Does BMW need special oil change?

Changing your oil is an essential preventative maintenance service for any car, especially for your BMW. If you want to keep your vehicle running smoothly, regular oil changes are essential. A car’s oil keeps the engine parts lubricated to ensure that they’re running well – without regular oil changes, your vehicle’ s engine would overheat, which could potentially warp important parts, ultimately leading to engine failure.

To avoid damaging your vehicle, it’s important to change your engine oil at regular intervals. Which raises the question: how do you know exactly how often you need to change the oil on your BMW?

How often should I change my BMW’s oil?

In general, oil change services should be done every 5,000 to 7,00 miles; however, each vehicle is different, and how often you need to change your oil depends on a few factors. Firstly, the age and general maintenance condition of your BMW come into play. As you might imagine, classic car collectors will want to change their oil more frequently than BMW owners who have just purchased a newer (or the latest) model. Your Owner’s Manual should give you a general idea of the correct oil change intervals for your vehicle – but there are still other things that you need to take into consideration when figuring out how often you need to change your oil. The next factor, and possibly most important, is the driving you do. Highway driving and city driving affect your engine differently.

“City driving” would be better defined as frequent and regular short distance driving. Consistent short distance driving is one of the most stressful types of driving you could subject your BMW to. While we could wax and wane on the negative effects that continuous, short distance driving has on your car’s engine, here we’ll focus specifically on how it affects your engine oil. City driving accelerates and increases oil contamination, meaning that BMW owners who drive short distances regularly ought to be changing their car’s oil more often than the recommended service intervals. Here’s why: Short distance driving doesn’t generally let the engine warm up to its full operating temperature, meaning that most of your journey is spent in the “warm-up phase.” This warm-up phase has increased friction in the engine – requiring more fuel and burning more oil to keep the engine lubricated. It works like this. When the engine isn’t quite as hot as it ought to be, the engine’s internal combustion process works differently. During this warm-up phase, the engine experiences what’s called engine “blow by.” Engine “blow by” is when both burnt and unburned exhaust gasses move past the piston rings during the combustion of each cylinder, ending up in the motor oil or oil pan. As previously mentioned, this contaminates the engine oil more quickly than driving that’s done at optimal combustion temperature. Consistent driving in this warm-up phase thus accelerates the contamination of your BMW engine’s motor oil. For those who live in colder regions, cold winter driving can compound these problems! When you’re trying to figure out the correct intervals to change your BMW’s oil, consider both the age and condition of your car, along with your driving style and the weather of the region you live in.

Schedule an Oil Change for Your BMW in the Dallas, TX Area

When it is time for an oil change, it is beneficial to bring your BMW to a facility with BMW expertise.  While you may be tempted to bring your sedan, crossover or SUV to a local quick lube place in the Dallas area for an oil change, you are missing out on the benefit of having a BMW technician on-site, who will do a full vehicle inspection during your oil change service and schedule your vehicle for any maintenance or repair that needs to be done.

What happens if you’re too busy driving your BMW around to get your oil change? You invested in a great European vehicle, but like every vehicle, it needs regular maintenance in order to perform properly.

Once you let an oil change slide a little bit past schedule, it may be tempting to keep neglecting it. After all, nothing really happened when you skipped the oil change, right? It’s not like the vehicle broke down or started to make noise or something?

While you may not have noticed it, going without proper oil for any amount of time will have negative effects on your vehicle and more the longer you leave it. Manufacturers calculate when vehicles need oil changes very carefully. They know you don’t want to do them, but the vehicle does need oil. Here’s what you need to know about what will happen to your BMW without regular oil changes.

What Does Oil Do in a Vehicle?

Your BMW’s engine is full of moving parts made of metal and other tough materials. The bearing, pistons, valve train, and many other parts of the engine create friction as they move. They need to be lubricated with motor oil in order to stay in good condition. That’s the most basic job, but there are many more.

Your technician pours motor oil into the vehicle and it runs through a filter, then into all of the key components of the vehicle. It is slowly circulated through until it reaches the motor oil pan and then starts the cycle again. As it goes, it heats up and picks up debris, which the filter catches. Both processes tax the oil until it is no longer functional.

Motor oil has many other properties that help keep your vehicle running properly. For example, it prevents oxidation or rust with antioxidants. It prevents other corrosion of the metal surfaces with detergents. Other foam inhibitors stop the oil from bubbling as much, which can prevent it from working properly.

It doesn’t just pick up debris it also helps to pull debris away from the motor with dispersants. They bond with the carbon-based debris and keep it from the engine parts. Lastly, motor oil also contains zinc which slows the rate at which the different parts of the vehicle break down.

Potential Damages If You Miss an Oil Change

So, what exactly happens when you miss an oil change? Your oil’s many additive properties may no longer work properly, and this can negatively affect your engine by allowing it to wear down faster, rust, corrode, and experience other problems.

The other major problem is that your oil filter will get overfull with debris and not be able to capture more. It will restrict the flow of the oil through the engine and leave some spots poorly lubricated. Plus, what lubrication is available will have more particles and debris in it.

Both will allow engine parts to wear down in friction and create even metal shavings and other serious issues. Parts may soon break down from the stress. This additional wear is all throughout the vehicle, so even if one part breaks and you replace it, then you will still have many other parts with reduced lifespans because of this damage.

As a result, you can expect your vehicle to need more maintenance, have a higher likelihood to need repairs, and be less fuel-efficient.

When Does My BMW Need an Oil Change?

Every vehicle manufacturer releases a schedule about when their vehicles need oil changes. BMW oil changes are every 12 months or certain mileage-based off-driving. At first, the vehicle does not need it too often, but these schedules frequently pick up as the vehicle ages. It will create more debris as it is older.

If you don’t know, your automobile technicians can usually tell you what your vehicle needs and when it last had an oil change so that you can be confident you’re taking proper care of your BMW.

Schedule an Oil Change Today

The longer you leave a missed oil change untended, the worse it will be on your vehicle. If you’re not sure if you need one, or you know that you do, schedule your oil change at one of our three locations conveniently online.

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