Dealership NEVER changed my oil

[Ferdi14]

Hello all as I said yesterday in a post today I would take my car into the dealership today to have an issue taken care of.

My car was last maintained October of 2013. They were supposed to change the oil, replace the rear differential and some other things.

I found today that the oil was NEVER changed in October and they would change the oil today and do some other things.

I am irate right now, that means that I have been driving on oil that is more than a year and a half old and I have put 20k miles on the oil in my car. Then the only available loaner cars were the nasty BMW x1. So they put me in a cheap POS car that is cheaper than mine.
They reset the service indicator but did not change the oil.

My question is, what should I do ?
Is my car going to be messed up because of the old oil ?
Should I plan on calling BMW corporate and complaining?

The dealerships name is BMW of Westmont, in Westmont, Illinois.

[the1andonly]

I would be very upset too…thats actually something I stress about every time I get an oil change, did they really do it. That being said I would say since you are fortunate enough too have the non turbo inline 6 and they are pretty robust and not subjected to the high heat turbos are you will be ok. I would ask for an engine warranty extension from BMW to 100,000 and free oil changes for the duration of your car ownership. That would make me a happy camper again.

Also I would get a sample of that oil and send it away for analysis to see what its condition was. you might find out there was nothing to worry about. but it will give you peace of mind.

[MightyMouseTech]

How do you know they did not change the oil?

[e36addict]

Originally Posted by MightyMouseTech

How do you know they did not change the oil?

Yeah..

[Bigiggs]

Originally Posted by MightyMouseTech

How do you know they did not change the oil?

Originally Posted by e36addict

Yeah..

I am also curious how you found out, as I would like to check after I get my oil changed in a few months time.

[MightyMouseTech]

We get accused of this all the time here at Acura. People go 4-5000 km (or more) past due on their oil changes, and the oil is so dark, that after we do an oil change the oil is still black. That 1-2L of oil that remains in the engine is dark enough to make the new oil look ink black. I imagine the same would be true if you followed the BMW factory oil change intervals.

[Kgolf31]

Originally Posted by MightyMouseTech

We get accused of this all the time here at Acura. People go 4-5000 km (or more) past due on their oil changes, and the oil is so dark, that after we do an oil change the oil is still black. That 1-2L of oil that remains in the engine is dark enough to make the new oil look ink black. I imagine the same would be true if you followed the BMW factory oil change intervals.

I've performed my Z4M oil change after 2500 miles and it was as dark as oil from an engine with 15000 miles on it.

[///Maria]

I see this all the time too. People go way over due and the oil is pitch black. Don't let BMW fool you into thinking to change the oil every 15k or 1 year. I get so many people with cam / crank correlation and chain rattle only to find out they went 15k on oil. Saved quite a few cars doing regular oil since nothing broke and we were able to get the oil pressure back up with new fluids. After I bought a used e92 m3 I did the oil asap, drove it 1k and dumped it still black. It took 5 more changes every 300 miles to get the oil to come out clean again. Maintenance Maintenance Maintenance people oil changes are cheap.

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by Ferdi14

Hello all as I said yesterday in a post today I would take my car into the dealership today to have an issue taken care of.

My car was last maintained October of 2013. They were supposed to change the oil, replace the rear differential and some other things.

I found today that the oil was NEVER changed in October and they would change the oil today and do some other things.

I am irate right now, that means that I have been driving on oil that is more than a year and a half old and I have put 20k miles on the oil in my car. Then the only available loaner cars were the nasty BMW x1. So they put me in a cheap POS car that is cheaper than mine.
They reset the service indicator but did not change the oil.

My question is, what should I do ?
Is my car going to be messed up because of the old oil ?
Should I plan on calling BMW corporate and complaining?

The dealerships name is BMW of Westmont, in Westmont, Illinois.

Like the others... I am a little curious how you were informed that the oil was not changed?
Did the dealer service rep inform you? Did they come to you and explain their error? if so.. that's nice of them to be that honest and transparent with you... of course that's certainly grounds for you to jump on a forum and badmouth them for the next 49 months.. regardless of how the car is !

If your panties are this much in a bunch, why don't you ask them to drain the oil and save it and then have a sample sent to black stone labs to see if the oil actually broke down? It's very possible the oil is actually still doing its job.

I owned a Subaru legacy gt (turbo) in which I had the oil examined from 0 to 100k miles. I used synthetic oil and changed it at 7500 miles or every 6 months which is the manufacturer recommendation.

Oil analyses after oil analyses indicated the oil was fine at 7500 miles and the blackstone labs folks encouraged me to leave the oil in longer. I obliged and let my Oil changes creep up to 8500 miles and one spring I even went all the way to 9500 miles and the analyses came back " you can go further ".

I decided to NOT take their advice and go for 10K miles and went back to my twice a year routine. ( spring and fall) and roughly 7500 mile oil changes. I Never had an issue with the car and sold it at 110k miles.


If you want to complain go ahead , but mistakes happen. I know.. YOU never make a mistake but the rest of us do on occasion.. and certainly sometimes so do dealer personnel. However.. unless you can DETERMINE and then PROVE additional wear has been caused, perhaps you might want to back down a little bit until cooler heads prevail ?

Other than your injured oil change psyche , what actual damage has occurred? The car is running fine right ?

Have them change the oil TWICE for you perhaps in quick succcession and get some oil analyses done on one or even both samples.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/what-is-oil-analysis.php

The blackstone labs report will also show what possible wear is on YOUR motor with relation to all of the other 128 oil samples that they have analyzed. IF your car is showing MAJOR differences in wear compared to their averages, then you might have the start of some grounds with which to make an actual halfway educated statement aside from " you screwed up and you suck... so give me X, Y and Z... ".

As far as a loan car is concerned..

1- show us where your purchase contract entitles you to the loaner vehicle of your choice or desire? I am particularly interested in where it says the loaner must be larger, smaller, faster, an M car, worth X amount, or any other details listed.

2- failing finding this above... next let me know where it is in your contract that you are even guaranteed a loaner when your vehicle goes in for service?

2- There is nothing wrong with an x1. It's a great little vehicle and it's certainly worth *more* than your 128 right now, regardless of what names you call it..... " cheap POS" for example. And of course you could walk... rather than accept a " lowly" 1 series with more doors and a taller ride height than yours.


Just in case you think I am being glib... I have had a non local dealer install the wrong oil in my 1M... and *MY* dealer also left the drain plug not tight in my transmission causing all the fluid to boil out of the car (on track no less). I stopped the car, had the dealer pick it up and they flushed and added new fluid and the trans has been just fine. They documented their error in writing in my service docs and I have moved on. I'm not gonna sit around and worry about my transmission when it's working just fine. If a failure (were to occur) ... then that's a different story.

Relax a bit and keep us updated on what the dealer plans to do..

[Simsims]

there's no correlation between the darkness of the oil and whether it is still an effective lubricant and/or contain contaminants.

[darkrom]

OP will never return. No way to know that the oil was never changed lol.

[gregthegr8]

Originally Posted by darkrom

OP will never return. No way to know that the oil was never changed lol.

Well, at least he got to drive the X1 as a loaner.

[swagon]

OP needs to cool down. And breathe.

[MightyMouseTech]

Or just needed to vent. I understand the feeling.

[swagon]

Yeah.

[luv135i]

Drives 1 series yet x1 is so nasty?

[Andrewcoja]

I'm all for complaining about the loaner car you get, but don't get delusional about it. Despite me not liking the X1 or X3 or 328 I've gotten, they were definitely worth more than my car. You have a 2011 128, your car is worth 20K. That's definitely less than whatever loaner they give you. Unless they have really old loaner cars for some reason. I've always gotten a brand new car as a loaner.

[zx10guy]

And big deal what loaner you get. Just be happy to get a loaner. It's not like they're putting you behind some 10 year old beat up used car. It's funny how people get so fixated on the loaner they get. I recently met a BMW mechanic who works at one of the local dealers through my wife. He said it's amazing the first thing out of many people's mouths is what loaner they get rather than discussing what is wrong with their car.

The only time I complained about a loaner was when I got a 5 series diesel. I wasn't crazy about how big the car was but the main complaint was the pain I was getting in my lower back from the driver seat. It was bad enough where if I drove more than 30 minutes in the car the pain would start around my lumbar and shoot down my leg. No amount of adjusting of the seat would fix this issue for me.

[Ferdi14]

to all the people attacking me, calm down.

The dealer rep told me they did not change the oil and showed me in the computer. All my other services were done but the oil change.

My biggest concern is that I was driving around on old oil and because they did not change the oil for essentially 20,000 miles, I may have more problems.

[Ferdi14]

Originally Posted by ///Maria

I see this all the time too. People go way over due and the oil is pitch black. Don't let BMW fool you into thinking to change the oil every 15k or 1 year. I get so many people with cam / crank correlation and chain rattle only to find out they went 15k on oil. Saved quite a few cars doing regular oil since nothing broke and we were able to get the oil pressure back up with new fluids. After I bought a used e92 m3 I did the oil asap, drove it 1k and dumped it still black. It took 5 more changes every 300 miles to get the oil to come out clean again. Maintenance Maintenance Maintenance people oil changes are cheap.

Can you expand more on what causes the cam / crank correlation and chain rattle? Do you think I am at risk for that happening to my car now? If so, what do you suggest I ask the dealership to do to rectify the situation?

[ken1137]

You'll be fine. Just find a different dealer although I realize you dont have much of a choice where you live. Plz dont go to Elmhurst...they BLOW. I would be happy with an X1 loaner since I no longer get them through BMW Schaumburg b/c I am out of the warranty period.

[bbbbmw]

Not to hijack this thread... But why does BMW have such a crappy dealer network? Compare BMW dealers to Lexus: Both have similar clientele (let's face it - BMW has a Douche Factor, outside of the enthusiasts. Don't hate on me - it's true, and everyone knows it.). But BMW has about 20% of the satisfaction rate of Lexus - what's the reason? Some of the BMW dealers are owned by AutoNation - wtf?