Mobil 1 Peak Life 5W-50, BMW E39 540iA, 27262 km

[Pinky]

Dear All,

Please find below the results of the latest and the previous (Mobil 1 Peak Life 5W-50, BMW E39 540iA, 22081 km) oil analyses for my BMW.

During this oil change interval I again used 100 % E85 fuel with a modified ECU mapping. Unfortunately, I missed to change the oil prior to maximum usage of 20000 km.

There are some values that are worrying me though:

• First of all there is the high water content. Since the IR-Glykol test is negative, I assume the water entry is caused by the combustion process or the fuel itself. There is a separate test available measuring the ethanol content which is unfortunately not included in the basic oil analysis.
• Secondly, the wear values of lead and copper did not increase linearily with the oil usage time as it is the case for iron. I assume this might be due to increased wear of some component in the engine?!
• Next, the viskosity values are substantially lower than the ones before. Although I tried to compensate this aspect by adding the Liqui Moly Visco-Stabil additive, I assume the low values are due to the high oil usage time?!
• The base number (BN) is low again - may be caused by the high nitration value?!

For the current oil change interval I will definitly not exceed 15000 to 20000 km.

What are your opinions?

Philipp

Code:


REPORT #4:

Subject : Mobil 1 Peak Life 5W-50, BMW E39 540iA, 27262 km (oil), 127155 km (total)

Machine : M62B44TU (E39 540iA, YoC 2002)

Oil : Mobil 1 Peak Life 5W-50

Additive : Wynn's Oil Stop Leak (as sealant maintenance)

Additive : Liqui Moly Visco-Stabil (VI improver) (added several times over oil usage, 1 liter in total)

Oil Usage : 10.5 month

Comments : [of the engineer performing the analyses]

The wear values of iron and aluminum are higher than expected, but not yet critical. Possible

components affected are pistons (Fe) and cylinders (Al). Lead and copper are possibly increased

due to wear of bearings.

The water content is higher than normal. Possible causes: condensate formation due to short-time

duty, leakage of the coolant circuit.

The additivation deviates from the fresh oil reference in our database. This can most probably

be traced back to the addition of additives.

The nitration value (NOx) is considerably increased. Possible causes: increased blow-by, mostly

caused by poor combustion, insufficient sealing between pistons and cylinder walls or valve

problems. The gasoline quality or a non-optimal engine configuration may also have an influence.

Increased sludge formation may be the consequence.

The base number BN is considerably lower than expected.



REPORT #4 #3 #2 #1

CURRENT PREVIOUS PREVIOUS PREVIOUS



WEAR

Iron Fe mg/kg 38 27 17 15

Chromium Cr mg/kg 1 0 0 1

Tin Sn mg/kg 1 0 0 2

Aluminium Al mg/kg 12 6 3 3

Nickel Ni mg/kg 0 0 0 0

Copper Cu mg/kg 23 16 13 6

Lead Pb mg/kg 9 4 3 3

Manganese Mn mg/kg 2 1 - 1

PQ-Index - < 25 (OK) < 25 (OK) 26 < 25 (OK)



CONTAMINATION

Silicon Si mg/kg 7 10 10 15

Potassium K mg/kg 3 3 2 1

Sodium Na mg/kg 9 6 7 0

Silver Ag mg/kg 2 1 - -

Water % 0.22 < 0.10 (OK) < 0.10 OK < 0.10 (OK)

IR-Glykol - negative negative negative negative

Fuel % < 0.30 (OK) < 0.30 (OK) < 0.30 (OK) < 0.30 (OK)



OIL CONDITION

Viscosity @ 40°C mm²/s 95.68 111.26 110.95 80.50

Viscosity @ 100°C mm²/s 14.57 17.12 16.90 13.43

Viscosity Index - 158 169 166 170

Oxidation A/cm 9 9 11 18

Nitration A/cm 25 16 9 8

Sulfation A/cm 5 6 5 9

Dispersing Power % 97 95 97 92

Carbon-Particulate Index - < 0.1 (OK) - - -



ADDITIVES

Calzium Ca mg/kg 2291 2475 2703 2179

Magnesium Mg mg/kg 444 134 94 249

Boron B mg/kg 12 16 34 32

Zinc Zn mg/kg 939 938 1072 1009

Phosphorus P mg/kg 695 666 821 826

Barium Ba mg/kg 0 0 0 0

Molybdenum Mo mg/kg 63 60 61 2

Sulfur S mg/kg 2150 2179 2482 3420



ADDITIONAL TESTS

BN mgKOH/g 6.39 6.50 8.00 7.27



REPORT #3:

Subject : Mobil 1 Peak Life 5W-50, BMW E39 540iA, 22081 km (oil), 99893 km (total)

Machine : M62B44TU (E39 540iA, YoC 2002)

Oil : Mobil 1 Peak Life 5W-50

Additive : Wynn's Oil Stop Leak (as sealant maintenance)

Additive : Liqui Moly Visco-Stabil (VI improver) (added several times over oil usage, 1 liter in total)

Oil Usage : 6 month

Comments : [of the engineer performing the analyses]

The values of wear increased only slightly. This minimal wear is within normal range.

The nitration value (NOx) is increased. Possible causes: increased blow-by,

mostly caused by poor combustion, insufficient sealing between pistons and

cylinder walls or valve problems. The gasoline quality or a non-optimal

engine configuration may also have an influence.

The base number BN is considerably lower than expected.



REPORT #2:

Subject : Mobil 1 Peak Life 5W-50, BMW E39 540iA, 17762 km (oil), 77812 km (total)

Machine : M62B44TU (E39 540iA, YoC 2002)

Oil : Mobil 1 Peak Life 5W-50

Additive : Wynn's Oil Stop Leak (as sealant maintenance)

Additive : Liqui Moly Visco-Stabil (VI improver) (added after 12500 km usage)

Oil Usage : 4 month

Comments : [of the engineer performing the analyses]

The values of wear are within normal range.

The base number BN is slightly lower compared to the fresh oil reference.

All other values are within normal or expected range.



REPORT #1:

Subject : LM Top Tec 5W-40, BMW E39 540iA, 7200 km (oil), 60050 km (total)

Machine : M62B44TU (E39 540iA, YoC 2002)

Oil : Liqui Moly Top Tec 4100 5W-40

Additive : Wynn's Oil Stop Leak (as sealant maintenance)

Oil Usage : 5 month

Comments : [of the engineer performing the analyses]

The values of wear metals have risen only slightly.

This low wear is within the normal range.

The values of additives differ from the values of the fresh oil reference in our database.

The fuel content is negligible and is below the detection limit.

 

[Falken]

The report looks good to me, maybe I am missing something?

Ethanol doesn't lubricate and attracts moisture and causes rust.

I'd be ecstatic with this report!

 

[Quattro Pete]

Quote:
The base number BN is considerably lower than expected.

Huh? What were they expecting it to be? I think TBN of 6+ after 27K km is pretty darn good.

Thank you for sharing these reports.

Do you tend to change the oil when the car tells you or do you follow some other schedule?

 

[Pinky]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Quote:
The base number BN is considerably lower than expected.

Do you tend to change the oil when the car tells you or do you follow some other schedule?

Actually, I am completely ignoring the car's oil service information since I am trying to gather this information by myself using the oil analysis?! If I am not mistaken, the car's service information wanted me to change the oil somewhere between 10000 and 15000 km.
Based on the current and the previous oil analysis I try to follow the rule of changing the oil within 20000 km?!

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Pinky
If I am not mistaken, the car's service information wanted me to change the oil somewhere between 10000 and 15000 km.

Interesting. I guess the oil change reminder in my e39 is calculated differently. Mine wants me to change oil after it burns through 2375 liters of fuel. With the way I drive, this would be around 24,000 km. I typically don't wait this long. I end up changing it once a year due to not driving much and frequent short trips. I took it up to 16 months once, and did not like the UOA results that I saw, so I backed down to once a year.

 

[vinu_neuro]

Did you add any oil during this interval? That Base Number seems way too high for such a long interval without any oil being topped off. What is this lab's 'normal' range?!

When did you switch to E85? Surely the E85 is contributing to your high water reading. I have read elsewhere of nitration being elevated with E85 as well. If the Acid Number had been measured I'd bet that would be elevated due to the nitration + water. Maybe the tune should be checked as well.

You should reconsider doing extended intervals while using E85.

 

[CATERHAM]

Considering the 27,262 kms OCI the UOA looks pretty good to me.
The TBN of 6.39 if correct is remarkably high.

You didn't mention the volume of the additives you added or when you added them but the final KV100 of 14.57cst is not much higher than is typical for the grade.
You also haven't mentioned how you drive the car?
Does it see much high speed autobahn use? What are your maximum oil temp's?

 

[Pinky]

Hi!

Sorry, I forgot to reference the previous oil analysis:
Mobil 1 Peak Life 5W-50, BMW E39 540iA, 22081 km
Mobil 1 Peak Life 5W-50, BMW E39 540iA, 17762 km
LM Top Tec 5W-40, BMW E39 540iA, 7200 km

This time I added 3 times 325 ml Wynn's Engine Oil Stop Leak as sealant maintenance and 1000 ml Liqui Moly Visco-Stabil to stabilize the high temperature viscosity. However, I did not add any oil.

My driving habits remain the same: The engine is always warmed up thouroughly. Until the engine coolant temperature reaches its maximum, I will limit the engine load to a minimum and the engine speed to 2000 rpm. When warmed up, I wait some further minutes/kilometers to let the oil temperature settle. After this procedure, the engine is basically operated at full throttle

Most of the time (roughly 50 to 60 %) I am driving on (unrestricted) motorways (which basically means 200+ kph where possible) ...
Unfortunately, during the last 4 month I had to drive 2 times 35 kilometers per day (at lower speeds), which I assume might be one of the reasons for the high water level?!

I switched to E85 60000 km ago, if I remember correctly.

 

[OVERKILL]

A properly formulated lubricant doesn't need additives. They contain seal conditioners already. And I'm sure the merits of using a "viscosity stabilizer" could be argued as well........

 

[CATERHAM]

Pinky, you're to be commended for your careful warm-up procedure particularly with the likely heavy than necessary oil that you're using.
You made reference to waiting for your oil temp's to stabilize. What temperature is that and what are your maximum oil temp's after a long 200+ km/h run?

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: Pinky
Hi!

Sorry, I forgot to reference the previous oil analysis:
Mobil 1 Peak Life 5W-50, BMW E39 540iA, 22081 km
Mobil 1 Peak Life 5W-50, BMW E39 540iA, 17762 km
LM Top Tec 5W-40, BMW E39 540iA, 7200 km

This time I added 3 times 325 ml Wynn's Engine Oil Stop Leak as sealant maintenance and 1000 ml Liqui Moly Visco-Stabil to stabilize the high temperature viscosity. However, I did not add any oil.

My driving habits remain the same: The engine is always warmed up thouroughly. Until the engine coolant temperature reaches its maximum, I will limit the engine load to a minimum and the engine speed to 2000 rpm. When warmed up, I wait some further minutes/kilometers to let the oil temperature settle. After this procedure, the engine is basically operated at full throttle

Most of the time (roughly 50 to 60 %) I am driving on (unrestricted) motorways (which basically means 200+ kph where possible) ...
Unfortunately, during the last 4 month I had to drive 2 times 35 kilometers per day (at lower speeds), which I assume might be one of the reasons for the high water level?!

I switched to E85 60000 km ago, if I remember correctly.



If you can acquire liqui-moly products I suggest the motor oil saver instead of the wynn's stop leak.
Motor oil saver is an ester and loaded with boron,both are beneficial however if these additives are being used to treat a bad gasket I suggest fixing the gasket before adding any additives.
If gasket replacement isn't an option right now then use the liqui-moly stuff.
Should help with viscosity stabilization as well on those pedal to the metal drives.

 

[vinu_neuro]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
A properly formulated lubricant doesn't need additives.


+1

 

[Pinky]

Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
You made reference to waiting for your oil temp's to stabilize. What temperature is that and what are your maximum oil temp's after a long 200+ km/h run?

Unfortunately, I haven't got an oil temperature gauge, yet. The sensor is already in place but not yet connected?! The time I wait additionally for the engine oil to warm up is basically arbitrary at the moment.

Originally Posted By: Clevy
If you can acquire liqui-moly products I suggest the motor oil saver instead of the wynn's stop leak.
Motor oil saver is an ester and loaded with boron,both are beneficial however if these additives are being used to treat a bad gasket I suggest fixing the gasket before adding any additives.

Actually, the engine has no bad gasgets ... I am adding it simply for maintenance, to keep the sealants elastic especially with respect to the sealants of the VANOS pistons ...

 

[vinu_neuro]

If you are only going based on the water temperature gauge, the oil hasn't reached operating temp at that point.

 

[Pinky]

Originally Posted By: vinu_neuro
If you are only going based on the water temperature gauge, the oil hasn't reached operating temp at that point.

Correct! That's why I additionally wait an arbitrary amount of time (based on some kind of weird feeling) from that point on

However, the latest diagram I saw about the correlation between oil and coolant temperature showed that the oil temperature will be at the same level as the coolant after some additional minutes/km for a similar engine.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Pinky
Originally Posted By: vinu_neuro
If you are only going based on the water temperature gauge, the oil hasn't reached operating temp at that point.

Correct! That's why I additionally wait an arbitrary amount of time (based on some kind of weird feeling) from that point on

However, the latest diagram I saw about the correlation between oil and coolant temperature showed that the oil temperature will be at the same level as the coolant after some additional minutes/km for a similar engine.


I don't remember if the M62 has an oil cooler similar to the one on the S62, but my oil temperatures do not correlate well with coolant temperature when it is cold outside.

For example, yesterday, it was -8C on the way home and I decided to take a bit of a drive to see how long it would take to get oil temperature up to its summer average temperature of between 90 and 95C.

The bottom of the oil temp gauge on the M5 is 50C. Coolant temp had got up to close to the half-way mark (can't get it any higher than that in the winter unless I flog the tar out of it and then it will go to the 1/2 way point on the gauge, which is as hot as I've ever got it period) and the oil temp was about 65C.

Now the S62 has an air/oil/water cooler. That is, the oil cooler has coolant that runs through it, but it is also finned and thermostatically controlled. It is supposed to warm the oil in the winter and keep it at a steady temp in the summer:

Anyway, long story short, the hottest I was able to get the oil was about 80C. And it took forever to get it to that point, probably about 30 minutes of in-town driving. My experience with being able to keep it at that temp shows that if I take it on the highway, it immediately drops down to 75C and stays there.

If you really want to watch your oil temp, assuming the car has the sensor and just lacks the gauge, you can monitor it with software that will read the BMW specific data streams. I use AutoEnginuity, but there are a number of them out there that will work.

Here's a screenshot of mine:

You can see that oil temperature, in the summer, is higher than the coolant temp. Quite the opposite of what I'm experiencing now.

 

[CATERHAM]

OVERKILL, what you could do is wrap the sandwich plate heat exchanger with a shroud to block the air flow over it during the winter months. This may help the oil heat up at least to low normal operating temp's.
I've used aluminum sided bubble wrap insulation (RONA sells it) cut to size and taped together with aluminum tap to make various custom shroud. It works well and won't melt.
It's worth a try.

BTW I now know why you had such high fuel dilution last winter; you're oil is simply not getting up to temperature at all.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
OVERKILL, what you could do is wrap the sandwich plate heat exchanger with a shroud to block the air flow over it during the winter months. This may help the oil heat up at least to low normal operating temp's.
I've used aluminum sided bubble wrap insulation (RONA sells it) cut to size and taped together with aluminum tap to make various custom shroud. It works well and won't melt.
It's worth a try.

BTW I now know why you had such high fuel dilution last winter; you're oil is simply not getting up to temperature at all.


Yup, and being aware of that this winter, I'm trying to drive up oil temperature with more driving of the car, which I'm hoping works, but we'll see I guess. I have a UOA coming up shortly as I'm changing out the PU 5w-40 for M1 0w-40 as soon as I can.

Also, I can't physically access the oil cooler. It is in the valley of the engine, underneath the plenum/ITB assembly. Air has a good shot at it through that space behind the water pump I'd imagine (it has a large mechanical fan AND an electric fan and the mechanical fan looks like it would wash a fair deal of air through this area) but it isn't big enough to get your hands into, and there are items in the way as well (such as oil lines for the VANOS units).

I'm wondering if my thermostat is weak? Though it was fine temperature-wise all summer, always getting up to temp quickly. It has a large rad and the engine is aluminum, so its ability to shed heat is probably pretty good. Probably too good for -20C, LOL!!

 

[vinu_neuro]

What's your water temperature getting to?

 

[CATERHAM]

Yes there is quite a range of available temp's t'stats for Bimmers.
I know my maximum coolant temp's run cooler in the winter at highway speed than during the summer months. Changing the t'stat seasonally is a pain so what I've done is made a pair of black plastic grill blockers that I slip behind the kidney grill openings and clip into place. They stay there until well into April. I also block the two rad' openings in the lower bumper with two black plastic covers I've made that clip into place. They can be installed/removed in one second to adjust the coolant temp's to where I want it based on ambient temp's.

When you change the oil just fill to the min' level on the dip stick. With less oil oil circulating it will heat fast and retain more heat.
Also if any part of you aluminum sump is exposed to the air flow cover it as that is a major source of heat loss at speed.

Just some ideas to kick around. The point is you've got to find a way get your oil temp's up to at least 80C to begin to activate the AW additives, burn off condensation and fuel etc etc.