What oil for very short trips?

[Quattro Pete]

I know the general consensus is to not spend money on expensive oil, but instead change it more often, but if one wanted to stick with a synthetic oil anyway, is there a particular oil that handles short trips (not getting up to temp) better than others?

My commute to work is 2 miles. I drive a bit more on the weekends though. Still, at the current rate, I'll only be doing about 6k miles per year. Winter will be especially tough on the oil i'm guessing.

Right now I'm using GC 0w-30. The car has a 3-liter I6 engine with 50k miles on it. Should I stick with it or switch to something else? Can I get away with annual oil changes?

 

[bmwtechguy]

A higher TBN oil would help some. GC is around 8 or 10, IIRC. Some of Amsoil's are up to 12 or 13 TBN. But 6K miles should be ok on the GC. I would do UOA with TBN if not sure, or maybe you've done that already? Is the car garaged in the winter?

 

[Audi Junkie]

GC is not super-thin at all temps, but for your engine and climate, plus attempting 1x a year changes, I'd stick with it. I think those 2 factors, the engine and climate, matter more than the short trips.

Honestly, 2 changes a year would be my "way". MaxLife 10w-40 in summer / 5w-30 in winter and that's a hit.

 

[Bryanccfshr]

For that Bimmer engine just an annual oil change with GC is great. Get it good and hot once a week should be enough

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: bmwtechguy
A higher TBN oil would help some. GC is around 8 or 10, IIRC. Some of Amsoil's are up to 12 or 13 TBN. But 6K miles should be ok on the GC. I would do UOA with TBN if not sure, or maybe you've done that already? Is the car garaged in the winter?

The car is garaged when I'm at home, but not when I'm at the office (during the day).

I did a UOA back when I was still living in Florida and my commute was much longer. After 6k miles and 5 months of use, the TBN was down to 4.1:
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/02-bmw-530i-gc-0w-30-6137-miles.86595/

I used LC20 during that particular OCI, and still do.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Would it be better if I found an oil that's about half the price of GC and changed it twice a year instead of once? If so, what is that oil?

That Maxlife that Audi Junkie mentioned is a synthetic blend, right? How much does that cost?

 

[Drivebelt]

What size oil sump in that BMW?

 

[Quattro Pete]

7 quarts

 

[Audi Junkie]

MaxLife is floating around in 5.5q jugs for $12 at WalMart. Maybe a buck or two more sometimes. I would not pay the $3.69 that autopart stores want, rather just buy all 3 jugs at one pop. If you actually switch to the 10w-40 next summer, just mix the leftover 5w-30, no problem. 3 MaxLife jugs total compared to 7q of Syntec? Say it's $36 for 15q of MaxLife, about the same costs as the Syntec.

fwiw, plain Havoline DS is the thinnest 10w-40 with the shear-proof Oronite VIIs, as far as the short-trips go. I'm still down with the MaxLife or if you see the Castrol GTX HM, it's 30 weights are a thick 12cSt, same as GC. I had great results on the old 12v Audis as far as consumption and leaks, you know how they are. I just say "MaxLife" out of habit. How about this, MaxLife in 10w-40 and GTX HM if you go with a 5w-30 full-time.

lol, after all that you'll probally go with GC. 1 year OCIs with our own personal cars are not too great, imo. I save those excercises for "Mom's" car. My Mom has MaxLife Synth now, 1 year OCI 5k of city driving, all short trips. I put it in because I got it closeout. Probally going back to 2 dino changes of 5w-30 outside in winter and something heavier for summer, like my Delo 30. Her Passat is 12 years old 2.Slo that burns no oil, I keep it simple.

If you go 1x a year, put the fresh oil in right before winter. By the next Fall though, I'd really be itching to change it. Even when I ran GC out to 11k miles (twice) I was paying for dealer changes, it was only 6 months in my Avant.

 

[Drivebelt]

Conventional Group II/II+ based SM oils these days can generally run 5k miles in a 4 liter sump engine quite easily with a lot of city driving thrown in.

With a synthetic like GC and a 7 liter sump, 6k miles/1 year should be a walk in the park, so-to speak, even with a lot of city driving. Any off-the-shelf synthetic (less cost than GC) for that interval would be fine IMO. In fact, with a 7 liter sump I think you could even run any of the Group II+ SM 5W-30 conventionals 6k miles/1 year quite easily if you wanted to.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Drivebelt
With a synthetic like GC and a 7 liter sump, 6k miles/1 year should be a walk in the park,

You would think that, but for some reason this engine seems to beat up on the oil pretty hard. Looking at that prior UOA, in 5 months, the TBN was already down to 4, and that's with longer trips where the oil almost always got up to temp. No cold temp driving ever.

I guess I would have to do another UOA to see how it fares over the course of 1 year.

 

[greencrew]

I thought I had heard that synthetic oil does not handle water as well as non-syn. If he is stuck with many short trips where the engine does not get up to operating temp, then he should be using a good old Group II 5w-30 with 3k oil changes every six months.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
If you go 1x a year, put the fresh oil in right before winter.

Yeah, that one is a bit controversial - I think we had a thread about this in the past. My personal incline would be to change it early spring. Since the oil gets beat up the most during winter, I would not want to keep running it throught the rest of the year.

I guess your perspective is to have the most robust oil for winter since that's the hardest time for the engine. I can understand that point of view as well.

 

[Cory]

How about a Mobil 5000/7500 every 6 months with 12 month FCIs?

 

[Audi Junkie]

Pete, the cold-cranking ability of an oil is one of the first qualities to diminish while in-service. UOA does not test for that either. Anyway, imo the best way to deal with fouled oil is to drain it. 1x a year oil change theories all work best on someone else's car.