BMW 5W-30, 12580 miles, 2001 BMW 330i

shortyb · Oct 7, 2004

Just bought this car used and of course HAD to do an analysis

. From the service history it appears to have followed BMW's 15000 OCI per the oil computer, having been in at 15 & 30K with no other indications of oil changes. Owner apparently took very good care of it and did not seem to push it very hard. Still has original rotors and pads which also indicates easy/highway driving as these items usually get replaced sooner than this.

Particulars:

Milage on vehicle-43221
Oil-BMW High Performance Synthetic, aka: Castrol Softec TXT 5W-30
Milage on oil-12580
Make-up oil-none that I could find (Owner would have probably gone back to the dealer for this and there is no indication on service history)
Oil filter-OE
Air filter-OE, changed at last OCI

Blackstone Labs with Terry's superb intepretation.

Aluminum-7
Chromium-0
Iron-11
Copper-13
Lead-2 (!)
Tin-2
Moly-103
Nickel, Manganese, Silver, Ti-0
Potassium-3
Boron-31
Silicon-6
Sodium-3
Calcium-2705
Magnesium-13
Phosphorus-776 (SM cap anyone?)
Zinc-888
Barium-0

210 visc-74.2
Flash-380
Fuel->0.5
Glycol-0.0
H2O-0.0
Insolubles-0.3
TBN-1.2

Ok, it thickened up to a 40wt, but this oil seems to start out at around 67, so not TOO bad for this kinda milage. Don't know if the K and Na traces have anything to do with it but I'm supposing not with no glycol present. TBN shows end of service, but oil adds seem to be rather robust to allow it to go this distance though. Cu is a bit elevated but, again, taking the milage into consideration. Insolubles show good filtration and there wasn't a trace of "chunkiness" when drained. Probably safe to say that this oil wasn't sludged. Going to start an ARX cycle and then fill with GC.

Comments? Please fire away

Motorbike · Oct 7, 2004

I know it's a German engine . I know it holds alot of oil .

I also know thats alot of miles and that oil is less than 5 bucks a quart at the dealers .

Castrol Syntec or BMW High Performance Synthetic ?

Tough choice .... not !

Thanks for posting .

Cary · Oct 7, 2004

I know that my mechanic says on the cars that they service that the owners have been sticking to the new 15,000 miles OCI that they have very noisy valvetrains by 100k miles. This is with the factory BMW 5w-30 (they use it because it approved and moderately priced). They generally recommend to customers that they bring the car in at 7500 miles to do one oil change in between the interval and have seen no problems with those cars.

buster · Oct 7, 2004

quote:

Oil-BMW High Performance Synthetic, aka: Castrol Softec TXT 5W-30

I one goes to a BMW dealer, can you get a hold of the good Castrol oils like the on above? Or are they using US Syntec?

Motorbike · Oct 7, 2004

The dealer oil is just like the oil in the analysis . It has a small cap on the dark grey bottle .

BMW High Performance Synthetic is worth the price IMO ..... it's got something groovy going on inside

Maybe I should try to crush it with a Kia engine

shortyb · Oct 7, 2004

Buster-I'll try to get a pic of the bottle. A BMW service tech told me that the label says to the effect,"Formulated for BMW by Castrol AG". And also has the "meets ACEA/A3 standards" on it too. Doubt it is regular US Syntec. Associated thread: http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=000096#000000

Al · Oct 7, 2004

Needlesss to say Terry earned his money by giving you insight on the Type of oil, the particular engine, the elevated copper. Its pretty obvious to me though that this interval went too far on this oil (to suit me). I'm sure Terry's analysis was worth every penny for you.

Lots of positives though-good metal numbers, low silicon, decent flash, great insolubles, no coolant, or obviously fuel dilution. Looks quite good to me.

Losiho · Oct 7, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by shortyb:
Buster-I'll try to get a pic of the bottle. A BMW service tech told me that the label says to the effect,"Formulated for BMW by Castrol AG". And also has the "meets ACEA/A3 standards" on it too. Doubt it is regular US Syntec. Associated thread: http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=000096#000000

This has been discussed here before. BMW Synthetic 5w30 = Group 3 Castrol TXT Softec :

http://www.castrol.com/liveassets/b...sets/downloads/t/TXT_Softec_LL01_B1567_02.pdf

Quattro Pete · Oct 7, 2004

IMO, this is a very nice report. How long (timewise) was the oil in service?

Leo · Oct 7, 2004

My mom has the same engine as this in her '03 530i Sport. I was afraid of leaving the oil in for so long so I always did a mid interval change at 10,000ks with Shell Helix Ultra. I think i'll still be sticking to that regimen

JonC · Oct 7, 2004

I have always changed my own oil on all our cars, but with the free maintenance, I haven't change oil yet in my wife's 325xi. The only time I've even looked underneath is when we got new tires. It is getting time for me to take over the oil changes. I noticed that it has metal plates on the entire underneath, from front to back. I assume I need to pull one of these plates off to get to the drain plug. Is this a pain to do? Also, I've never changed a cannister filter before. Where is it and is there anything special I need to do for the filter?

Jon

vettenuts · Oct 8, 2004

Mine is scheduled to go in now for an oil change as well. I dumped the factory oil at 3K miles and put in GC and then put GC in again at 8K miles. Now I have 10K on the car but it has to go in for a change, I would rather just leave the GC in the car, but guess I can't do that

benjamming · Oct 8, 2004

vettenuts,

Your GC only has 2k miles & you say it has to go in for a change?

Why can't you just leave it?

shortyb · Oct 8, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by JonC:
I have always changed my own oil on all our cars, but with the free maintenance, I haven't change oil yet in my wife's 325xi. The only time I've even looked underneath is when we got new tires. It is getting time for me to take over the oil changes. I noticed that it has metal plates on the entire underneath, from front to back. I assume I need to pull one of these plates off to get to the drain plug. Is this a pain to do? Also, I've never changed a cannister filter before. Where is it and is there anything special I need to do for the filter?

Jon

Changing the oil in these cars is a piece of cake. With the all-wheel drive, you may have to pull a skid plate to get to the drain plug, but on mine it was accessable. The filter housing is on top of the engine, in the front, next to the valve cover. Its round (duh) black and has a 35mm nut on top. Drain the oil, loosen the filter housing and let it sit for a couple of minutes to drain, then spin it off. Filter comes off with the housing cover (filter is quite large BTW), slip old filter off, slip new filter on. Replace o-ring (comes with filter kit along with a new drain plug washer), screw it back on and tighten to 18lb-ft. Fill with oil. Done. Only tool you may want to get is the 35mm socket. Although you could do it with an adjustable wrench, don't, plastic nut may round off.

I am now going to use my oil extractor so I can do changes with out getting under the car. It siphons the old oil through the dipstick. No fuss, no muss

.

Cary · Oct 8, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by JonC:
Also, I've never changed a cannister filter before. Where is it and is there anything special I need to do for the filter?

Jon

I don't know what you have to pull on the 325xi to pull the drain plug as I never had to pull anything on the 5 series. You will love the canister filter. Unscrew the bolt, pull the top off, pull the element out and throw away. Put in the new element in the same direction, change the little o-ring on the end of the long bolt and put the new o ring on the housing cover. About 2 minutes total with no mess.

The entire oil change on my wifes 525i takes 20 minutes from the time I walk in the garage to going back into the house. This includes keeping a 9 month old entertained in his kick'n'play while doing the oil change and clean up.

Cary

1maniac · Oct 8, 2004

Ditto on NOT using an adjustable wrench on the oil filter cap. Once the engine gets warm the O ring can expand making it difficult to remove and you risk rounding it off. I got a Fumoto drain valve on my 540i and that along with the easy filter change makes it a 20-30 minute job max. Enjoy your bimmer!!!!!

JonC · Oct 8, 2004

Thanks for the advice. The cannister filter doesn't sound too bad. It's nice to have a filter that isn't messy - too often they are these days. My '04 F150 has a funnel for the oil from the filter. That's a neat idea that also prevents mess. Thanks again.

Jon

Blue T · Oct 10, 2004

The late model BMW 3-series engines take a 36 mm socket for the oil filter cap. Those are commonly available for $5 or so. The cap is made of plastic so you don't want to tighten it too tight and you don't need to since the O-ring does the sealing.

silverz06vette · Mar 11, 2005

wrong thread.

double vanos · Feb 26, 2006

This is from the Bentley manual for 2001 and up 3 series: the oil change monitor uses a calcultion table to decide when oil changes are to be done based on the amount of fuel the car has consumed since the last reset. The gallons consumed is: 601 - manual trans, 667 for the auto trannie. Now, here is Double Vanos's take on the situation: BMW's 15k oil changes are insanity at best - on www.roadfly.com e46 message board someone posted a picture of the valve train of his 100k M54 engine (with the 15k oci using BMW's hipo oil) and it was Gunk City! I have never seen sludge like this poor chaps ever in my life and my life spans back to pre multi viscosity oils! As a side note let me also say that BMW's lifetime fill for trannies and differentials is nonsense! Both the auto and manual trannies need oil changes every 30k to give 250k service. Same thing for the differential. I use M1 0w/40 in the engine (every 5k), redline MTL in the 5 speed and M1 75/90 in the diff (every 25k). Currently my '02 330ci has 83k and it is as fresh as a daisy - the MTL allows me to blow through the gears with the greatest of ease and the engine runs better now than when it was new. The driveline is quiet. I'm going to try GC next oil change because it has done so well in my '05 4.3 Chevy (beater). If it likes it I will stay w/GC. If not, back to the M1 - both are great oils! Sorry for the long winded post! Cheers all! DV

BMW 5W-30, 12580 miles, 2001 BMW 330i

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