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Hi everybody, I am new to these forums and sure glad I found them. I am in need of some help deciding on an oil for my new car (new to me at least). It is a 2001 BMW 325i. It has 109,000 miles on it (mostly highway obviously). The previous owner said that he had been running Castrol Syntec at 7000 mile OCIs. As soon as I got the car home I did an oil change with Mobil 1 as it was the only synthetic available to me. I did notice that there was quite a bit of buildup on the oil filler cap and also the little bit of the deflector that I can see when I look into the engine. I know that BMW recomends Castrol for their engines so my first question is do you think that changing from castrol to mobil with that many miles on it will hurt anything? My next question is I would like to get a good oil in the car and stick with it. I have been running Amsoil 0w-30 in my chevy pickup and it seems to be doing fine in it, but when I tried to run it in my girlfriends Dodge Avenger the lifters started to tick really bad. I have heard alot of good things about this oil and already have a case of it on hand. I would really like some opinions on a good oil to run in this car. Let me know your opinions. Thanks
You might want to run Auto-RX through this engine this summer.
You have probably read the procedure:
-Add a bottle of Auto-RX to your existing oil 1500 miles before your next oil change.
-Run a 'conventional' oil * for 2000 miles, perhaps even changing you oil filter after 500 miles [in case it get filled with junk that ARX is cleaning from your engine ]
Go back to your BMW LL-01 approved synthetic oil of choice.
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* I don't know which conventional oil would be best for the Auto-RX 'rinse' phase. I would think a 10W-40, 15W-40, or 20W-50 would be best.
I'd probably use Shell Rotella 15W-40, or Castrol GTX 20W-50 since they are easy to find and thick enough to provide some of the protection that a BMW LL-01 oil would provide.
You could only do this in the summer in Wyoming, since the oils would be a bit thick at start up in the cold.
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Auto-RX is a good way to clean an engine, and it may help keep the VANOS system and timing chains in good shape in your 325 motor.
I bought a '95 325ic with 150K miles and immediatelt changed oil and ran a 'clean and rinse' with Auto-Rx.
Then I switched to Castrol Syntec 0W-30 [ German Castrol ]
at 7K intervals. Engine ran much better after a little cleaning with Auto-RX and some Redline SI-1 fuel injector cleaner.
The German Castrol Syntec 0W-30 is getting harder to find.
I might be able to find some more in Denver if you wanted me to ship some up to you.
Otherwise, Mobil 1 0W-40 is BMW LL-01 approved and it seems to work well in our AMG Mercedes motors..despite all the 'shearing down and thickening up' criticisms. It will work and it is approved.
Plus a 0W-30 or 40 weight oil is probably a good thing for the cold mornings in Wyoming.
BTW, I think Amsoil 0W-30 seems just a bit thin. The Amsoil site lists 0W-30 for your car, but I think I'd run the Amsoil European Formula 5W-40 since I think the oil should have BMW LL-01 approval, or at least an ACEA A-3 rating or minumum HTHS as required by the ACEA A-3 rating, which means at the very minimum an HTHS rating of 3.5 or higher.
Non-approved oils like Amsoil and Redline have the following HTHS numbers:
Amsoil 0W-30 HTHS = 3.2 [or 3.3 on some charts ]
Amsoil 5W-40 Euro HTHS = 3.7
Redline 5W-30 HTHS - 3.8
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Here's the list of BMW approved oils:
LL01 for all engines, except:
M43/CNG, S54, S62/E39 (till 02/2000)
BMW Quality Longlife-01 0W-40
BMW Quality Longlife-01 5W-30
Agip Formula LL B 01 0W-30
BP Visco 7000 0W-40
BP Visco 7000 Special 0W-30
Castrol Formula SLX 0W-30
Castrol Syntec 0W-30
Castrol Super Racing 0W-40
Castrol TXT Softec LL01 5W-30
Havoline Synthetic BM 0W-30
Mobil 1 0W-40
Motul Specific LL-01 0W-30
LL98 for all engines except:
M43/CNG, M54 (from 09/2001), N40, N42, S54, N62, N73, S62/E39 (till 02/2000)
BMW Super Power Plus 5W-30 is substituted by
BMW Quality longlife-01 5W-30
BMW Super Power Oil 5W-40
76 Pure Synthetic Motor Oil 5W-40
Castrol Formula RS Power and Protection 0W-40
Castrol Formula RS Road and Track 5W-40
Castrol GTX7 Dynatec 5W-40
Castrol Performance 5W-40
Castrol Syntec 5W-40
Castrol TXT Softec 5W-40
Castrol Softec LL98 5W-30
Castrol Softec Plus 5W-30
Chevron Supreme Synthetic 5W-40
Mobil1 5W-40
Mobil1 Rally Formula 5W-30 and 5W-40
Mobil1 Turbo Diesel 0W-40
Mobil Super S 5W-40
Mobil Synt S 5W-40
Quaker State Full Synthetic European Formula 5W-40
Valvoline Durablend MXL 5W-40
Valvoline SynPower 5W-30 and 5W-40
Valvoline SynPower MXL 0W-30
Valvoline SynPro 5W-30 and 5W-40