# How far can you drive past the recommended oil change?



## blackbmw (Dec 7, 2003)

when i purchased my vehicle, the infomation enclosed with the car stated that my first oil change was not to be performed until i had reached 15000 miles. however, at about 12000 miles, the car informed me that i need an oil change. unfortunately, i am very busy and can not deal with it for a week. is it safe to drive the car?


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## Kempe (Feb 18, 2002)

blackbmw said:


> when i purchased my vehicle, the infomation enclosed with the car stated that my first oil change was not to be performed until i had reached 15000 miles. however, at about 12000 miles, the car informed me that i need an oil change. unfortunately, i am very busy and can not deal with it for a week. is it safe to drive the car?


I changed mine every 5K. Crap, just change it as soon as you can. I've heard tell that these synthetics will run a lot longer than 15K.


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## elmalloc (Dec 7, 2003)

Kempe said:


> I changed mine every 5K. Crap, just change it as soon as you can. I've heard tell that these synthetics will run a lot longer than 15K.


I think you will be fine for one week...my honda is supposed to be changed every 3K, but I went 9.5K without changing it once. =D

Still at 70K miles and 10 years old, feels like new though.

-ELmO


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## crap_shoot (Dec 29, 2003)

blackbmw said:


> when i purchased my vehicle, the infomation enclosed with the car stated that my first oil change was not to be performed until i had reached 15000 miles. however, at about 12000 miles, the car informed me that i need an oil change. unfortunately, i am very busy and can not deal with it for a week. is it safe to drive the car?


Sure, just make an appointment and get it changed as soon as it's convenient. The service interval computer takes things like short trips into account when calculating when you need an oil change. I don't think it's a very sophisticated algorithm. It's not like it's testing your oil and telling you that it's broken down to an unacceptable state.


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## jh (Jul 15, 2003)

There is a count down function that tells you how many miles to oil change at start up. It's not as if the oil change should be a surprise, if the SI system is working properly. 
I think on the newest cars, the computer merely tracks fuel usage... oil change at something like 600 gallons of fuel consumed. And that makes sense, since hard driving, city driving will mean lower MPGs and oil change would be indicated sooner than easy highway driving and better mpgs.


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## bmw325 (Dec 19, 2001)

Don't sweat it too much. As jh said, the oil change is just based on how many gallons of fuel you consumed on the premise that overall miles per gallon is indicative of how you drive the car which in turn indicates how often you should change the oil. Its not like your oil is good 12k, and then unusable at 12001. Its a gradual degradation over time. Of course, there is a point at which the oil will cease to do its job or possibly sludge up. I don't think anyone here can know when that will be-- but with synthetic oil it could be well over 20k. If you're curious, you can send an oil sample to Blackstone labs and have them run an oil test-- then you'll get a sense for how much more you could've gone before the oil would've ceased to be effective. Nonetheless, just get your oil changed as soon as possible and don't worry too much in the near term. Also, oil is pretty easy and inexpensive to change yourself if you get an oil extractor (there's one that I use from Griot's garage that's pretty good). Personally, I find it much quicker and easier than making an appointment at the dealer, waiting for the car, etc. Plus, I know its been done right. The whole process takes me about 40 minutes-- most of that time is just waiting for the oil to be sucked into the extractor (and I can be doing something else while that happens).


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## yamato (Feb 11, 2003)

robg said:


> Also, oil is pretty easy and inexpensive to change yourself if you get an oil extractor (there's one that I use from Griot's garage that's pretty good). Personally, I find it much quicker and easier than making an appointment at the dealer, waiting for the car, etc. Plus, I know its been done right. The whole process takes me about 40 minutes-- most of that time is just waiting for the oil to be sucked into the extractor (and I can be doing something else while that happens).


that sounds very easy and convenient. Is there is DIY procedure I can follow?

where can I buy this oil extractor?

Thanks!


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## JJKK (Apr 17, 2002)

*IF you plan on keeping the car longer*



blackbmw said:


> when i purchased my vehicle, the infomation enclosed with the car stated that my first oil change was not to be performed until i had reached 15000 miles. however, at about 12000 miles, the car informed me that i need an oil change. unfortunately, i am very busy and can not deal with it for a week. is it safe to drive the car?


than 100K, I wouldnt wait until the intervals to change the oil.


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## cruztopless (Sep 23, 2002)

yamato said:


> that sounds very easy and convenient. Is there is DIY procedure I can follow?
> 
> where can I buy this oil extractor?
> 
> Thanks!


Do a search on mityvac. There are several discussions on its usage.

I bought mine here - http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/shop/MIT-7201.html

The thing is great. Unfortunately it doesn't work on my Integra. 

edit: go to http://www.bmw325i.net/ for a DIY.


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## blackbmw (Dec 7, 2003)

thanks everyone for all of the great advice!


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## BMRSLR (Dec 28, 2003)

should be ok to run past 15K
I on my own car go 7500 on an oil change.
the dealership does my 15k, i do the 7500K.
I was a tech for a while and that oil smells bad after being in there for 12-15K


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## bmw325 (Dec 19, 2001)

Here's the extractor I use:
http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?&SKU=10122


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