BMW - Lifetime fluids

[stevegula]

I have a question for you super smart fellas -

In my office damn near every VP owns a BMW bought in the last ~3 years. Except one guy who knows cars, he has two BMWs from '93 that are just ridiculously spotless (and one's is daily driver / track car).

Anyway, Smart BMW Owner subscribes to various BMW publications I've never heard of. It has commented multiple times in the past year about how, when BMW decided to "cover" the costs of maintenence items (specifically fluids) they also magically lasted longer. For instance, the transmission fluid in a new BMW is good "for the life of the transmission." It seems like people are starting to realize that that means - the life of the transmission is drastically shortened because the fluid is never changed.

One VP doesn't care because he leased with no intention to purchase. However, he brought it up with the dealership and they maintain that he shouldn't touch the engine oil or transmission fluid because it's somehow specially sealed and he could ruin things. These publications that Smart BMW Owner brings in all claim their dealerships tell them the same thing. Then their transmissions fail at ~80-90k miles.

Have y'all heard anything about this or experience anything like this? Seems pretty amazing to me. A quick google mentions a product named Dexron that claims to last 100k miles, but I've never had a car that said I could go past 30k without a change. Even if Dexron lasts 100k miles, seems to me a transmission should last longer than that if maintained properly and driving properly.

We simply speculate that so few BMW owners would even think of this and have enough money that after 80-100k miles they won't care to drop $5k for a new tranny.

[Apoc]

So few people who own BMWs new will have the car at 80k miles.

The general consensus for this, and things like oil changes every 10k miles, seem to be that manufacturers have embraced the disposable automobile culture. It seems very likely that while cars may be engineered better, changing the fluids 3-5x less often will have long term effects. So why doesn't it matter?

For the most part, people who are going to "buy another BMW/Audi/etc" will have already done so before they ever see any reliability issues from these practices. If your market doesn't have any perception of problems, you can keep on selling your cars without any real impact on brand image. There may very well be a rash of unreliability in 2nd and 3rd owner vehicles but by then they're out of warranty and no longer a liability to the company. Besides, if someone has to come to them for a new tranny or more cars end up in the junkyard in the long run, what's the bad news for them?

[stevegula]

Yea, that's what we figured. Pretty much means to me that I won't ever buy a used BMW because I know BMW didn't make any effort to maintain it.

That's bad for BMW though. If resale prices slump, they'll lose their middle management following that will be dependent on that in order to buy a new one.

[Apoc]

That's bad for BMW though. If resale prices slump, they'll lose their middle management following that will be dependent on that in order to buy a new one.

Most buyers of new cars in that price range end up trading in and BMW basically gets to double dip by overpricing the used car for resale anyway. Cars that the 25-35 y/o market buy are generally 3rd (or higher) owner and they're so far removed from the new market, it won't impact people buying new. Besides, I don't think a high enough portion of the population is paying enough attention to matter.

[BLINGMW]

Have y'all heard anything about this or experience anything like this?

Ohho yeah, the "lifetime fluids" are absolute bullshit. They've been doing it for years. I agree it's a little sinister for the used market, but I think we'll see more and more manufacturers going this way.

[WRXtranceformed]

I also agree that lifetime fluids are bullshit. If you use good fluids and filters though, your engine oil interval can definitely see 25k+ miles in certain applications. There is supposedly a lot of conspiracy out there that the original "3k mile oil change interval" was a consensus of car makers to help promote their service shops. Most oil is still completely fine at 3k and even 5k miles.

I ordered an Amsoil oil test kit to see how accurate my Acura's MID is in terms of oil life. I'm hoping to get my interval dialed in.

[Evan]

interesting, i didnt know BMW did this.

I almost bought an '06 325 that was an ex-fleet car with 80k miles. Not a whole lot of oil changes on the maintanence record and now I know why.

This does make it harder to buy a used bmw.

[.paul]

BMW, MB, Audi, those "high end" cars are all like that. I still bring in the BMWs to the service dept, and they WILL do it. You just have to be persistent and if they say no, ask to consult w/ a mechanic. I did this and asked the mechanic to be realistic, if I drive 20k miles a year, how can you tell me I only will need ONE oil change.