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Oil Change
Hey all. First time posting here.
I did my oil change this morning which only took 20 minutes or so. With the oil filter mounted on top of the engine, I thought it was an easier oil change than on most cars which came as a big surprise to me.
There's nothing noteworthy about draining the oil but I would highly recommend purchasing a torque wrench. I'm sure you would be fine without it, but the drain plug is plastic. Over-tightening could cause the drain plug to break and you could end up spending a lot more removing it at that point. A torque wrench is $25 on Amazon and it seems silly to take a chance for the purpose of saving a small amount.
I've never replaced a top mounted oil filter but that too was pretty intuitive. Once you've unscrewed the filter unit, the filter comes out with a small amount of force. Removing the two seals is easy with the help of a flat head. The parts of the unit that the seals sit upon seem pretty durable but I was cautious not to cause damage. Seating the new seals was simple enough as well. The only confusion I had was in installing the new filter. It goes down with a little bit of force. Initially I didn't have it fully seated and quickly learned to push with a little more force. Reinstallation is easy too, using the same 25 Nm as the drain plug.
Only thing to note with the oil filter is when you're removing it, have paper towels handy as there's a decent amount of oil that will drip down and the alternator is directly below it.
I bought Castrol 0W-something (can't recall, 30 or 40) Euro spec with specific mention of BMW LL-01 on the back. None of the Penzoil or Mobil 1 products had BMW spec noted although Audi, Mercedes, etc. we included on their bottles. I did realized this morning that the car takes 5 LITERS and US sells quarts. 5 liters converts to 5.28 quarts. Since 5 quarts would be underfilling by roughly 5%, I figure I would fill up with 5 quarts and run the analyzer to see if more is needed.
And last, don't leave the new oil in your wife's car while you're changing the oil and she's at work. As a result, my car is technically disabled in the driveway until she comes home. Just when you think things are going a bit too smoothly...
Hope this helps! Honestly, if you've ever changed the oil in another car and are hesitant because it's German, don't be. Just buy the correct parts and the rest is very easy.
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