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Hey Gil,
Hope all is well with you! Been a while my friend. So I finally made a decision and was lucky to get onto a 2018 M2 with 2900 miles owned by an OCD 70 year old accountant! Even had the performance exhaust a clear bra and a manual transmission. It’s a real fun car but I’m curious if there is anything different I need to do with an M than any other late model BMW? I’ve been told something about the carbon build up issue that I want to run past you. I was told that if you drive the car in a manner that “floats the valves” in other words revving the engine to red line at least a few times after it’s warmed up properly will keep the carbon from building up on the back of the intake valves which would negate the need to worry about the engine needing to be walnut shell blasted at some future point around 70k miles. That this is the reason that many who never rev their engines up to red line have a carbon build up issue. Is there anything to that?
Thanks Gil, appreciate your info a great deal – you’re the best,
Tim ( please call me Tim ) appreciate you…
Answer
Hello Tim, it is nice to hear from you, congratulations on the new car. As far as the carbon build up issue it is the same for all direct injection cars, regardless of make or model. The issue comes from a design flaw and as such there is no avoiding it. Driving it at high RPM will not make a difference. The source of the carbon is oil rather than fuel as it is with older non direct injection engines (sequential injection). There are products and services that will clean it, however, unless it is approved by BMW I would not recommend it because it can void your warranty. The main thing you can do to help minimize it is to have the oil changed every 5000 miles or 6 months. Enjoy the new ride, hope to see you soon.
Gil Neves
Thanks Gil, I was hoping for a different answer but I’m sure you’ve given me the technically correct one. I do change my oil twice a year regardless of mileage as I don’t drive it much more than 5k miles a year.
Now that you mentioned it – it doesn’t hurt the car to change it say in 2500 miles does it? Would you say that’s a waist of money?
Thanks as always my friend – you are a super resource for our chapter!
Tim ( thanks for calling me Tim btw )