Saturday, June 4, 2016

First Oil Change

BMW specs the first oil change to be done at 10,000 miles or after 12 months of service, whichever comes first.  On the M cars, there is a 1200 mile service.  I believe (a) 10k is too long, (b) the M engines aren't that different and if it's good for them, it's good for the rest of us, (c) oil changes are cheap, and (d) changing oil is fun.

So, at 1522 miles, I changed our oil.  I use OEM BMW factory oil and filters.  The process is easy on this car.

1.  Car at operating temp.
2.  Put car onto ramps.
3.  Remove engine top cover.  It is clipped on, just pull straight up gently.
4.  Open oil cap to drain oil to sump.
5.  Under car, remove the aero cover to the drain bolt.
6.  Remove 17 mm drain bolt and let the oil drain.  Optional, but what I do, collect a small sample of used oil mid-stream to send to Blackstone for oil analysis.
7.  Back on top, loosen the 27 mm oil filter cap.  I bought a 6-point 27mm socket from Amazon because I didn't want a 12-point to touch the cap.
8.  Remove oil filter and cap from car.  Discard filter, clean everything, replace the O-ring seal with the new one that came with the oil filter.
9.  Replace oil filter.  25 Nm toque, per what is printed on the cap.
10.  Under car, replace the copper crush washer for the drain plug.  25 Nm toque.  Replace aero cover.
11.  Add 6.25 - 6.50 liters of LL-04 BMW 5W-30 oil.
12.  Start engine.  Let it idle.  Shut off engine.  Use dipstick to check oil level.  Yes, the N57 still has a dipstick and it's fabulous.

I was pretty sad to see how black the oil was.  No way 10K intervals are OK.  Will be changing every 5,000 for the life of the car and doing periodic oil analysis reports.

7 liters, 5W-30 BMW LL-04 diesel engine oil, part number 83212365949, $8.80r each
Oil Filter with o-ring and crush washer, 11428507683, $24.16r

Total cost of this mod = $85.76r
Total investment in vehicle to date = $3195.12r


Typical clip under the engine cover.  Mates to female rubber bushings on engine side.

Typical female bushing on engine cover.

There was already a good amount of sand and dirt under our engine cover after only 1500 miles. 
Drain plug, with aero cover removed.

Oil filter

Dipstick

-683 oil filter element "kit".  You do not need to buy the -132 crush washer separately.


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