The owner's manual is quite useless and in general I don't find much consensus on BMW bboards. The car probably got 20w50 dino before me, and I've tried Redline and M1 (currently M1 15w50).
I live in the SF Bay Area, so it's not too cold, not blazing hot for very long, some days in the 90's and 100's during the summer.
I know to select an ACEA A3 and/or BMW LL-01 rated oil, which has been my guideline, but I still don't get which elixer and of what viscosity would be best for my situation.
I've yet to see German Castrol on the shelves of any nearby store (there is AZ, but out of my way) and WalMart is just down the street (hence M1). I had Redline 10w30 until last summer's hot temps and I found that the engine seemed to warm up much more slowly according to the water temp gauge on the dash (reached midpoint/needle straight after longer time driving the same route and speeds), which I wasn't happy about because of the peculiarity of the E36 M3 3.2L engine which is that it's a bit rough when the engine has cooled off completely (thought by many to be a software bug, but installing the fix can limit top end performance).
Also this engine seems to consume a quart of M1 15w50 about every 1000-2000 miles so far.
I've thought about dropping to M1 0w40 or trying Redline in a xxW40 but concerned about engine wear when running hard. Like a lot of people the car gets short trips to work and back but also some harder highway and backroad runs.
Any advice?
I live in the SF Bay Area, so it's not too cold, not blazing hot for very long, some days in the 90's and 100's during the summer.
I know to select an ACEA A3 and/or BMW LL-01 rated oil, which has been my guideline, but I still don't get which elixer and of what viscosity would be best for my situation.
I've yet to see German Castrol on the shelves of any nearby store (there is AZ, but out of my way) and WalMart is just down the street (hence M1). I had Redline 10w30 until last summer's hot temps and I found that the engine seemed to warm up much more slowly according to the water temp gauge on the dash (reached midpoint/needle straight after longer time driving the same route and speeds), which I wasn't happy about because of the peculiarity of the E36 M3 3.2L engine which is that it's a bit rough when the engine has cooled off completely (thought by many to be a software bug, but installing the fix can limit top end performance).
Also this engine seems to consume a quart of M1 15w50 about every 1000-2000 miles so far.
I've thought about dropping to M1 0w40 or trying Redline in a xxW40 but concerned about engine wear when running hard. Like a lot of people the car gets short trips to work and back but also some harder highway and backroad runs.
Any advice?