In all of my other prior cars I have been using M1, with a one exception:
- 2002 M3 required Castrol TWS Motorsport Full Synthetic 10W60 (only available at the BMW dealer, for about $10-11/quart)
In this 2000 BMW 540i, the prior owner and BMW shop has been using the "standard approved oil", which is Castrol Synthec 5W30 about every 3-5K miles or so.
On my first oil change I used M1 0W40 as a few in the BMW board (roadfly) highly recommended this one for my 4litter V8.
Now that I found this site and have more experienced folks in this subject, I wanted to find out generally speaking which fully synthetic oils I should consider. The engine did had some oil leaks before I bought it used, but those have been fixed now and there are no oil leaks at all.
Some preferences/goals and some questions:
- The 4.0 litter is relatively small, pulling a relatively heavy car, and the engine works fairly hot, so I do want to stay with a full synthetic oil - I don't want any blends
- I do on occasion do hard runs on the engine (WOT), and I am considering doing some auto-x which gets the operating engine to the upper end of the safe range - I want a premium oil with the extra protection
- I will most likely keep a 5-10K Mile OCI - works for me and my maintenance schedule, even if at the end of the 10K miles the oil is still perfect, I will still change it between 5-10K miles.
- I am not after the cheapest oil, but rather I want good availability in a few stores (instead of just the BMW dealer!)
- I don't mind trying 2-3 oils until I find one that works best - experimentation is actually fun.
- Icing on the cake would be if the engine would run as smooth as possible and give good/reasonable gas mileage.
- from what I am reading here already, sounds like before I do anything, that I should to at least one application of auto-rx (maybe two applications since I am close to the 100K range?) to get the engine as clean/ready for the next 100K miles. Anything I should consider before ordering the auto-rx stuff?
- Even though I want to have fairly fixed OCI's, I do like of having the oil analized to know how things are goind and to see which oils are holding up during actual use. A long time ago I used the Blackstone labs (or something that sounded like that). Are there other better labs/analysis I should consider?
Thanks in advance!
Will
- 2002 M3 required Castrol TWS Motorsport Full Synthetic 10W60 (only available at the BMW dealer, for about $10-11/quart)
In this 2000 BMW 540i, the prior owner and BMW shop has been using the "standard approved oil", which is Castrol Synthec 5W30 about every 3-5K miles or so.
On my first oil change I used M1 0W40 as a few in the BMW board (roadfly) highly recommended this one for my 4litter V8.
Now that I found this site and have more experienced folks in this subject, I wanted to find out generally speaking which fully synthetic oils I should consider. The engine did had some oil leaks before I bought it used, but those have been fixed now and there are no oil leaks at all.
Some preferences/goals and some questions:
- The 4.0 litter is relatively small, pulling a relatively heavy car, and the engine works fairly hot, so I do want to stay with a full synthetic oil - I don't want any blends
- I do on occasion do hard runs on the engine (WOT), and I am considering doing some auto-x which gets the operating engine to the upper end of the safe range - I want a premium oil with the extra protection
- I will most likely keep a 5-10K Mile OCI - works for me and my maintenance schedule, even if at the end of the 10K miles the oil is still perfect, I will still change it between 5-10K miles.
- I am not after the cheapest oil, but rather I want good availability in a few stores (instead of just the BMW dealer!)
- I don't mind trying 2-3 oils until I find one that works best - experimentation is actually fun.
- Icing on the cake would be if the engine would run as smooth as possible and give good/reasonable gas mileage.
- from what I am reading here already, sounds like before I do anything, that I should to at least one application of auto-rx (maybe two applications since I am close to the 100K range?) to get the engine as clean/ready for the next 100K miles. Anything I should consider before ordering the auto-rx stuff?
- Even though I want to have fairly fixed OCI's, I do like of having the oil analized to know how things are goind and to see which oils are holding up during actual use. A long time ago I used the Blackstone labs (or something that sounded like that). Are there other better labs/analysis I should consider?
Thanks in advance!
Will
