OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
I've heard this issue discussed on here before. People running the Euro drain intervals on generic oils. An engine spec's 5w30, and they run generic 5w30. Not realizing that their engine requires the oil meets a certain long drain spec. People don't open their manual, or when they do, don't interpret what they've read there correctly.
I had my first brush with this last week. My sister (the one that used to have the 535i) now has a Jetta, and her boyfriend, who is a wonderfully brilliant individual (works for Lockheed), has a 325xi wagon. He and I get along smashingly. And he was dying to go for a rip in the M, so of course the topic of cars and oils comes up.
He bought the car from a couple who had been servicing the car with Syntec 5w30 (not GC 0w30) at the BMW OLM intervals, which are somewhere around 25,000Km. It had been originally serviced at the dealer, but when the free service ran out, they followed the OLM....
After he purchased it, he continued to run Syntec 5w30 in it, as he was of the (false) impression that this was the right oil for this car. But the car consumed a lot of oil (like 1L in 1000Km) and he figured it was dirty inside, so had been running short intervals (max of 5K) to clean it up. This appeared to be working, as consumption had been dropping.
When I asked him if he had read the manual, he said he had. And that it recommended Castrol 5w30. I told him it probably suggested BMW Castrol 5w30, which is an LL-01 oil. He said he wasn't sure but thought he was using the right oil. I explained that they were very different oils. The LL-01 oil being designed for extended drains. That it had a much higher HTHS, and that he would have been looking for the GC 0w30 to have an "approved" oil in the sump.... He was surprised and concerned. And then told me about the previous owners using the same oil.... At the OLM interval. And that explained the consumption. It also explained the built-up under the oil fill cap, since the car is short tripped frequently, and was short tripped by the previous owners.
He likely changed the oil this past weekend. He was a little freaked out about running the wrong oil. I showed him the M1 0w40 I was using in the M5, and the back of the bottle where it showed the BMW LL-01 approval. While I was in with my sisters, I guess he went outside and went back through his manual. He said he looked over the oil section again and that yeah, he was supposed to be using the LL-01 oil. That somehow he had read it incorrectly before. He saw Castrol, synthetic and 5w30, so that's what he bought.
Anybody else run into this? It sounds like it is very easy to screw up for somebody who isn't "into" oil. They think they are doing the right thing.
I had my first brush with this last week. My sister (the one that used to have the 535i) now has a Jetta, and her boyfriend, who is a wonderfully brilliant individual (works for Lockheed), has a 325xi wagon. He and I get along smashingly. And he was dying to go for a rip in the M, so of course the topic of cars and oils comes up.
He bought the car from a couple who had been servicing the car with Syntec 5w30 (not GC 0w30) at the BMW OLM intervals, which are somewhere around 25,000Km. It had been originally serviced at the dealer, but when the free service ran out, they followed the OLM....
After he purchased it, he continued to run Syntec 5w30 in it, as he was of the (false) impression that this was the right oil for this car. But the car consumed a lot of oil (like 1L in 1000Km) and he figured it was dirty inside, so had been running short intervals (max of 5K) to clean it up. This appeared to be working, as consumption had been dropping.
When I asked him if he had read the manual, he said he had. And that it recommended Castrol 5w30. I told him it probably suggested BMW Castrol 5w30, which is an LL-01 oil. He said he wasn't sure but thought he was using the right oil. I explained that they were very different oils. The LL-01 oil being designed for extended drains. That it had a much higher HTHS, and that he would have been looking for the GC 0w30 to have an "approved" oil in the sump.... He was surprised and concerned. And then told me about the previous owners using the same oil.... At the OLM interval. And that explained the consumption. It also explained the built-up under the oil fill cap, since the car is short tripped frequently, and was short tripped by the previous owners.
He likely changed the oil this past weekend. He was a little freaked out about running the wrong oil. I showed him the M1 0w40 I was using in the M5, and the back of the bottle where it showed the BMW LL-01 approval. While I was in with my sisters, I guess he went outside and went back through his manual. He said he looked over the oil section again and that yeah, he was supposed to be using the LL-01 oil. That somehow he had read it incorrectly before. He saw Castrol, synthetic and 5w30, so that's what he bought.
Anybody else run into this? It sounds like it is very easy to screw up for somebody who isn't "into" oil. They think they are doing the right thing.
