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Originally Posted by M3SQRD
My brother-in-law is a BMW master tech and he’s seen far more engine failures post 2000 than pre 2000. Is it due to solely the change in OCI? I doubt it but it’s certainly a contributor/variable. Synthetic oils for cars have been around since the 1970s and became popular in the early 1990s. I started using synthetics in 1992 and my OCI increased from 3k to 5k miles. Could I have gone with an even longer OCI? Yes but I’ve stuck with 5k OCIs since 1992. Is there one correct OCI? No.
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All I can say is people are not posting about that on BMW enthusiast forums and people certainly love to post about everything that goes wrong with their BMW. Consumer Reports did a big study probably thirty years ago now with dino oil to test whether there was any difference in engine wear between 3,000 mile oil changes and 6,000 mile oil changes. They did a longer interval, too, but I can’t remember exactly what it was. Something around 10,000 miles. Anyway, with dino oil they found no measurable difference in engine wear between a 3,000 mile oil change and a 6,000 mile oil change. I first used a synthetic oil (I’m thinking probably not fully synthetic) in my 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that I bought in 1980.
In 2010 I got the chance to see inside a 2007 or 2006 X3 N52 motor that had one oil change in 36,000 miles. It looked absolutely brand new. The oil had 18,000 miles on it. It was a lease return from the proverbial little old lady. She got her first CBS oil change notice at 18,000 miles and had the oil changed. Then she turned the car in with 36,000 miles and it got its second oil change. The dealership wanted to CPO it, but BMW required them to pull the valve cover and send them photos before they would accept it into the CPO program.