Re:BMW car and engine Life Longevity.

["Anthony Dusovic" <adusovic@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I have racked up 140,000 miles on my 1994 325i and the car has been very
reliable to this point.  I don't baby the car at all, sees the redline
often,  and change my oil at 5 to 7.5k mile intervals depending on my mood.
I replaced the rack, power steering pump, brakes, tires, replaced front end
components upgraded the suspension and replaced the clutch a month ago for
the first time.  Oh yeah, JC Chip, K &N filter.  No major service problems
to date.  The only problem that bugs the hell out of me is the fact that the
car has lost the straight line stability and tramlines, which seems to be a
common occurance.  I haven't done any rear end bushings yet, and I suspect
that these may be the culprit.  The moral of the story is enjoy the car ,
drive it and don't worry about the life, unless something goes
catastrophically wrong or you have a real lemon on your hands a car will
last a long time with some basic maintenance.

I don't agree that you need to change your oil every 3,000 miles to make a
car last, especially with synthetic oils.  I think it is a waste of money
and resources, unless of course you drive under severe conditions.

A couple of personal experiences have convinced me of this.

1.  My dad had an 84 nissan stanza that went near 200,000 miles on mobil 1
at 20,000 mile interval changes before getting rid of the car.

2.  Dad had a 89 taurus with the piece of c**p 4 cyl. engine that went over
160K miles before getting rid of it with oil changes done at God knows when
intervals.

Of course, these are just my experiences, and as they say YMMV.

Regards,
Anthony

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