Oil wieght for short trips?

[djateohate]

My BMW’s owners manual calls for 15w40 for normal ambient temp operation. It calls for 5w30 for cold temps.

From the documentation I have, it has been living on 5w30 for its whole life (10 years).

The closest oil I can find locally that carries the required API-SH rating is 10w40. I don’t doubt that this will be sufficient.

However, my typical daily commute is 3 miles each way from the bus stop. The car barely gets warmed up by the time I have arrived.

Should be sticking 5w30 since the car barely gets up to temp?

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[ChiTDI]

You can get some pretty robust 5w30s that would seem to serve your needs. Schaeffers and Amsoil, Redline and even Mobil 1 ESP might work well, there are others too.

 

[djateohate]

What's Mobil 1 ESP?

 

[Eddie]

5w30 in any Mobil 1 or Pennzoil Platinum would work excellent IMO. I would try to get a 10+ mile hwy drive in once a week. DO OCI at ~ 4000 miles.

 

[djateohate]

Originally Posted By: Eddie
5w30 in any Mobil 1 or Pennzoil Platinum would work excellent IMO. I would try to get a 10+ mile hwy drive in once a week. DO OCI at ~ 4000 miles.


I drive plenty on the weekends, but the weekdays are almost always the short trips.

 

[ChiTDI]

Originally Posted By: djateohate
What's Mobil 1 ESP?



Good stuff, but SM rated.
http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Oils/Mobil_1_Extended_Performance_5W-30.aspx

 

[smithph]

Originally Posted By: djateohate
My BMW’s owners manual calls for 15w40 for normal ambient temp operation. It calls for 5w30 for cold temps.

From the documentation I have, it has been living on 5w30 for its whole life (10 years).

The closest oil I can find locally that carries the required API-SH rating is 10w40. I don’t doubt that this will be sufficient.

However, my typical daily commute is 3 miles each way from the bus stop. The car barely gets warmed up by the time I have arrived.

Should be sticking 5w30 since the car barely gets up to temp?

Any advice is appreciated.


Oil formulations and standards have improved over the last 10 years since this auto was made (and owners manual printed). I was surprised to see you could still find any of the old SH rated oils still available. The current crop of SM rated oils should be backward compatible with the older SH standard.

 

[ChiTDI]

I just checked the data sheet for the M1 EP ( I should have typed better), and it states SH approved. Backward compatible as you stated.

 

[djateohate]

I can get factory-viscosity-spec 15w40 off the shelf around here, but they are all labeled for diesel engines.

Is there any advantage or disadvantage to using them in my gas engine?

Or should I still just stick with a good 5w30?

I have never gotten any VANOS or lifter noise with 5w30, as some do.

 

[3putter]

Why not just go with a robust 10w40 High Mileage Oil such as Maxlife or Bronze Bottle Penz. In your climate you could comfortably use this flavor year round.

 

[cheetahdriver]

the 5w30 will cause less wear than 10w40. there is no such thing as "too thin" on startup.

 

[djateohate]

Well, I'll be using Castrol GTX 10w40 this time around since I already bought it.

 

[coffee]

Well, I recently had the same situation and went with the 15w40 since my climate is so hot and the car specs for it. My Volvos seem to run very well on the 15w40 so if you can return the 10w40 you should at least give the 15w40 a try.

 

[djateohate]

Originally Posted By: coffee
Well, I recently had the same situation and went with the 15w40 since my climate is so hot and the car specs for it. My Volvos seem to run very well on the 15w40 so if you can return the 10w40 you should at least give the 15w40 a try.


Well, after reading this:

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/faq.php?faq=haas_articles#faq_motor_oil_basics

I’m going to try and return the 10w40 and get synthetic 0w30 or 5w30.

 

[Drew99GT]

You live in GA - gets pretty hot there. Why not stick to what the owner's manual calls for? And the new oil specs are backward compatible, meaning SM GF-4 covers all previous specs to include SH.

Or, how about a 5w-40 like Rotella synthetic. That may well be the best oil for your application.

Use the 10w-40 you already have - it'll be perfectly fine.

 

[djateohate]

Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
You live in GA - gets pretty hot there.


Most of my trips are 3 miles back and forth to the bus stop. My oil only gets up to operating temp on longer weekend trips.

I need something that is thin enough to start flowing well as early as possible.

 

[coffee]

You are falling into the same issue I did by reading the articles and following oils that our vehicles are not spec'd for. I agree that you could go with a 5w40 like Rotella T Syn at WalMart but stick to the closest spec the car calls for and be content. I have tried all grades in my cars from 5w20 to 20w50 and finally went with the 15w40 as the manual calls for.

 

[BrianWC]

Agreed. BTW, AE Haas's articles are already posted here at the top of one of the forums.

I wouldn't go too thin on a lark in a car that old. Don't worry as much about the "cold" weight ie the number before the "W." Just keep the operating viscosity in the 40 range. A nice fill of 5W50 Rotella T Synth would be great in that car. So, this is only a ten year old BMW and they were still spec-ing 15W40? Wow. I know my old 82 BMW 320i did but I thought they had updated that spec by then. Weird.

Yes, SH is an ancient spec and any good oil today is going to be fine in that car. No, diesel oil is not going to hurt your car. It will run just fine. Ditto on the Georgia climate, you can run Crisco in that car and I doubt you'd have any trouble on startup.

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: djateohate
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
You live in GA - gets pretty hot there.


Most of my trips are 3 miles back and forth to the bus stop. My oil only gets up to operating temp on longer weekend trips.

I need something that is thin enough to start flowing well as early as possible.


OK, so put some 0w-20 in it. Then, if you take a longer trip, what are you going to do, drain it out and go thicker just for that 1 trip?

Haas isn't an engineer for BMW (neither is he an engineer for Ferrari...).

5w-30 oil at 50 degrees is gonna be thicker than 5w-40 at 90 degrees.

Older BMWs are one vehicle where I think it's agreed upon that thicker is better.

 

[JohnBrowning]

Well first do not worry about 15W40 being labeled for diesel engines. THat is the primary market for 15W40's since only European and Korean cars even list those viscosities as acceptable any more. In your case it was 10 years ago. Rember that her in AMerica 5W30 has been the number one selling oil for about 20 years. GM went over to it and then Ford and then Chrysler so that is why you see 15W40 mostly marketed towards diesels on the label. If you want to use 15W40 any of the 15W40's youc an get off the shelf will work great usualy Rotella,Delvac,Delo are the main brands available every where in 15W40. Now since you do drive such a short distance to and from work you could easily use a 5W30 or 10W30. I doubt you need to go with a synthetic unless you want to go a long time between oil changes. In this car Rotella 10W30 would be a great pick and Havoline 5W30 or 10W30 would work great.

SH is an old standard and was replaced by SJ,SL and now SM in that order. SO if you run across a good deal on any of those older spec. oils take them they are still better then what you car needs.