Quote:
Originally Posted by m3an
yes the "copper" coloring is def due to the longer intervals but it hasn't been proven detrimental as I know as someone did a comparo on the e46 cars and it was the same. Yes it's ridiculous that when BMW does the maintenance all of the sudden the oil goes to 15k but in reality its not awful. I do 7500k as I feel comfortable but you must remember that all these cars have the maintenance plan and BMW is pretty stringent w/ it. So unless you're getting a car from a fanatic that changed the oil from new, or buying a new car, almost all cars will have that color on the components. I wouldn't be too concerned. Def clean that gunk out though, but I am assuming that was around the cap recess and is just build up over time?
Anyways all you can do is now change the oil on a better interval but it is what it is, and I wouldn't worry as there's not much you can do.
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I disagree. They have the copper (well, more like tan) coloring on the inside of the valve cover when brand new. It's not from extended intervals.
My car has 45K and has had the mileage changed at no more than 7,500mi intervals. Sometimes sooner (such as in after a track event). My car was purchased brand new and had 2 or 3 miles on it at delivery.
When I open my oil cap, I also have sometime similar to what was posted a few posts above. Looks like the inner coating is coming off a little bit, and I think the track use may have been what exacerbated this. Mine doesn't look anywhere near as bad as what was posted above, but there is no doubt that this plating is coming off.
I'm going to try to add half a quart of oil and see if that changes the noise, mine is at the middle mark now so it is a good time to test and see.
M3PO: Can you please forward me your oil analysis to my email? I had mine checked and the TBN was perfect even after heavy tracking. Everything looked good other than slightly high lead content. So I'll have to see at the next check if the lead levels dropped.
I'll report back on if adding the half quart makes a difference for the noise.