BMW 3 Series

[Bror Jace]

FowVay, yes readable ... and pretty decent.

After reading through this thread, I'm glad I don't own a BMW ... but I'm afraid more and more manufacturers are going this way: Micromanage regular service and steer as much business as possible back to the stealership.

Anyway, not a single person here has tried Red Line 5W30, 5W40, 10W30 or 10W40 in their Bimmer?

If I was looking for a shear-stable oil to go the distance, this is the goo I'd pick first.

--- Bror Jace

 

[MikeW]

Well, BMW, and the other high end europeans have a different sales model than the more mass market brands. It's much more lease-centric. By giving free scheduled maintenance at the dealer, they are insuring, or at least increasing the probability, that the car, which is still their property and which will come back to them to resell, will have had ANY maintenance performed on it. Leasees are notoriously bad about this. It's not good for a car on a 3 year / 36K Mile lease to come back with its break in oil still in the engine, which I'm sure has happened. It's also a good marketing gimmick for the automotively uneducated, who just want the car taken care of, don't want to know the details, and like not having to pay for each visit.

Now once they've done this, they have to deal with the expense issues involved. Obviously, since they (BMW Corporate) have to pay the dealers to do this, they want to do it as seldom as possible. Now, if they're going to stretch the maintenance interval out, they need good control over the supplies used, otherwise they're defeating the purpose of making sure the maintenance is being performed.
The issues pertaining to customers who buy their cars outright, and actually CARE about maintenance are secondary. If they can keep the leased cars running till the end of the CPO warrantee, they're happy. The figure the people who actually own their cars will do no worse, and, most likely will do better.

 

[JDG33]

On all BMWs made on or after MY2001, you can reset the service indicator yourself by performing a simple key/ignition switching sequence. You don't need a special tool, although if you have the tool you can still use it to reset the service indicator. The procedure is,

1 Ignition OFF (POS 0)

2 Press and Hold the trip odometer button while turning key to position 1 (ACCESSORY)

3 Keep the button depressed (about 5 secs.) until you see "Oil Service" or "Inspection" with "Reset" or "Re" in the display

4 Press the button again and hold for approx. 5 secs. until "Reset" or "Re" flashes

5 While the display is flashing, briefly press the button again to reset the Service Interval. After the display has shown the new interval you should see "END SIA" for about 2 secs. "


As far as BMW conducting "wallet inspections" after the service period expires, that's pretty much what happens for most newer cars.

 

[Jimbo]

Dr. T

Have you tried, or do you have opinions about 10W40 Syntec. It is ACEA A3 and does not have the large viscosity spread of the 5W50.

I notice, however that Valvoline Durablend and Sytnec Blend in 10W40 also carry the A3 rating.

 

[Dr. T]

Yeah, I'm sure it's good stuff too. It's just we can't get that grade of Syntec in Canada so I have no choice but to go with the 5-50. It's not all bad as winter temps in Toronto allow easy starts down to -23 C (-8F) it was on a couple occasions...

Although I'm still in infancy with respect to 50 grades (about 10 months now)...although I've used 40 grades with excellent results in the BMW before they switched to the 5-30. I will say that the BMW oils have always been noticeably better than OTC stuff...probably due to these oil's being "factory spec"....but, from what I've seen the 5-50 has held up very well if not better than the previous BMW 5-40 I used to use.

I think all the talk about wide spectrum viscosity problems with respect to VI improvers breaking down is mostly a conventional oil problem. Hence, there is no 5-10/10-50 conventional oil...but only in synthetic or syth blend...

 

[Doug Hillary]

Hi,

I have had excellent results with Mobil 1 0w-40 ( OZ spec A3/B3 ) in my MY98 Z3 2.8.
It does not consume any at all between annual/10000kms( 6000 miles ) changes. The vehicle has 30000 miles on it

I will be changing next time to Delvac 1 to standardise my oil stocks

BMW service points ( non franchised ) in OZ seems to use Mobil 1 0w-40 by choice

BMW's linkage to Castrol/BP is well known

Regards

 

[Ken2]

I was talking to a local independent foreign auto repair shop owner recently. He was telling me about the $100 BMW oil change he did for a customer recently. BMW specifies a 5W-60 oil for this model and that oil can only be bought from a dealer. The customer lives about 2-1/2 hours from the nearest dealer. The free (actually pre-paid) oil change would blow a business day for an oil change, and he would rather pay the c-note.

I was showing this show owner Schaeffer's oil specs. He looked from the specs to the price and said, "I like this!"...but, no 5W-60 for Bay-Em-Vays (that's German for BMW, folks).


Ken

[ June 06, 2003, 10:33 PM: Message edited by: Ken2 ]

 

[Dr. T]

That would be M engines..eg. M3/5 and Z8...the correct grade that you are referring to Castrol RS 10-60...and the price difference is because this oil come directly from the E.U..

As an aside, I saw AGIP Synthetic 10-60 at a local lube place yesterday that the shop told me they got because a gentleman needed it for his Lotus. Apparently, this is what his owner's manual spec'd. They charged $10 U.S./L for this stuff...