Hello to all. This is my first post, and I have enjoyed reading many of the posts on this excellent forum.
I recently bought a used 2003 BMW 330ci (3.0L inline 6). I discovered right after the purchase that the original owner followed the oil change inverval based on the onboard computer.
This means that the oil was changed every 12K miles with BMW Castrol Full Synthetic 5w-30.
With 3k miles on the oil, the dipstick shows a pretty dark oil...and the oil cap has some residue.
I want to do an AutoRX treatment and understand that the cleaning phase should be done with dino oil. A have a few concerns about this, mostly concentrating on the use of dino oil in an engine that specifies full synthetic:
1. BMW specifies a full synthetic for this car. Presumably this is so that the BMW oil can (questionably) last the full 12k miles OCI prescribed by the car's computer. This may be a stupid question, but assuming no overheating, will dino oil lubricate as well as synthetic, provided that the dino oil only goes the 2k miles for the rinse phase?
2. I drive this BMW only about 5K miles per year. Some of this is in -20 Celcius weather. Will a decent dino oil of the same grade as BMW synthetic provide equivalent cold weather protection? ..I anticipate my rinse phase will stretch into the winter months.
2. Another stupid question. My goal here is to clean out the engine given the really long OCI's this BMW has experienced. My wife's 03 Acura (bought new) has had Mobil 1 oil changes at every 3k miles (I know it's too often, but I negotiated 12 free oil changes when I bought the car...to preserve warranty I had them use these intervals and I provided the M1)...after 2k miles, the oil still looks like apple juice on the dipstick...really clean. Can I expect an engine this clean on my BMW after an ARX treatment?
My apologies if these are stupid questions, but I'm just a little freaked out by the fact that the previous owner went 12k OCI's on my new baby.
Anyone's thoughts would be very much appreciated!
I recently bought a used 2003 BMW 330ci (3.0L inline 6). I discovered right after the purchase that the original owner followed the oil change inverval based on the onboard computer.
This means that the oil was changed every 12K miles with BMW Castrol Full Synthetic 5w-30.
With 3k miles on the oil, the dipstick shows a pretty dark oil...and the oil cap has some residue.
I want to do an AutoRX treatment and understand that the cleaning phase should be done with dino oil. A have a few concerns about this, mostly concentrating on the use of dino oil in an engine that specifies full synthetic:
1. BMW specifies a full synthetic for this car. Presumably this is so that the BMW oil can (questionably) last the full 12k miles OCI prescribed by the car's computer. This may be a stupid question, but assuming no overheating, will dino oil lubricate as well as synthetic, provided that the dino oil only goes the 2k miles for the rinse phase?
2. I drive this BMW only about 5K miles per year. Some of this is in -20 Celcius weather. Will a decent dino oil of the same grade as BMW synthetic provide equivalent cold weather protection? ..I anticipate my rinse phase will stretch into the winter months.
2. Another stupid question. My goal here is to clean out the engine given the really long OCI's this BMW has experienced. My wife's 03 Acura (bought new) has had Mobil 1 oil changes at every 3k miles (I know it's too often, but I negotiated 12 free oil changes when I bought the car...to preserve warranty I had them use these intervals and I provided the M1)...after 2k miles, the oil still looks like apple juice on the dipstick...really clean. Can I expect an engine this clean on my BMW after an ARX treatment?
My apologies if these are stupid questions, but I'm just a little freaked out by the fact that the previous owner went 12k OCI's on my new baby.
Anyone's thoughts would be very much appreciated!