Since my wife retired six years ago, she drives her 2013 BMW 328 convertible less than 1000 miles per year. Total miles currently 50k… This is a gently-driven garage-parked non-turbocharged 6 cyl car in a mild California climate.
I have read that oil should be changed at least once a year regardless of miles.
Since it was new I have run BMW branded filters and BMW branded synthetic oil in this car, so supplies for an oil change run about $120.
I can cut the recurring cost in half if I push the oil changes to two years, or if I switch to using Mobil1 from WalMart and Mann filters like I use in my 2004 daily driver BMW (375k miles and counting).
Suggestions for these or other options? Thanks
P.S. I have suggested that now that we are retired, we no longer NEED two cars. She made it clear that if she is given a choice between keeping me or keeping her car, I should pack my bags.
Does the Mobil 1 meet spec? If so I’d do that option. If not, I’d keep up the 1/year expensive option for the wife, even though I’d bet no problems would occur with changing every 2 years.
Before Covid complications which forced my daily driver Corolla off the road, I used to drive my truck about that much. About all I did besides fixing whatever broke, I changed the engine oil and filter once a year, topped off the power steering and brake fluid as required, and flushed the cooling system and replaced the coolant every 3 years. Probably a good idea to replace the brake fluid every 2-3 years, but I didn’t, just replaced the brake fluid when something in the brake system required taking it apart.
Covid definitely has had a positive impact on the truck, now driving it close to 10,000 miles per year, have had a chance to do quite a bit of improvements.
I suggest that you change the oil at least once per year.
My new-ish plug-in hybrid SUV’s maintenance guidelines call for oil changes once every 10k miles/12 months. Normally, I wouldn’t wait that long, but in the past 6 months/4,700 miles, the gas engine has actually run for less than 1k miles, so when I get to the 12 month point–or perhaps even a bit sooner–I will have the oil changed.
I agree, I have had better luck with Mann oil filters and sometimes the only correct non dealer filter for Euro vehicles, and that was when we were doing 10-15+ Euro oil changes a day for 7 years (when I was stuck downtown Nashville)…
1 year / 3000 miles
2 years / 1500 miles
3 years / 1000 miles
6 years / 500 miles
For an engine that is worn and turns the oil black rather quickly, cut the time in half. The standard 6 months / 3000 miles is for an older engine that burns oil and contaminates it with blow by quickly.
Consider that if a car is driven 2000 miles per year, that it will take 40 years to reach 80,000 miles. At this point the vast number of other issues and unavailable new parts will make the engine wearing out a bit faster the least of your worries.
You’re talking about saving $5 per month. Is that in any way noticeable? Do you think that variations in grocery costs, utility bills, medical expenses, gasoline prices, or property tax will quickly erase that savings?
Mechanical best practices dictate changing oil once a year. That’s for the benefit of the car.
A compromise might be to change the oil between 13 and 18 months. You could also get the oil tested and change based on the results, but the cost might be similar to the cost of an oil change. oil testing might help provide a schedule for Oil changes so that the cost would only be for the first, say, three changes. When we owned a house with an in-ground pool, I found that water chemistry changed at about the same rate and I didn’t have to test as much, just add chemicals.
Yeah, you don’t have to do that. Whatever meets BMW’s standards will work fine.
Mobil 1 Euro will be fine. Mann filters are also fine. I used both when when I changed the oil on my mother’s Benz (she finally got rid of it recently). No oil-related problems in the 15-ish years she owned it.
For me, it depends on the usage profile. 1/4 mile trips accumulating 1000 miles in a year is different than the occasional 25 mile trip. I have cars that go more than 2 years between changes. They don’t get driven in a manner that accumulates much water or blowby so the oil isn’t acidic. Changing more often is silly to me and just an exercise in wasting time and resources… YMMV
+1
One of the reasons why I have decided (at least for the time being… ) to adhere to Lexus’ 12 month/10k mile oil change regimen is that, when I do run my gas engine, it is at expressway speeds for anywhere between 30 miles-100 miles. Solely expressway driving, for a total of probably no more than 1,800 miles per year * gives me some assurance that a 12 month interval is not a problem.
*Almost all of my driving is done in EV mode, so the gas engine runs… rarely.
I have a truck that kinda fits this category. During the summer months it is usually driven for quite a few miles at a time but not often so I don’t worry about changing the oil for that. In the winter I use it to move firewood and such around my property and it gets a lot of really short trips, sometimes several while I move wood. Basically I might start it and run it for 300 yards, then turn it off for a while.
I change the oil after the wood season is done for and don’t worry about it until the next year. I do use a synthetic and seem to have good luck with it in that truck.
Good point. Oil change interval conundrums on hybrids is more complicated, b/c “miles driven” doesn’t necessarily mean the gasoline engine has been running. Another complexity is if the driving style causes the gasoline engine to run only briefly, close to idle, that could require more frequent oil changes than a driving style when the gasoline engine runs, it runs briskly and for a long time.