BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

Just been pondering as its service time for my RTLE  , is it worth changing the oil/filter in between services yourself or just sticking to the bikes service schedule ?

Just do whatever makes you happy.

If you're "feeling flush", more frequent oil & filter changes can only be of benefit to the longevity of an engine, particularly if you've owned the vehicle from new & intend to keep it for a long time.

On my 2007 Hexhead RT which used 20W-50 mineral oil at £5 per litre, I changed the oil & filter every 3,000 miles.

On my 2010 & 2012 Camhead RT's, I've stuck to the 12 months or 6,000 miles service intervals. The reason being that the oil was originally fully synthetic, now semi-synthetic and cost significantly more than mineral oil.

For the cost of the BMW oil & filter, you could purchase twice as much oil & two filters elsewhere. Then either DIY or get a local independent to do it for half of the BMW hourly labour rate.

Can't see the point of changing the oil more frequently than the manufacturer recommends. The quality of modern oils and filters must be up to a 6000 mile or 12 month interval.


Changing it more regularly is not exactly friendly to the environment either.

MikeS wrote: Can't see the point of changing the oil more frequently than the manufacturer recommends. The quality of modern oils and filters must be up to a 6000 mile or 12 month interval.


Changing it more regularly is not exactly friendly to the environment either.

When I got my bike from new I did an intermediate change at 3000 miles and then every 6000 miles as service schedule. If used regularly then I think every 6000 miles is fine. However if you are storing the bike in Winter then I would change the oil before storage.


More important then intermediate  engine oil changes is final drive oil. BMW specify every 12k I change mine with engine oil change at 6k. The final drive only takes 180 ml of oil and it seems to me it has a hard life, so for longevity I change mine more often than schedule. So far this has served me well as with 50K on the bike all is good.


Always replace oil filter with every oil change.


Another consideration regards engine oil change interval is how hard you work the engine and possibly the environment you are riding in.


Me Im pretty gentle these days so I'm not thrashing the bike up and down autobahns at high speed or conversely not doing a lot of stop start city riding in traffic, so feel 6k intervals are fine for me.

I don't ride enough to need to change the oil over the summer so I just change the oil and filter when I put the bike away for the winter.  I pay no attention to the bike's scheduled service for that, just let the dealer adjust the valves and that's pretty much it.