BMW B58 Engine Oil Recommendation

[AspektZA]

Right, meant more in terms of low(er) quality fuel in combination with a tune that would affect fueling/timing.

Lower Saps seems like a better choice overall given the current ULSG standard and comparative qualities of VW502/LL-01 vs VW504/LL-04/17/22

 

[chris719]

Right, meant more in terms of low(er) quality fuel in combination with a tune that would affect fueling/timing.

Lower Saps seems like a better choice overall given the current ULSG standard and comparative qualities of VW502/LL-01 vs VW504/LL-04/17/22

If you look at the Porsche M1 ESP X3, upcoming GT car oil, and the Corvette Z06 Supercar 5W-50 oil you’ll see they are all at the upper limit of C3 SAPS or higher for the Supercar. I don’t think there’s an issue with low/mid SAPS but it certainly seems like a decent level of ZDDP is preferable if you don’t have a GPF to protect.

 

[svenson]

It has a stronger additive pack and can retain enough additives longer. However, that is not per se issue if ULSG is used. It could under certain circumstances make difference (a lot of short trips, stop and go), but generally it is non issue in the US since 2017.

Right, meant more in terms of low(er) quality fuel in combination with a tune that would affect fueling/timing.

Lower Saps seems like a better choice overall given the current ULSG standard and comparative qualities of VW502/LL-01 vs VW504/LL-04/17/22

well,i do a lot of short trips lately,kids drop at school,shopping,short trips for work,not in traffic,suburbs mostly but no more than 3-5 miles everyday.
and fuel where i am now ,is of low quality.

 

[edyvw]

well,i do a lot of short trips lately,kids drop at school,shopping,short trips for work,not in traffic,suburbs mostly but no more than 3-5 miles everyday.
and fuel where i am now ,is of low quality.

Do you ever reach oil operating temperature?

 

[svenson]

yes within 5-6 miles..i dont have an oil temp indicator..according to bmw tis i reach oil operating temp when i can see the bar fulled in my digital oil quantity indicator..so, measuring all the time , this is the distance that my oil quantity indicator fulled bar shows up..

 

[makeitbetter]

First, a big thank you to everyone for all of the commentary and recommendations in this thread regarding recs for the B58. This discussion has helped me elevate my knowledge of engine oils and, more specifically, options for oils that best suits the B58.

Reading through this thread, it sounds like there have been numerous updates to the TIS list for approval ratings, in some cases "removing LL-01" approvals for the B58.

In my case, I was interested in a Motul oil that was LL-01 approved (seems this is the best oil approval for overall protection?) but wanted to ensure that the B58B30M1 (2nd TU version of B58) was still approved for LL-01 oils as the car is still under warranty. Curious if anyone has seen an updated TIS report? If that is the case, I'd likely opt for the 5w40 X-cess gen2, unless there's a good reason to go with something else and I'd prefer something available at FCP Euro. Current driving is a large combination of hard city driving (San Francisco, many hills/high engine load early in the warm up cycle, unfortunately) and highway.

I'll be posting the UOA of the original dealer supplied 0w20 once I change the oil! Cheers, Mark.

 

[edyvw]

First, a big thank you to everyone for all of the commentary and recommendations in this thread regarding recs for the B58. This discussion has helped me elevate my knowledge of engine oils and, more specifically, options for oils that best suits the B58.

Reading through this thread, it sounds like there have been numerous updates to the TIS list for approval ratings, in some cases "removing LL-01" approvals for the B58.

In my case, I was interested in a Motul oil that was LL-01 approved (seems this is the best oil approval for overall protection?) but wanted to ensure that the B58B30M1 (2nd TU version of B58) was still approved for LL-01 oils as the car is still under warranty. Curious if anyone has seen an updated TIS report? If that is the case, I'd likely opt for the 5w40 X-cess gen2, unless there's a good reason to go with something else and I'd prefer something available at FCP Euro. Current driving is a large combination of hard city driving (San Francisco, many hills/high engine load early in the warm up cycle, unfortunately) and highway.

I'll be posting the UOA of the original dealer supplied 0w20 once I change the oil! Cheers, Mark.

Castrol Edge 0W30. Not available on FCP though.

 

[makeitbetter]

@edyvw Unfortunately. I used to run the Castrol Edge in my e39 540i although things seemed to get noisier with that oil...

Under warranty, would you recommend the Motul 5W40 for my driving conditions or opt for one of the LL-04 options like the 5w30 X-Clean+? I guess I don't understand how to determine if the HTHS is high enough and the viscosity low enough to find the right balance...

 

[edyvw]

@edyvw Unfortunately. I used to run the Castrol Edge in my e39 540i although things seemed to get noisier with that oil...

Under warranty, would you recommend the Motul 5W40 for my driving conditions or opt for one of the LL-04 options like the 5w30 X-Clean+? I guess I'm still caught up in the grade vs viscosity but I feel like I understand HTHS, just not how viscosity and HTHS are related...

Not sure why it got noisier as that was always exceptionally smooth running oil in all my engines.
If you are under warranty, I would stick to LL01FE. Motul has new 0W30 LL01FE or you could just run BMW TPT 0W30. If you don’t want LL01FE go LL01 not LL04 while under warranty. Although LL04 is thicker LL17FE, BMW for whatever reason wants LL01FE oils if going thicker.
If you go LL01, Motul X-Cess 5W40 GEN2, Pennzoil Platinum Euro 5W40, Mobil1 0W40, all good options.

 

[kschachn]

Under warranty, would you recommend the Motul 5W40 for my driving conditions or opt for one of the LL-04 options like the 5w30 X-Clean+? I guess I don't understand how to determine if the HTHS is high enough and the viscosity low enough to find the right balance...

Viscosity low enough for what? What does it need to be low enough to balance with?

 

[Spedestrian]

First, a big thank you to everyone for all of the commentary and recommendations in this thread regarding recs for the B58. This discussion has helped me elevate my knowledge of engine oils and, more specifically, options for oils that best suits the B58.

Reading through this thread, it sounds like there have been numerous updates to the TIS list for approval ratings, in some cases "removing LL-01" approvals for the B58.

In my case, I was interested in a Motul oil that was LL-01 approved (seems this is the best oil approval for overall protection?) but wanted to ensure that the B58B30M1 (2nd TU version of B58) was still approved for LL-01 oils as the car is still under warranty. Curious if anyone has seen an updated TIS report? If that is the case, I'd likely opt for the 5w40 X-cess gen2, unless there's a good reason to go with something else and I'd prefer something available at FCP Euro. Current driving is a large combination of hard city driving (San Francisco, many hills/high engine load early in the warm up cycle, unfortunately) and highway.

I'll be posting the UOA of the original dealer supplied 0w20 once I change the oil! Cheers, Mark.

Fcp has BMW TPT 0w-30 and motul excess gen2 5w-40. I have 2 UOAs from my gen 1 b58 posted if you wanted to check them out.

 

[makeitbetter]

Not sure why it got noisier as that was always exceptionally smooth running oil in all my engines.
If you are under warranty, I would stick to LL01FE. Motul has new 0W30 LL01FE or you could just run BMW TPT 0W30. If you don’t want LL01FE go LL01 not LL04 while under warranty. Although LL04 is thicker LL17FE, BMW for whatever reason wants LL01FE oils if going thicker.
If you go LL01, Motul X-Cess 5W40 GEN2, Pennzoil Platinum Euro 5W40, Mobil1 0W40, all good options.

Not sure either, I am pretty sure it was the Euro formula, but at idle it was certainly louder...

Viscosity low enough for what? What does it need to be low enough to balance with?

From what I've read, higher HTHS means higher drag on engine parts, reducing efficiency. It makes sense to me to find a balance of the lowest viscosity oil with the best HTHS characteristics. I'm learning though, so if this isn't right, please correct me.

Fcp has BMW TPT 0w-30 and motul excess gen2 5w-40. I have 2 UOAs from my gen 1 b58 posted if you wanted to check them out.

Thank you, will check them out! Cheers.

 

[kschachn]

From what I've read, higher HTHS means higher drag on engine parts, reducing efficiency. It makes sense to me to find a balance of the lowest viscosity oil with the best HTHS characteristics. I'm learning though, so if this isn't right, please correct me.

Only if a truly tiny fuel economy increase is your singular goal. That's the only benefit to lower HT/HS oils. Given the multitude of other variables in everyday driving you'll never see any difference within an approval requirement.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

If you don't actually need a 0w, the 5w versions of LL-01FE oil from LiquiMoly and Motul are both quite good options. LM is SpecialTec B Fe and Motul is Specific ll-01FE. They both have KV40 around 63, KV100 around 10.6 and HTHS about 3.3-3.4. They are as close to LL-01 as you'll find while using a warranty approved spec.

 

[kschachn]

If you don't actually need a 0w, the 5w versions of LL-01FE oil from LiquiMoly and Motul are both quite good options. LM is SpecialTec B Fe and Motul is Specific ll-01FE. They both have KV40 around 63, KV100 around 10.6 and HTHS about 3.3-3.4. They are as close to LL-01 as you'll find while using a warranty approved spec.

The engine is tuned and the OP stated he has no warranty concerns.

 

[chris719]

If you don't actually need a 0w, the 5w versions of LL-01FE oil from LiquiMoly and Motul are both quite good options. LM is SpecialTec B Fe and Motul is Specific ll-01FE. They both have KV40 around 63, KV100 around 10.6 and HTHS about 3.3-3.4. They are as close to LL-01 as you'll find while using a warranty approved spec.

I’m not a big LSPI worrier, but that Motul Specific is not what I’d run in a B58. Huge calcium in VOA. B58 seems a little more prone to LSPI than N55 and there are a couple suspected reports of it on forums. Rare, but I’d rather just run a SP compatible package as BMW has switched to SP-like levels of calcium and magnesium on their oils.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

I’m not a big LSPI worrier, but that Motul Specific is not what I’d run in a B58. Huge calcium in VOA. B58 seems a little more prone to LSPI than N55 and there are a couple suspected reports of it on forums. Rare, but I’d rather just run a SP compatible package as BMW has switched to SP-like levels of calcium and magnesium on their oils.

Only SP LL-01FE is the dealer stuff, and both the oils I mentioned in 0w30, but the latter are harder to find and also more expensive than the 5w versions. The VOA on the BMW 0w30 SP looks really weak, unfortunately, otherwise I would typically agree with you.

Edit - It seems to me that SP LL-01FE isn't all that far off LL-12. They should just start allowing LL-04/12 in North America.

 

[chris719]

Only SP LL-01FE is the dealer stuff, and both the oils I mentioned in 0w30, but the latter are harder to find and also more expensive than the 5w versions. The VOA on the BMW 0w30 SP looks really weak, unfortunately, otherwise I would typically agree with you.

Edit - It seems to me that SP LL-01FE isn't all that far off LL-12. They should just start allowing LL-04/12 in North America.

Yeah, I think avoiding FE is the best option right now.

 

[edyvw]

I’m not a big LSPI worrier, but that Motul Specific is not what I’d run in a B58. Huge calcium in VOA. B58 seems a little more prone to LSPI than N55 and there are a couple suspected reports of it on forums. Rare, but I’d rather just run a SP compatible package as BMW has switched to SP-like levels of calcium and magnesium on their oils.

Those LSPI reports are tuned B58’s as far as I saw.

 

[chris719]

Those LSPI reports are tuned B58’s as far as I saw.

Yeah they were. With so many good SP choices now I would just run one of Motul XCess/XClean, PP Euro, M1 FS, ESP 5W-30, etc.