Which Oil do you guys use? and your service interval

[H4MP]

Hi guys from personal experience, and with the spotlight recently on the N57 engine, I think it would be wise to change oil and filters (oil)
every 6-8k miles. What is your opinion?

there seems to be a lot of bottom end failures on high mileage cars with longer service intervals.

Also which oil do you use? my indie says he only uses Millers 5W-30

[X5Sport]

I’m increasing the number of changes to annual (low annual mileage now). Mann filters and Castrol FST Ultimate LL04 5W30. Engine has 68,000 miles on it and I’ve owned from new.

[H4MP]

I think the Castrol FST meant to be very good. There's an engine builder who have a page on Instagram they literally have an N57 every week for a spun bearing. I don't know what changed between the M57 and the N57?

[X5Sport]

Mostly a change of alloys and the power unit being asked to produce more oomph. Our E46 uses the M57 with 204bhp, and the same in my E53 was 218bhp. The N57 is 306bhp for the X6, and goes higher for the M50d version. That’s a big step up, but why the bearing issue I can only surmise is something to do with perhaps a change of bearing material, or oil circulation, or……

[Leslie]

Spun bearings mostly x police cars was it not, a lot were sold to the public before the issues were caught on of these cars idling for hours then flat to the mat with diluted oil and long service intervals.
Any approved oil will be grand, if its going to fail it will fail regardless as the damage has been done before.

[IanP]

I've always pointed spun bearings to engines being flat chatted from cold. Heat gets into the rods from the piston faster than the crank heats up, then the clearances become too much.
On oil changes, I do my diesel car every 6000 miles and the filter is usually in good condition. You should see some of the filters I've seen on long change engines doing short journeys

[StuBeeDoo]

I do oil changes every 6k miles and use Millers LL04-spec oil and Mann or Bosch filters.
The car has had more than twice the oil changes in the 5+ years/52k miles since I bought it than it had with two owners (and "FBMWSH") the previous 5 years/70k miles. IMHO if it was going to spin a bearing it would have done it before now.
Also, I try to avoid trips less than five miles from home - but that's just me, nothing to do with the N57 engine specifically.

[H4MP]

Spun bearings mostly x police cars was it not, a lot were sold to the public before the issues were caught on of these cars idling for hours then flat to the mat with diluted oil and long service intervals.
Any approved oil will be grand, if its going to fail it will fail regardless as the damage has been done before.

It isn't just police cars, my car had a spun bearing and while my car was in a customers car had a spun bearing. I have seen many cars on Facebook market being sold with engine damage, spun bearing and the engine is seized. This did not happen with the M57, an engine rebuilder I spoke to, told me it is cylinder 3 that has the issue most of the time. The prolonged servicing does not help. The issue usually comes about around 100k miles. the 3 series is less affected whereas the heavier cars 5 series, X5, & series seem to have the issue.

[H4MP]

I do oil changes every 6k miles and use Millers LL04-spec oil and Mann or Bosch filters.
The car has had more than twice the oil changes in the 5+ years/52k miles since I bought it than it had with two owners (and "FBMWSH") the previous 5 years/70k miles. IMHO if it was going to spin a bearing it would have done it before now.
Also, I try to avoid trips less than five miles from home - but that's just me, nothing to do with the N57 engine specifically.

I know it happened to my car due to long life servicing. Have you now done around 130k miles? you are doing the right thing by servicing early and are minimising the likelihood of it happening.

[Leslie]

You really need to be servicing these no later than every 10k if its out of warranty ,if its under warranty and bmw will pick up the tab then who cares .The m57 was certainly the peak of x5 reliability its went badly downhill since then it seems maybe they were lasting too long ?

I didn't realise it was not just police cars but I suspect the bulk of the failures still are,bmw will never admit its a private car issue due to warranty implications

[Wayfarer]

Change the oil and filter in my X5 every year and have done every year since I bought it with 18 miles (yes eighteen) on the clock, well the dealer or bmw indi does, they use the oil BMW recommends for the car. Mainly dealer as his prices are generally the same or less than the dealer!
The car has nearly 38k miles on it now and has had 5 oil and filter changes in the last five and a bit years, although this year the mileage was higher as it’s been up and down to Devon quite a bit.

[StuBeeDoo]

Have you now done around 130k miles?

Yes, it's now on 126.5(ish) thousand. Hopefully, now I've retired, I should only be doing 5k-6k per year.