Valvoline MaxLife 10w-40 • 8,250 miles • BMW 318ti

[E365]

Yay, my first UOA!

• 1996 BMW 318ti
• 199,600 Miles on Engine
• My drive to work is about 6 miles

• Valvoline MaxLife Synthetic Blend 10w-40
• 8,250 Miles on Oil
• Mahle OX 127/1D Oil Filter (8,250 miles)
• Mahle LX500 Air Filter (8,250 miles)
• Oil used from March 1st to November 23rd - almost 9 months. Previous oil was Mobil1 0w-40 with a 8,100 mile OCI.
• Sample was taken from my Pela 6000 extractor which I cleaned out as good as I could.

• The car's Service Interval system had not yet indicated an oil change when I did it. The car is at 199,850 today and it has still not. Would be 8,500 miles total on the oil so far if I didn't do the change when I did. Temps got cold here in Minneapolis last week and the 10w-40 scared me a tad.

 

[Artem]

Looks like it had sheared down nicely, just in time for winter and you drained it. haha.

What did you fill it up with?

 

[E365]

I refilled it with GC (Castrol Syntec 0w-30). I've used GC and M1 0w-40 almost exclusively for the past 7 years, 100,000+ miles. I got some very good AutoZone coupons on MaxLife so I thought I'd give it a shot. I think the 5 liter jugs ended up being under $15. The car is getting a tad old too, so I like the thought of reducing operating costs as much as reasonable. Gonna drive it to 250,000 miles minimum.