Motul 300V 5w-40, 4382 mi, 1996 BMW M3 (S52 3.2L)

[d00df00d]

Mostly highway and suburban roads, with some stop-and-go. Once it is warm I am not afraid of the gas pedal.

Oil consumption was about 1 qt/1200 miles, which is a big improvement from the previous OCIs in which part of my PCV system was gunked up.

On the day I took this sample, I also replaced my VANOS unit. It was well worn and apparently not advancing cam timing the way it should have, so the engine was running somewhat poorly until 4,000 RPM. Keep that in mind when you view the results.

Previous oils in order are:

Motul 300V 5w-40
Motul 8100 X-Cess 5w-40
Motul 8100 X-Max 5w-30

Driving style was about the same for all three previous OCIs.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

My vanos and chain guides fell apart on my 98 M roadster at 70K. BMW say why? Bad/incompatible chainguide material (polymers)? If the eingine is running bad the UOA is even more useless than usual. Hopefully all will be well going FWD. I loved my M-roadster - a little tight in the cockpit for me though at 6'1" 225Lb.

 

[d00df00d]

Whoa, whoa... When I say my VANOS was "worn" and the engine was running "somewhat poorly", I mean the VANOS was getting really noisy and there was slightly but noticeably less torque and more NVH. Nothing was about to fall apart. Just want to keep that straight.

 

[addyguy]

That is some stout oil you are using - you should have run it longer, it had lots of life left in it.....

 

[d00df00d]

I haven't changed it yet.

I ended up draining about 1.5L in the process of taking the sample. She's topped off now, and I have one 2L can left; I'll probably just run it until that's gone, which should be another 3k miles or so. The oil could probably run longer, but the flash point is a concern to me.

 

[Warstud]

I wouldn't use a oil like that until you get consumtion under control. Run some Arx..

 

[d00df00d]

Considering ARX, actually.

If the worn VANOS was the cause of the fuel dilution as I suspect (by causing rich running at some RPMs), I should be getting much better gas mileage now that it's fixed. Should have an idea on that by tomorrow.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

What do you mean by worn vanos? Clearances whereas the unit waas unable to advance cam timing at low RPM due to oil leakage/bypass? How was the wear measured? Curios as this was not explained to me by the BMW tech - they sort of kept the wear/failure issue on the hush-hush. My symptom was chain "grinding" noise head through the engine front cover top.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Why would OP need ARx if running a premium " clean" synthetic?

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
What do you mean by worn vanos? Clearances whereas the unit waas unable to advance cam timing at low RPM due to oil leakage/bypass? How was the wear measured? Curios as this was not explained to me by the BMW tech - they sort of kept the wear/failure issue on the hush-hush. My symptom was chain "grinding" noise head through the engine front cover top.

I had the "marbles in a can" sound.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/posts/1622270/

 

[98dakarM3]

My S52 used to burn about half a qt of M1 0W-40 during an OCI. I have since switched to M1 TDT 5-40 and the consumption has completely disappeared.

 

[d00df00d]

Interesting! Thanks for the tip. Any idea what it is about the TDT that dropped your consumption? Any other possible factors that may have affected the outcome?

My best consumption rate so far was with Motul 8100 X-Max 5w-30 (1 qt/1600 mi). That was a lot of miles ago, though, and since then I've found and fixed a few problems that would have contributed to oil consumption so I'm not sure if that number is comparable to what I've been getting. I rarely drive the car these days but when I put some miles on it I will be able to see what the consumption looks like with (hopefully) everything running as it should.

 

[saaber1]

Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Interesting! Thanks for the tip. Any idea what it is about the TDT that dropped your consumption? Any other possible factors that may have affected the outcome?


Big difference in viscosity. kv100 for tdt is 14.9 'll bet after 1000 miles the difference in kv100 between the tdt and 0w40 is pretty huge.

 

[JohnBrowning]

Look at the low flash point and the excessive wear. If the Vanos was bad that would explain most of the wear and maybe the fuel issue? We will have to see. Nothing kills an oil like too much fuel in it! Fuel is not very polar at all but the Ester's in Motul 300V are very polar. I also think you have some of the cleaning effect we normally see with Redline due to the ester content of Motul 300V.The other Motul products you where running are not 100% ester based like 300V so they did not do any real cleaning as a positive side effect.

So I would try Motul 300V 5W40 again or Redline 5W40 but stick with something high in ester content. IF you use an oil high in ester's do not waste your money on ARX because it will not work with an ester basedoil because ARX is made up of natural ester's and their will be too much competition. If you wanted to use ARX I would pick up Rotella-T Synthetic 5W40 because it is a GIII fake synthetic GIII behaves like Dino because itis made from dino just hydrocraked. You can use RTS for the clean and the rinse. I would use a normal sived filter on the clean phase but would get the largest filter that will fit if it use's spin on filter for the rinse phase. I would run it the normal oil change interval on the clean phase but not more then 2000 on the rinse phase. Then I would go back to a nice Ester based oil either 300V or Redline and I would try for 18K or 12 months.

If the flash point stays low and fuel is still an issue I would pull the injectors and get rebuilt or put new ones in!

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: JohnBrowning
Look at the low flash point and the excessive wear. If the Vanos was bad that would explain most of the wear and maybe the fuel issue?

I really think this is the case. The car definitely tended to run rich below about 4,000 RPM, which it no longer does after the VANOS repair.


Originally Posted By: JohnBrowning
I also think you have some of the cleaning effect we normally see with Redline due to the ester content of Motul 300V.The other Motul products you where running are not 100% ester based like 300V so they did not do any real cleaning as a positive side effect.

I'm pretty sure 300V has some PAO in it. But yes, it is much higher in esters than their other oils.

As I understand, the X-Max 5w-30 I used was an old formula: mostly PAO with some esters. I'm told the formula was recently revised to include more esters. FWIW.

No idea what's in X-Cess 5w-40 but I don't see the "ester based" language on the website of the local Motul distributor. That line does show up on the X-Max and X-Lite oils.


Originally Posted By: JohnBrowning
So I would try Motul 300V 5W40 again or Redline 5W40 but stick with something high in ester content.

I'll probably be using either the new X-Max 5w-40 or X-Lite 0w-30. Both apparently have fairly good ester content. X-Lite was apparently derived from 300V and formulated for longer drains.


Originally Posted By: JohnBrowning
IF you use an oil high in ester's do not waste your money on ARX because it will not work with an ester basedoil because ARX is made up of natural ester's and their will be too much competition.

That would be the plan. If I do use Auto-Rx, it'll be in the summer with BMW's 15w-40 non-synthetic, which is what the car came with from the factory. But I agree, if I keep using high ester oils it shouldn't be an issue.

We shall see indeed. Thanks for your input!

 

[sprintman]

Dr. VANOS has the best replacement blueprinted VANOS, BMW still use the wrong seal material and don't fix the rattle. And RX is a great aid to cleanliness and VANOS rattle, fixed mine. Bottom end torque is back and noise gone.

 

[d00df00d]

Yup, I used the Dr. VANOS kit.

When I removed the old unit, the splined cup had almost 2mm of lateral play on the shaft. They don't come from the factory that way, do they?

 

[sprintman]

Pretty much. Beisan has a new anti rattle kit too.

 

[Trajan]

The Z3/4 guys use their seal upgrade kit.