1996 BMW M3 (3.2L), BMW 5w-30 and GC, 6500 miles

[d00df00d]

This is my first UOA after taking ownership of the car with about 116.5k miles on the odo. The car started this OCI with a full sump of BMW High Performance Synthetic 5w-30 and a Mahle filter. It ate about a quart every 1200 miles, and was topped off with gold GC, then Mobil 1 0w-40, then green GC, then gold GC, and then green GC again (don't ask).

The car is stock in all the ways that matter in a UOA. The filter was replaced 500 miles into the UOA with a fresh BMW filter. I used nothing but BP, Sunoco, and Shell fuel (mostly Shell) from gas stations that receive daily shipments.

The service was a little over 6500 fairly hard miles over about 3.5 months -- gentle warmups, but WOT, redline, and brisk traffic light takeoffs daily. Mostly highway (sometimes congested), a good amount of city and suburban driving, and no seriously long trips.

One point of interest is that, for the first thousand miles or so, the fan clutch was on its way out, the auxilliary fan didn't work, and the coolant was often low due to a leak. So, there were a few incidents where the coolant temperature gauge needle crept up past the midpoint, a couple of times touching the red zone. As anyone who owns one of these cars knows, that's doubly serious because the coolant temp gauge is buffered and won't move past the middle unless it's well past the absolute top of the normal operating range.

Analysis was done by Oil Analyzers.


Iron........14

Chromium.....0

Lead........4

Copper.......3

Tin..........0

Aluminum....6

Nickel.......0

Silver.......0

Silicon.....13

Boron.......49

Sodium......5

Magnesium......187

Calcium......2738

Barium.......0

Phosphorus....1039

Zinc.......1213

Molybdenum...104

Titanium.....0

Vanadium.....0

Potassium....0


VIS @ 100 C.....11.66 cSt

TBN..........5.19



What do you think, BITOGers?

 

[sky jumper]

did you add 5 full quarts of make-up oil? what is the sump capacity (8-9 quarts, I assume).

with all the make up oil it's hard to draw any conclusions, but with an 8qt sump, 5qts make up, and only 6500 miles I'd say your wear is a bit high. but you drive it hard, so that's to be expected.

 

[Camu Mahubah]

You speak of a coolant leak...details?

 

[d00df00d]

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did you add 5 full quarts of make-up oil? what is the sump capacity (8-9 quarts, I assume).

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Yes, 5 full quarts of make-up oil. Sump capacity is 7 quarts.

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You speak of a coolant leak...details?

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There was a hose right at the back of the engine that had backed off of the fitting a little and allowed coolant to seep out.

 

[Camu Mahubah]

Well at least coolant wasn't getting into oil...I do so love the M3 from the nineties...I would actually prefer it to the next model...the model you drive was my first dream car! Well Testarossa came first...Anyways The BMW 5w30 is made by Castrol????

 

[addyguy]

With that much top up, resulting in that much TBN being left, you could have easily gone to 10K on that fill....

BTW - nice car! I remeber C&D doing a long term test of a 1995(?) version of one of these cars, and just gushing over it constantly...then the same thing about 5 years later....even though both cars chugged oil just the way yours does!

 

[d00df00d]

Quote:

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Well at least coolant wasn't getting into oil...I do so love the M3 from the nineties...I would actually prefer it to the next model...the model you drive was my first dream car! Well Testarossa came first...Anyways The BMW 5w30 is made by Castrol????

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Yeah, it's a fun car. A bit cold and mostly soulless, perhaps, but it's a very "just-right" machine, and definitely more involving than the newer ones (although clearly not as fast!). If you can find one that's had a decent life, it's also very reliable. I tend to think that if it were 200 lbs lighter and optimized by BMW as such, it'd be just about perfect.

BMW High Performance Synthetic 5w-30 is essentially Castrol TXT in disguise (in the same way that GC is one of the Castrol SLX oils). AFAIK there have been a few blends of TXT over the years and I'm not sure whether this is just one of them or if it's a specially tweaked formula, but there it is.

 

[d00df00d]

Quote:

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With that much top up, resulting in that much TBN being left, you could have easily gone to 10K on that fill....

BTW - nice car! I remeber C&D doing a long term test of a 1995(?) version of one of these cars, and just gushing over it constantly...then the same thing about 5 years later....even though both cars chugged oil just the way yours does!

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You know, I always said that the car doesn't really have a soul or anything endearing about it (although the engineers certainly did). But the oil consumption is just one of the little, seemingly inocuous things that are making me think that the ownership experience just might be charmed enough to qualify...

I will pull a sample from my current full at 6500 miles for comparison. If it turns out as I expect, I will probably run considerably longer before the next change.

 

[gtx510]

No one thinks this M3 is using too much oil?
Could it be the oil separator valve?
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=98345 Oil Seperator: cost to replace

And didn't BMW rec'd a 40wt oil for warmer temps?

 

[ssj4]

I dont't know if this means anything.

but I burned 1qt per 1800 miles with GC, which would translate into 3.61 quarts in your interval (approximately a 38% increase in consumption). Although, I stll believe you are within spec, as these cars are known to consume oil.

Using Lubro Moly 5W-40, I'm looking at 1qt per 3000miles. Of course the UOA will give more insight.

 

[windnsea00]

I'm using Chevron Delo 15w40 in my S52 (`96 engine w/ 110k miles in a `89 325is). Runs smooth and doesn't drink much