oil change

I would like to change the oil in my 2009 M6. I think it takes 10 liters of oil , but I dont know if that is with a new filter or not . When the oil is drained , does all the oil come out or is there a little left in ? Without a dipstick how can you tell if there is the right amount in ? Is the oil indicator accurate enough ?

Butch, isn't that stuff in the owner's manual? That's the first place I'd look.

Nope

astoundingly, it's not, at least for my 2010 650, which is likely to be the same situation as the M6. Nor oil specs (other than "use BMW' oil), spark plug types, ATF specs, etc etc. No repair manual exists.

Seems BMW wants us to just look stylish & not worry our pretty little heads about such things.

I looked for the same info in my 2010 328i convertible manual, with no luck. It tells you how much is held in the fuel tank and windshield washer tank, but makes no obvious mention of oil amount.

I may have missed it, but I spent several minutes searching the manual....

What stunning arrogance. It looks more and more like I will never own a BMW built in this century.

Doesn't surprise me at all.

The last 7-series I found desirable ceased production after the 2001 model year (technically, C.R., the 2001 E38 WOULD qualify as a car made in this century.)

I'm keeping a sense of humor about it. Imagine BMW assembling a room full of product planners, and they have an illustration of a BMW customer clad from head to toe in white clothes. That's almost as funny as the tiny dwarves they envisioned changing out the M70 V-12's spark plugs.

No wonder they removed the dipsticks and oil fill caps from many of BMW's engines.

You guys are funny. First of all, there is no BMW engine with the oil fill cap has been removed.

Secondly, this is no different doing an oil change on an electronic dipstick (which isn't just a "level sensor" but is much more accurate device allowing running engine oil level output) as there is with a mechanical dipstick. I've had 5 years and 80k miles of doing oil changes in the E90 every 6-7k miles, and there is no big deal AT ALL. Check it on the iDrive when done versus checking it on the dipstick -- no big deal.

I've done many E90 changes now over 5 years without every having one single hiccup of any sort.

The hysteria in this thread is insane. I've been driving BMWs for almost 37 years now. I'll tell ya what -- changing the oil on a modern BMW is VASTLY easier than on the M30 motor in my E3 way back when. The original oil canister design had the bolt at the bottom, so when you remove it to get the canister off, oil just pours out the hole before you can get the canister out. Oil goes freaking everywhere on the engine, the suspension, you, the floor, etc. "Upgrading" that to the E12 version with the top bolt design was the best mod I ever did on the E3.

To the OP about the M6: The answer is 9 liters. Then you can do a normal oil level check and see how it reads. Just like someone with a dipstick would do -- add the traditional amount and then check the level.

Check out the M5board/M6board for threads on DIY like:

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e60-m5-e61-m5-touring-discussion/79176-e60-m5-diy-oil-change-step-step-w-pictures.html

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e60-m5-e61-m5-touring-discussion/143948-diy-oil-change-update-2nd-drain-plug.html

Also, here is your kit: scroll down this page to the E63/E64 M6 oil change kit.

To those who offered no help at all, this forum should be about encouraging people to ask for help by providing real answers as opposed to emotional tirades with no purpose other than rant. If you can't offer true help, either from experience or linked help, consider not posting in someone's thread.

Adding one more bit of info for you noble gullacher, looks like the officially recommended procedure is to fill with 8.8L and then check oil level, topping off as needed.

See this link for BMW service bulletin on the subject.

Well, I didn't mention that.

No. No big deal WHEN YOU KNOW HOW MUCH OIL TO USE! Your E3 and my 2002 and my E28s have all had that now-secret information right there in the glovebox, in the owner's manual. Now they don't. So basically, BMW is saying, "You're so smart; you want to do an oil change BY YOURSELF? Do the research!" That is what I find intolerably arrogant.

I bow to your experience. I've only had them for 26 - and my 2002 had spin-on filters.

Um ... you're not the only one who had to deal with that bolt. You did all that without finding out you can just unbolt the housing from the block (two 13mm bolts, IIRC) and empty the thing out away from the car? At least that's what I did on my Bavaria.

Gee; silly me. I didn't think it was unreasonable to suggest that the information I've found in every owner's manual I've ever had in my life would be in there. Although I know Butch is a bright enough guy to think of that, sometimes, it's just a 'head slap' moment to RTFM. My deepest apologies for being so unhelpful. As for the off-topic drift, that's how tha interwebz works these days. I think Brian knows that by now.

Thanks for the critique -- lots of helpful information there. Of course it's obvious I was referring to the post right above mine about BMW supposedly eliminating oil fill caps.

I suppose BMW's thought about the "owner's manual" is that it is now often a rare occurrence when someone buys a $110k car and does their own oil changes...even from BMW. It's not the only arrogant thing BMW does and will continue to do unfortunately.

...and no, I only once tried to un-do those bolts holding the housing on, and they wouldn't budge w/o a longer wrench that I had at the time, but there are four of them, so it's not quite as easy as you stated. It only took a few oil changes until swapping out for the more "modern" housing when I changed engines (no, didn't rebuild it myself, had Ray Korman build an a**-kicking engine for it...30 years ago now.

Speaking of 2002 spin-on filters...it never made sense to me that the M30 didn't use a spin-on also given it came later.

Thankfully, the M30 on display at the museum in Munich is original as it can be right down to said bolt-through oil canister. The 6-cylinder engine room there is a great feature -- spent a lot of time inspecting and reading there. Actually, the fan and fan clutch were E12 era items on this M30 on display. At least here in the USA, they never imported a carb M30 with the viscous fan clutch that I recall (unless it was the 1974 model year); hence I suppose if they weren't embarrassed about it, they might have put the friction clutch and the less-numbered blade fan on the display motor.

Thanks to all that responded to my cry for help . There is no mention of oil capacity in the owners manual so adding 4 or 5 liters of oil then running it for a while then checking the screen might be harmful to the engine . I will start with 8.8 liters and go from there .
I kind of like changing my own oil and have done it for years and have accidently knocked over the used oil a time or 2 .

Report back with what you find about the 2nd drain plug (see that 2nd link in my post above). From reading that thread it would appear there was a running change sometime after the 2006 model year to add another drain plug (and supposedly the oil filter now comes with two drain plug washers/rings).

I even looked at the RealOEM picture and it showed only two. Apparently, you need two of each. Still, I never had a problem. Maybe someone before me had been taking it off regularly because I remember no problems once I stumbled across this suggestion.

It also doesn't make sense that they changed the block casting so the M10 filter assembly won't interchange with the M30. The M30 canister design seems to be another of BMW's questionable 'improvements' although, as you correctly point out, the later design is much neater, if you have a steady hand to work it up out of there.

I'd have to look at my '74. Given the location it occupies in my back barn, don't expect that to happen any time soon.

Edit: If RealOEM is to be believed, the last Bavarias had the viscous fan clutch:

The upper two are shorter than the lower two due to the design of the housing. See the picture of the M30 I posted.

That's because it was superseded I believe. If I lookup the fan and clutch for my '72 Bav (built in Feb 72), it also shows this same part. It doesn't relate to the originally provided part though. Somewhere I have orange BMW parts books from the late 70's for the Bav that would show the real story I think.

I still think they should have at least included oil capacity in their spec chart. Why include fuel capacity? A guy who can afford a $100k car is not going to care about the fuel cost. Just kidding...

Judging from the owners manual for an 07 550i, the oil capacity of the N62 appears to be classified as well. A quick call to my local Indy shop revealed the nasty little secret.

I plan on posting it to WikiLeaks soon.

Just as somewhere I have a 100k mile '74 Bavaria sitting in a barn with its original fan. Eventually, one of us will get around to checking.

Lovin' the previous two posts. "If you gotta ask how much it holds, you can't afford it."

So that's why I hear the term "BMW snobs." It clearly fits the company now. I'm equally surprised that nobody suggested that "if you want to know how much oil it takes, maybe you should buy a Ford." Just kidding.