What type of oil for BMW 325i?

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I've run BMW 5w30 (Castrol TXT), Castrol 0w30, Lubro Moly 5w30, Lubro Moly 5w40, and Mobil 1 0w40 in the M54 engines. Never noticed a difference between any of them in how they run...personally using Castrol 0w30 in our `02 325iT.
 
Do an Auto-Rx cycle using dino oil for both stages, than switch to GC 0w-30 if you can find it. If not, there are many decent oils, but it depends on what your particular car likes.

My mother has a 2001 325ci and runs GC 0w-30. Haven't gotten an UOA yet, but will after the auto-rx treatment that's coming up.

I used GC 0w-30 for 4000kms boosted, but I'll be doing an auto-rx treatment soon to clean out everything as sludge developed when it sat for seven months during the latest build.
 
Update: I've gone nearly 1000 miles on the clean phase while running Rotella T 15W-40 and ARX. The car has developed a hard starting problem after sitting for a few hours. I think this may be due to the thikness of the oil interfereing with the VANOS system. It has me worried about the well being of my engine and I am considering stopping treatment and resuming with a 30 weight oil.
 
srl1104

I doubt that your VANOS will be affected by the oil viscosity - while it's thicker than any xw-30 if the two oils are at the same temperature, it's at the same viscosity when the oils are at different temperatures. A 15w-40 at spring temperatures in Wyoming will be thinner than a 0w-30 in Wyoming in the winter.

The hard starting is probably something else - probably either fuel or spark related. At 109,000 miles lots of little problems can cause hard starting.

Sorry I can't be more help
JJ
 
If you ask BMW North Americas what other oils are approved besides the BMW 5w-30, they will tell you Mobil 1 5w-30 is approved for NA.

Here is part of the email response from BMW NA to my approved oils question:

The list of approved oils is now available through the Owner's Circle section of the website; however, I would be happy to provide the information for you as well. Castrol Synthetic, Mobil 1 Synthetic, and Valvoline High Performance Synthetic with a weight of SAE 5W-30 are all approved by BMW.
 
Just FYI, the VANOS system assumes a default setting upon start-up and does not vary based on oil viscosity at this time. Your particular cold-start problem is not likely associated with the oil viscosity.

I also telephoned BMW NA back when they went from LL-98 to LL-01 standard and got the reply that "ANY" synthetic oil was OK to use
shocked.gif
. This contradicted the decal on my valve cover and the message printed in my owners manual so I stuck with what was previously approved. I conferred with BMW of Germany and got their recommendation which was to stick with the 5W-40 viscosity unless the driving was very modest.
 
Quote:


Update: I've gone nearly 1000 miles on the clean phase while running Rotella T 15W-40 and ARX. The car has developed a hard starting problem after sitting for a few hours. I think this may be due to the thikness of the oil interfereing with the VANOS system. It has me worried about the well being of my engine and I am considering stopping treatment and resuming with a 30 weight oil.




I agree with some others that oil viscosity is not likely to cause your hard starting. I've lost track which engine you have (M54 or M52TU). Are you aware that the M52TU has a known problem with VANOS seal degradation? Take a look at this thread from an E39 board.

Your cold starting problems could be a number of other things (MAF, ICV) but running 15W40 is highly unlikely to be the sole cause. I'd bet my 0W30 is still thicker at 30C than your 15W is in the current weather conditions. There are some people (who I don't agree with) who feel that any BMW should run 20W50 and nothing else, and their cars start fine.

Try pulling the connector on your MAF to see if it fixes the cold start problem. You may get a check engine light from the disconnection, but it may run better and help diagnosis.

Find a couple of good forums for your car, in addition to your oil form
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, and ask around for some advice.

Craig.
 
Thanks alot for your comments. The reason that I blamed the heavier weight oil on the starting issue was because that was the only thing I had changed. The funny thing is that the car started fine this morning after I filled up with gas at Shell instead of Conoco. Maybe I had gotten a bad batch of fuel or something. I'll see how she starts up after sitting for 10 hours.
 
Given the age and mileage on that engine, I would think that Mobil 1 High Mileage 10W-30 would be a good choice considering it meets the specs of interest for that car.

From the Mobil 1 High Mileage 10W-30 datasheet:

ACEA: A3/B3, A3/B4
API: SL, SJ, CF
HTHS: 3.66

Mobil claims that their synthetic High Mileage oils (10W-30 and 10W-40) contain extra anti-wear additives (likely more zinc and phosphorus since they don't meet the new API SM rating) and extra cleaning additives plus a seal conditioner to help prevent oil leaks.

Plus, you can find this at Wal-Mart in 5 qt jugs for ~$23 around here.
 
Well, it's disappointing to hear that BMW customer service is still saying the same thing I heard 2 yrs ago when I purchased a 2002 BMW. One would hope that one day BMW customer service will talk to BMW technical reps so that customer service can speak about BMW-LL01, or LL-98 specifications and the oils that meet those specs.
 
The idea of using 10cSt Mobil 1 or SynPower 5w-30 is bunk. Castrol's BMW 5w-30 along with a few other 5w-30s are thick at 12cSt, a "Euro" 5w-30. Mfg recommendations are sometimes in error. VW listed SynPower 5w-30 for North America cars while it only meets specs in it's thick Euro formulation. Do we see BMW specs on Mobil 1 5w-30? Use that stuff in some Euro engines in summer and it will burn off at 1q/1000 miles! BMWs, in fact, do not even need synth oil at all. Good HM dino oils or HDEO 15w-40 are the ticket. All that synth oil hype/bull is about the service indicator meeting up with the oil change intervals. Just use common sense and the guideline of a good HT/HS >3.5cP....that's it. fwiw, my Euro oil formula now is my 12cSt Delo 30 with a bottle of MaxLife Engine Protector.
 
i don't see any reason why you 'd runs 15w40 in a post 97 vehicle that has no oil consumption issues. In my m20's I noticed how hard it was on the engine at startup in spring using M1 15w50 and tried 5w40. It really made a difference and ever since then I'd never use anything thicker than a 5 or 10w in my bmw's/ regardless of ambient temps. It's all about having the oil circulate immediately after start-up, and with a 15w, it's far too thick IMHO.
 
Some peole use 20w-50 and swear by it. 15w-40 is the same visc at cool temps as SAE 30. Not a big deal. I use it not only in Euros, but in V6 Japanese too. The rest of the World, mostly southern hemisphere, uses these thicker oils regularly.
 
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