's unnecessary.

our M cars all have locking clutch style differentials so a 1200 break in fluid change makes sense, but changing a open diff's fluid seems superfluous to me. maybe after putting some decent miles it would make sense.

as far as 1200 oil change goes. i'm not sure if this is true of all M cars but the e60 M5 comes from the factory with a break in oil. that's why when we do the 1200 service on these cars we have to use our tester to reset the oil service indicator, the adaptations for the VANOS gets reset to acknowledge the completion of the initial break in.

you can argue the 1000 mile break in oil change to death but i think most people, including myself, do it mostly for peace of mind.

as far as brake fluid, bmw uses dot 4 fluid and the recommended service interval is 2 years for all dot 4. i believe this is so because dot 4 is more hydroscopic than dot 3. many other manufacturers use dot 3 brake fluid and there service interval is i think 3 or 4 years.

the one place where i know bmw cheaped out is coolant. up until MY2004 the coolant replacement interval was 4 years. but now the coolant is lifetime and the funny thing is nothing about the coolant has changed.

my .02