HPL No-VII Euro 5w30, 9k mi; 2015 BMW X5 N55

[TexasRally]

Previous fill for ~50k miles was Ravenol VST 5w40. The HPL was summer 2023 production.

Added about 1.5 quarts of makeup HPL plus one bottle of Redline SL-1 cleaner on this OCI.

Filter was a Royal Purple 10-969.

Lab missed my note about the product/viscosity change, so I removed their comments about viscosity appearing low to avoid confusion.

Enjoy!

 

[buster]

Did you refill with HPL? It's good to try and run same chemistry and with HPL you'll allow it to clean over consecutive drain intervals. Otherwise looks good.

 

[fantastic]

I think HPL might have higher Al amounts & could be why it's at 10 ppm. Looks like it served you well for 9k on your X5.

 

[TexasRally]

Did you refill with HPL? It's good to try and run same chemistry and with HPL you'll allow it to clean over consecutive drain intervals. Otherwise looks good.

Yes, same HPL went back in! Engine was already spotless, the Ravenol has a good slug of AN.

Switched to HPL primarily to push drain intervals out 18+ months. 15 months was clearly no issue. The time savings is worth the extra cost for the oil to me.

 

[edyvw]

Yes, same HPL went back in! Engine was already spotless, the Ravenol has a good slug of AN.

Switched to HPL primarily to push drain intervals out 18+ months. 15 months was clearly no issue. The time savings is worth the extra cost for the oil to me.

You are right on rod bearings cut off date when updated ones were introduced. I would do UOA regularly to follow wear metals.

 

[TexasRally]

You are right on rod bearings cut off date when updated ones were introduced. I would do UOA regularly to follow wear metals.

Car’s build month was after the 2015 bearing update...though I've never checked forums to see if reliability improved anecdotally. The bearings are lead free, so Tin, Silicon, Manganese, Silver, Bismuth and chromium are the ones I’m watching.

I have a new set of bearings to install when I eventually do the pan gasket. The OFHG will be done at the same time proactively, even though it's 100% dry at ~181k mi. It's factory original. Valve cover gasket was done once.

 

[edyvw]

Car’s build month was after the 2015 bearing update...though I've never checked forums to see if reliability improved anecdotally. The bearings are lead free, so Tin, Silicon, Manganese, Silver, Bismuth and chromium are the ones I’m watching.

I have a new set of bearings to install when I eventually do the pan gasket. The OFHG will be done at the same time proactively, even though it's 100% dry at ~181k mi. It's factory original. Valve cover gasket was done once.

The reason why I mentioned is that engine might be older than assembly.
But at 181k, no wear indicators of bad bearings, I would say those are updated ones.
I personally would not touch it unless metals skyrocket.
Just prime system after OFHG. I still think rod bearings primarily fail bcs. very few people prime oil system after OFHG replacement. Than they start to deteriorate slowly (besides issues on track with modified cars).

 

[TexasRally]

The reason why I mentioned is that engine might be older than assembly.
But at 181k, no wear indicators of bad bearings, I would say those are updated ones.
I personally would not touch it unless metals skyrocket.
Just prime system after OFHG. I still think rod bearings primarily fail bcs. very few people prime oil system after OFHG replacement. Than they start to deteriorate slowly (besides issues on track with modified cars).

That’s a great callout, have never looked at the engine sticker in back to figure out when it was built.

And yes, definitely will prime it several times!