**kpeng's Guide To Proper E46 Maintenance**

Nice write up. For the auto tranny fluid change...I don't know how he did it but my friend has an 03 325i auto. He is a business man and puts about 35-40k a year and his car just hit 195,000. Original auto tranny. Fluid never changed. 1 in a million I guess.

Originally Posted by walkabout

Would you recommend changing oil twice a year if one drives only 5,000-6,000/year?

Originally Posted by jbeurotech

Once a year or 7500 miles which ever comes first provided you are running a BMW LL04 approved oil

Seth got this one covered

Originally Posted by towelie

how true is the thing about people changing the transmission oil after 60k miles and the transmission failing on them? Im almost 100% positive my sister never changed the transmission fluid but I want to change it since the car has 130k miles on it.

Also are there any good products to remove sludge from the engine, Im sure my sister followed the 15k mile change, but when I changed the oil myself it didn't look catastrophically bad. Im assuming most people who bought a used bmw or car for that matter from a "normal" person, would have bought from a person who follows the manus recommend intervals for service, just hard to imagine serious damage being done.

If you're beyond ~60K, don't even bother changing it. It'll just make it worse. If it's running, that's good. But just be prepared for it to meet its end at any point.

Of course the oil wouldn't look too bad, the filter is your main concern, not filtering out gunk. It'll build up in the engine, instead of being flushed out with the oil change. Not sure what you can really do about that other than having a mechanic pull it apart. You can try Seafoam, but that's more for carbon buildup.

Originally Posted by SilverBimmer325

Nice write up. For the auto tranny fluid change...I don't know how he did it but my friend has an 03 325i auto. He is a business man and puts about 35-40k a year and his car just hit 195,000. Original auto tranny. Fluid never changed. 1 in a million I guess.

Wow, that's incredible.

Don't get me wrong, I would feel bad if my baby didn't get her oil changed every 10-15000km, but has anyone here ever read the article written by ex-ceo of Castrol? He never changed the oil in his cars and called changing oil one of the biggest scams in the history of motoring. Lemme see if I can find it...


Ok, i'ts damn hard to find an English article on this. The ex-ceo's name is Henk de Groot. He's Dutch and I read the article in a Dutch newspaper (actually, it was published in rather a lot of Dutch and Belgian newspapers, but I can hardly find anything on it in English) This is something I found tho, enjoy:

Former CEO of Castrol Oil in the Netherlands, Mr. Henk de Groot, has driven 160,000 kilometers (100,000 miles) on the same engine oil. (see: Old oil versus New Oil)
Mr. de Groot finds the oil-changing industry a big money grabber and on top of that it is polluting our enviroment.
The big oil scandal: hundreds of millions of dollars per year are wasted and an enormous amount of damage to the environment. Henk de Groot, is on a crusade against what he calls the 'oil change brainwash'

http://oilsaverchip.ca/

I only found this link to a commercial site, searching for info in English, weird.

Great post OP. Should this be a sticky?

Great Thread!

I love Kpeng! Never met him, but still! Hey Kpeng I have a question, I'm 19 years old and I bought a 2005 330ci and I'm still under warranty until 2010 or 100,000 miles. I changed my oil on my last car every 4000 miles synthetic (2003 Nissan Maxima). Well I was planning on changing my oil on my Bimmer at around 5-7 thousand miles, but the dealer said the warranty gets voided if I do it. Plus, If I tell the dealer to do it at 5-7 then they say they won't do it, saying that it still has another 8-10 thousand miles it can go. BTW great thread helps a lot of people!

good thread.

Originally Posted by skang2535

I love Kpeng! Never met him, but still! Hey Kpeng I have a question, I'm 19 years old and I bought a 2005 330ci and I'm still under warranty until 2010 or 100,000 miles. I changed my oil on my last car every 4000 miles synthetic (2003 Nissan Maxima). Well I was planning on changing my oil on my Bimmer at around 5-7 thousand miles, but the dealer said the warranty gets voided if I do it. Plus, If I tell the dealer to do it at 5-7 then they say they won't do it, saying that it still has another 8-10 thousand miles it can go. BTW great thread helps a lot of people!

That dealer are a bunch of idiots then. It won't void your warranty if you change your oil. Do it yourself once in between every 15,000 mile oil change they give you. Or take it to an indy shop and have them do it.

http:/www.bimrs.org is a great place to find a good indy shop. So basically do 7,500 interval oil changes, once yourself/indy shop, then the dealer, then yourself/indy shop, then the dealer...on and on and on. Don't listen to them, it won't void your warranty, they're just trying to scare you.

As for the guy that mentioned the ex-CEO who drove 100,000 miles on original oil. That's one of the biggest crocks of crap I've ever read in my life. That guy's engine must be running on mud by now

About changing the transmission fluid, even if you change it, there is still a likely possibility that the transmission can fail right? From what Ive read the cause of transmission breakdowns are due to poorly engineered parts more so than fluids not being changed.

Fantastic writeup. Two suggestions though:

#1 - next to the maintenance item, include a link to a DIY perhaps?

#2 - sticky this!

Originally Posted by towelie

About changing the transmission fluid, even if you change it, there is still a likely possibility that the transmission can fail right? From what Ive read the cause of transmission breakdowns are due to poorly engineered parts more so than fluids not being changed.

For the most part, I think, if you maintain it properly, it should last you. Of course, if you've modified your car for more power, it'll decrease the lifespan of the step trannies. They're not made to handle very much power, the GM 5L40-E auto tranny, aka the one I have, is the same as what comes in a Cadillac Catera...

For those who need DIYs, there are two sites you'll ever need.

http://www.bimmerdiy.com
http://www.my330i.com

Originally Posted by kpeng

As for the guy that mentioned the ex-CEO who drove 100,000 miles on original oil. That's one of the biggest crocks of crap I've ever read in my life. That guy's engine must be running on mud by now

That was my tought exactly, but apparently it isn't. I wouldn't try it, but I am interested in these bits of information. He called it the 'oil change brainwash' and from that point of view, reading your reaction and thinking about my first reaction, he's got a point. Don't forget he was the top man of one of the biggest automotive lubricant companies.

Eh, it's impossible. Your engine is going to suck in crap, over time it gets worse, that's the whole point of the oil change. I bet if they looked inside, he'd change his mind...if it's real at all. If anyone wants to try it, then by all means, I'm not stopping you, I like watching people do stupid things and fail, lol. As for me, I'll keep fresh oil in my car, no matter what some crazy conspiracy-theorist whackjob says.

Originally Posted by kpeng

For the most part, I think, if you maintain it properly, it should last you. Of course, if you've modified your car for more power, it'll decrease the lifespan of the step trannies. They're not made to handle very much power, the GM 5L40-E auto tranny, aka the one I have, is the same as what comes in a Cadillac Catera...

I have the same type, and my car is not modified.

Do you have links to people who have changed there oil post 100K and have had it fail on them? Id really like to change the fluid out, as Id assume that by this point its pretty worn down.

And the people who have changed their fluid at a high mileage has it failed on them immediately or was it something that failed on them after a period, possibly being that the failure had nothing to do with the transmission fluid change but was going to happen regardless of whether the fluid was changed or not.

towelie, this is a very good read if you have some free time:
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=430969

Thanks for the read.

I wish the poller asked when the transmission fluid was changed. I pm'd jb hopefully he can shed some light on the question I sent him, and Ill try calling my sisters mechanic.

Though it does seem the overwhelming majority of people never touched the fluid and came out fine but again the question is at what mileage are they at.

well I called the indy bmw shop and the guy said hes changed the fluid on allot of bmws beyond the 100k mark. He said that most of the gunk will be located in the filter and drop pan, and that they have a way of adding and draining the fluid so as to minimize the contamination of the transmission.

Was wondering if Castrol Import Multi-Vehicle ATF is compatible with the gm transmission, if not Ill stick with redline D4.

Sounds good. I don't know about the Castrol though, just stick with the Redline. People have had great results with it.

Finally a thread from kpeng that I can use!!! kpeng for mod!!! Wow, my eyes are now open and im finding I need to R&R my fuel filter, oil change w/ filter, and spark plugs.

kpeng... what do you think of Mahle and Mann oil filters? IMO they are as good as OEM.

*note* After a run on the track when using BMW synthetic my valves start to tick. Known issue for our e46's. Ever since I switched to elf/TOTAL 5-30 synthetic the ticking has not been an issue.


Great thread!