Oil Service Interval Weird

[drtvinp]

I was unable to find this in the forum so I am posting the question and see what you all think.

2009 128i

Bought the car at about 48475 miles in January 2016, and had the oil changed shortly after, service interval on reset was 17k. On Jan 4, after going on a trip of about 600+ miles, I had the oil changed at 68562.

Reset the light and on start the interval stated 14k. I figured this was a BMW feature added when the vehicles reached a certain mileage. It did catch me off guard a little though since I didn't remember that happening in my 2001 so I just chalked it up to it being a new feature and didn't question it.

On Jan 15 I parked it at an airport so I can go on a week long trip so it sat the whole week. Came home, started but did not note interval. Drove about 300 miles this past week bringing the mileage to 69500+. Yesterday, I get in before going to work and notice on start that the interval was at 9k until next oil change?????

Anyone? I don't think this is a "feature" as I had previously mentioned and think there might be an issue.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

[gjm120]

This is more of a gripe than an answer to your question, but, I'm completely baffled by the oil change interval/ CBS monitor. My car had it's last free oil change about 18 months and 12k miles ago. I paid for one in between and had the BMW dealer not reset the monitor since it was on my dollar. That was over 12 months ago. No service required is showing. I'm going the high tech paper and pencil route and change it every 7,000 or so miles and write down the mileage.

[drtvinp]

Originally Posted by gjm120

This is more of a gripe than an answer to your question, but, I'm completely baffled by the oil change interval/ CBS monitor. My car had it's last free oil change about 18 months and 12k miles ago. I paid for one in between and had the BMW dealer not reset the monitor since it was on my dollar. That was over 12 months ago. No service required is showing. I'm going the high tech paper and pencil route and change it every 7,000 or so miles and write down the mileage.

I've been resetting it on my own, but when I do it shows the due mileage. I thought that I might have done it wrong this time but it was way higher 1k miles ago.

[drtvinp]

I also have not had a free oil change in years lol

[drtvinp]

Anyone have anything on this?

[Mr Rooty Von Tooty]

You have to distinguish between what "kind" of service interval it is. Some are for just oil & filter and others for general maintenance. Interestingly, the dealer may have previously done an oil & filter and a couple months later a maintenance interval pops up. The dealer will also change the oil & filter too even though the car obviously doesn't need it.

Actually the CBS is designed for the dealer to follow, but it is worthless to the DIY owner. I'd ignore it. Simple rules will keep your buggy running just fine. Change your oil yearly or every 10K miles whichever comes first.

Incidentally, with a 7 qt crankcase and using synthetic oil, the oil doesn't need to be changed more often than above. I have no trouble pushing it to 15K miles or even every two years depending upon crankcase capacity and yearly mileage.

[drtvinp]

Originally Posted by Mr Rooty Von Tooty

You have to distinguish between what "kind" of service interval it is. Some are for just oil & filter and others for general maintenance. Interestingly, the dealer may have previously done an oil & filter and a couple months later a maintenance interval pops up. The dealer will also change the oil & filter too even though the car obviously doesn't need it.

Actually the CBS is designed for the dealer to follow, but it is worthless to the DIY owner. I'd ignore it. Simple rules will keep your buggy running just fine. Change your oil yearly or every 10K miles whichever comes first.

Incidentally, with a 7 qt crankcase and using synthetic oil, the oil doesn't need to be changed more often than above. I have no trouble pushing it to 15K miles or even every two years depending upon crankcase capacity and yearly mileage.

Awesome, thank you!

[Olgeezer1]

Am I reading this right? You went 20k miles without an oil change? While I agree oil changes can be overdone, a minimum of once a year/ 10k. miles with an approved LL01 oil as mentioned above seems more reasonable if the car's a keeper. Ignore the computer's recommendations on this. Oil is the very lifeblood of your very expensive engine and parts of it are very sensitive to dirty oil.