Originally Posted By: KenO
Originally Posted By: Jim 5
Originally Posted By: docvb
Am I the only that does not like the BMW synth oil? Although everyone says the same thing, " this is good, this is a sleeper, the stuff is robust...."
Have you ever seen the stuff?
It has a red-like tint (yes, it stains) that is obviously cosmetic (and therefore distrusted) and is very jell-like, most unlike any other synthetic oil I've ever had experience with. It is certainly unlike any 5W-30 oil and quite unlike GC.
And then there's the sludge issue. You figure that most of the sludged cars were running the synthetic bmw lube.
And then there's the cost issue. The stuff is cheaper at a BMW DEALERSHIP than real synthetics at WALMART. This suggests to me that the actual product value is 40 cents a quart to the BMW stealership. No way this is a quality product.
Anyone else with these same suspicions?
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Have I ever seen it? Sure...seen it, used it, UOA'd it, had UOA results analysed by a well respected professional. You... "it looks very gel-like".
Apart from that observation, I'm not sure what you're basing your suspicions upon, but that's the problem with suspicions. My statements are based upon reviews of UOA's on this site (using the search function, you can too), my UOA's, and Terry Dyson's comments on my UOAs.
BMW Synthetic is known to be Castrol Softec TXT 5w-30, which is not a cheap oil. It is not marketed outside BMW dealerships in North America. If you were going to buy it in Europe, you'd likely pay well over $20/L.
Also, I'm not sure why it would be suggested that BMW would recommend and bottle its own oil if it didn't meet its own LL-01 spec. However, if you have any doubt, here is the product specification on Softec TXT:
http://www.castrol.com/liveassets/bp_int...1_B1567_02.pdf.
Finally, the sludged bmw's I'm aware of missed a few oil changes. Missing a few oil changes in this context means they went close to 50k miles on one fill of oil.
I choose GC because its about the same price as BMW dealership oil, and its cold properties are better. I don't think you'd see much difference in UOA's even at 10k miles between the two. I would say the same thing between GC and RTS 5w-40....again, based on UOA's.
http://www.performingimports.com/maint.htm
Take a look at the pictures to the right. I'm familiar with that shop personally, The owner is an automotive engineer, came here from Germany, and was formerly an employee of Mercedes Benz in Germany. The majority of these engines sludge with the BMW oil taken to the SI light recommendation. Unfortunately, it's not very consistent, some engines do, some simply don't. I think it also has to do with the way the vehicle is driven as well. These engines like being driven hard, it's what they were designed for.
Very true about the driving characteristic. I have a feeling a good deal of the sludged up engines that aren't very high in miles are simply from people putting around town never going over 3k rpms!
