Just been reading through a discussion on another forum about "the USA's insane engine oil change habits."
In a long, and occasionally heated discussion, it mentions a current model of car where the recommended change interval in the US is 5000 miles, but in Europe is 15,000 miles.
It also mentions that modern BMWs have a variable oil change interval, set by the way it's driven. Guess an E30 must be a modern BMW then.
Does anyone know is the US uses different programming on the SI board in order to shorten the time it takes for 'oil service to appear' ?
Oil change interval
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flybynite
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I read on the VW side the service interval was shorter (or more correctly the longer service interval options were not available) because of the poorer fuel quality they get over there
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DanThe
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Who recommends their shorter service interval, America or Europe? America has lots of drive in drive out "while you wait service" type places, as with the "lifetime oil" nonsense we have here I would always put the recommended service intervals down to marketing rather than engineering
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Brianmoooore
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This relates to the OP of the thread I was reading - Why are there so many lube change places in the US but none in the UK?
The short answer is because there's a demand for them there and no demand here. Oil is changed here as part of a more general service.
The reason for the same car to have 5k mile oil change intervals in the US and 15k mile intervals in the UK was explained by the fact that US consumers have been conditioned to expect this kind of oil life by businesses with good reason to do so, and we know from the events of four years ago and the current events in the US that there's no shortage of the extremely gullible and easily led in that country.
However, my original question was not on the merits or otherwise of shorter intervals between oil changes, but whether BMW took this into account when programming the E30 SI indicator, and arranged for 'oil service' to light up much more often there than here.
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Satan
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I think the US of A don't have a MOT system like Europe does also if you search on YouTube you will hear horror stories about these lube places......
Last edited by Satan on Sun Nov 22, 2020 9:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Brianmoooore
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Brianmoooore wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 6:52 pmHowever, my original question was not on the merits or otherwise of shorter intervals between oil changes, but whether BMW took this into account when programming the E30 SI indicator, and arranged for 'oil service' to light up much more often there than here.
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Satan
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The US of A residents like to sue the arses off anyone so maybe they where protecting themselves......Brianmoooore wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 7:56 pmBrianmoooore wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 6:52 pmHowever, my original question was not on the merits or otherwise of shorter intervals between oil changes, but whether BMW took this into account when programming the E30 SI indicator, and arranged for 'oil service' to light up much more often there than here.