BMW Lifetime Fluids…

  …Whose Lifetime?

The car industry today is being shaped by the outcomes of the JD Power Consumer Satisfaction Surveys. It is clear from the survey results that driver’s want cars that they don’t have to service or maintain. In an effort to build the low/no maintenance car we have seen factory recommended service intervals increase dramatically:

Manufacturers are using expensive & exotic fluids in their transmissions, final drives & engines. Spark plugs are incorporating platinum to extend  their service life and engine management systems are capable of adapting to worn out spark plugs & dirty air filters, accommodating the  associated loss in performance and fuel economy, all the while keeping the car emissions legal.

We feel that this scenario is more marketing driven than engineering driven. The program is great for the first 60,000 miles. The vehicle’s 1^st owner will rave about the low maintenance car  where he received 4 free oil changes & maybe a brake job. A happy owner drives JD Power Consumer Satisfaction Scores up, more new cars are then sold and the manufacturer is very pleased.

In our experience, if you’d like to run your BMW reliably beyond 100,000 miles, then the service intervals need to be stepped up. The joke among BMW Techs is the definition of “Lifetime” relative to BMW Lifetime Fluids. Whose Lifetime? Yours? Mine? The car? The consensus is that the fluid is good for the lifetime of the fluid & nothing else. Once it’s dirty & worn out it needs to be changed. In our experience, automatic transmission fluid & filter services should be performed at about 80,000 miles. Final drive units and manual gearboxes should be serviced at 50,000 mile intervals. Much of this is also subject to driving style. Cars that are driven on short trips ( 20 minutes or less) need more frequent services.