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Tire Trailblazer
Do you trust what I said...
Anyways, you should always be checking your oil and levels everytime you fill up at the gas station (supposedly). I do it every 1000miles or so...because I'm at the gas station every 5 days, so it gets tedious.
You can only check oil levels in late model BMW's via trip computer, which will tell you how many quarts you have left. So there is no real way of checking the physical condition of the oil.
What got me into the whole extended oil change interval discussion was a post I read on Bimmerfest, where a member from Arkansas had not changed the oil in his E90 330i for 19,500 mils (this is from the time he got the car). He then sent the oil to a diagnostics lab where they did a reading on the oil content and found many engine particles that could have caused extensive damage to his engine had he kept it going any longer (he got his oil changed when the oil light came on in the dash). He went on to talk about how poor BMW's recommended oil change intervals are when in actuality he wasn't following break in procedure (he should have changed his oil after the first 3,000 mls.). I'm sure had he followed the break-in procedure the tests would have yielded much different results.
