Quote:
Originally Posted by PackPride85
I don't have much faith in BMW ever recommending what is best for the engine after the 15k mile oil change debacle.
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I'm convinced that 15K oil change wasn't a total mistake, but it may have been an misunderstanding based on common oil usage and fuel quality...
I grew up in the UK and moved to the US (via Korea) in 2012 when I was 32 years old. I therefore already had my fair share of oil changes and services done on cars in the UK before leaving.
Having lived now in the US for many years, I would say that there are three things that are significantly different between what's considered normal servicing between Europe and the US:
- Fuel Quality
- Oil Change Intervals
- Tire Life
Fuel
Pump fuel quality in the US sucks in all states, but especially in those on the West Coast. I'm not going to be drawn into an argument on this topic, but I stand by my claim based on extensive research into standards in different countries that US 93 AKI is roughly equivalent to European standard fuel which is rated at 95 RON. European premium fuel is far better with a RON of between 97 and 99. I realise that this statement goes agains that established (incorrect) thinking that US 93 = EU 99, and I'll say one more thing about it. AKI is a ratio, and the important thing which we're never told isn't the RON, it's the difference between MON and RON; the larger the better for high compression / forced induction engines.
Important to this topic though, is that US Fuel also has quite a bit higher sulphur content, which has a negative impact on oil life. I'm not an expert on why this happens, but it does have an impact and that explains point 2:
Oil change interval
My first car was a 1985 MY original Mini, and the manufacturer specified an oil change interval of 12,000 miles / 12 months. I actually did changes more frequently than this at 10,000 miles, but in the UK, I never heard of anyone who changed more frequently if they didn't track their car. It's important to note that in the original Mini, the gearbox shares oil with the engine!
My second car was a 1992 MY Peugeot 405 Mi16x4; a homologation special 4wd version of the Mi16. It had a manufacturers specified oil change interval of 10,000 miles / 12 months, which I admit is closer to typical in the US.
My third car was a 1999 MY Peugeot 406 Coupé (3.0 V6), and this had manufacturers specified oil change interval of 20,000 miles / 24 months! I was surprised by this, but followed the manufacturers guidelines and sold the car with 180,000 miles and it never burned a drop of oil the whole time I had it.
At the same time as the 406 Coupé, I also had a 2003 MY AP2 Honda S2000 (AP2 was still a 1,997cc F20C in Europe; for better or worse we never got the 2,157cc F22C1 engine). Honda recommended an oil change interval of 7,500 miles / 12 months. And as we all know, the F20C is one of the most highly strung NA engines ever in a production car. I never did 12,000 miles in a year, and I switched to fully synthetic higher performance oil, but I did change the oil only 1 time per year.
One point that is very important to note is that European car manufacturers also switched to recommending either Semi Synthetic or Fully synthetic oil blends many many years before that was the norm in the US.
Tire Life
This is probably self explanatory... The US is BIG, with lots of straight roads. In the UK, it is quite typical to get about 12,000 ~ 15,000 miles out of a set of tires on a normal passenger car. I got 30,000 miles out of the tires on my first car here, and I thought I drove it hard.
At the time I left the UK, all cars came with summer tires. Most cars in the US come with all season tires. All seasons would make sense in the UK as well, and that may be the case now, but this also might be a contributing factor to tire life in the UK.