This is a good time of year to check the tread and condition of your tires.  With the “rainy” season approaching driving on severely worn or bald tires can be very dangerous.  Storms like the one we had yesterday are always a reminder to me to check the tires on all of our vehicles.  Fresh tires make driving in the rain much safer and can drastically reduce the likelihood of hydroplaning.

Deeper treads on the tire help displace water away from the contact patch on the tire.  The contact patch is the area of the tire that is in direct contact with the road.  By displacing the water the tire is less likely to hydroplane, or ride on top of the water, thus causing a loss of control.

If you have questions, or need some help finding the right tires, feel free to call us or fill out the form below!

Does your Mini Cooper have a Low Tire Pressure Warning Light on?

You may see something like this if you’ve got a flat tire or a low pressure on one of the tires.

Make sure you check the tire pressures noting the difference in pressures between all tires. Correct pressures and test-drive after reset. if problem persists, bring it in to have it diagnosed.

Your Mini Cooper dashboard warning lights will indicate which tire is running low in pressure by highlighting it in the color amber, such as in the first photograph on the left.

The importance of Oil Services

To approach this from a logical stand point, let’s look at the engine oil’s actual role in your BMW.  It doesn’t just protect the rotating ballet of internal metal pieces from grinding to a halt.  Oil now has multiple purposes, it pulls heat away from the engine through oil coolers, it is used as hydraulic pressure to move variable camshafts, and it absorbs dirt, moisture, combustion chamber blow by debris, AND of course, it protects the engine.  With all of these roles, oil is being pushed to its limits on a daily basis and broken down.  While the actual properties of the oil may not have broken down by mileage, what about all its other jobs?  Has it absorbed moisture and become too thin to protect?  Has it absorbed too much fuel blow by to properly apply pressure to needed components?  Has it gotten so dirt laden, that it’s leaving deposits of a tar like goo on everything inside the engine?  Some of the passages inside the engine have become the size of a mechanical pencil lead, and it would take very little debris to stop the flow in its tracks.

When it comes down to it,  the average vehicle is the second most expensive investment someone makes in their lifetime, and taking care of that investment is the best way to get the maximum life from it, and therefore the best return on that investment.  Simple routine oil services for your BMW, are one of the most inexpensive ways to insure that investment has a long living power plant under the hood.  Along with performing an oil and filter service on your vehicle, most high quality workshops will also inspect your entire BMW to give you peace of mind that you will be traveling along safely, and if something is noticed, give you an estimate on those repairs that are needed, so that you as the owner of the vehicle will be informed as to its current condition and needs.

Pictured with this article, is unfortunately not an extreme example of engine oil sludge, and it has become more common.  This is a 2006 BMW 325i, it currently has 90,000 and was on its 6^th, yes sixth, oil change, because according to BMW, this vehicle only requires service once every 15,000 miles.  In its current state, the engine is basically on life support.  It was still running, poorly, but running.  Several malfunctions were stored in the engine’s on board monitoring system, and the root cause of all of these failures were, oil sludge.  Simply increasing the oil service interval could have easily stopped this level of damage from happening, and kept this vehicle on the road much longer.

Determining who is “right” about oil service intervals can be almost impossible to pinpoint, and it seems everyone has an opinion, but one thing for sure, performing the service earlier than the 10,000, or 15,000 miles will never damage anything on your prized investment.

On newer BMW’s the owner’s manual recommends an oil service every 15,000 miles, and in fact, the reminder lights on the instrument cluster are set to this interval as well.  At Autoscope we recommend an oil service every 5,000 to 7,000 miles or every 6 months, whichever comes first.  Here we see some photos of why.  These photos are very dramatic.

From the very first time the oil is heated to normal operating temperatures, it starts to break down.  As a matter of fact oil breaks down just sitting in your engine!  All new BMW’s that we service come with synthetic oil from the factory and this is all we use.  The brand of oil and the weight of the oil will change based on make and model of car, but they are all synthetic.  Although today’s full synthetic oils generally protect better and last longer than our dinosaur derived versions, they still do not last forever.

On this 2007 BMW 328i, we see what happens to oil that is used past its protective state.  It becomes thick and rather than being a slippery fluid it turns into something like a pudding.  This thick substance does not lubricate nearly as well as fresh oil and has a difficult time passing through the oil channels built into the engine, thus starving vital parts of the oil that it needs.

Sadly, at Autoscope we have seen this too often and it really is unnecessary.  Yes, it is slightly more expensive to replace your oil every 5k to 7k miles, but it is far less expensive than $10,000 to replace the engine.

If this owner would have done their oil services at 5k to 7k miles this could have been avoided and another BMW engine would have lived a long and happy life motoring all over North Texas.

Make an Appointment now to have your oil and filter serviced, before the heat of the summer.