ARX at 1300 miles in the e36

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fdcg27

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When I gave the little Beemer its first oil change in my posession a couple of weeks ago, I threw in a bottle of ARX, since I had some, and just for GP.
After 1300 miles, including one five hundred mile weekend of travel, the oil still looks really clean on the paper towel I used to wipe the dipstick.
This means that ARX does nothing?
No, I think it indicates that the car has had regular changes with a correct oil throughout its life, and the engine is therefore pretty clean internally to begin with.
Always a good thing.
 
Let me get this right. You wasted a $25 bottle of arx just to prove that your engine was clean.
I would have looked down the oil fill cap , and filled her up with m-1, pp, pu or other good synthetic cracked hydrocarbon cleaning oil added a decent filter , skipped the tectron , and saved the arx for really dirty engine. I'd bet that aerostar of yours needs a good bottle or arx.
just another mans thoughts.
 
The clean phase is nowhere near complete and a full rinse has to be done. Still a little early to tell. I'd wait till the clean/rinse is done, then see what/if anything happens or doesn't happen.
 
Originally Posted By: chad8
Let me get this right. You wasted a $25 bottle of arx just to prove that your engine was clean.
I would have looked down the oil fill cap , and filled her up with m-1, pp, pu or other good synthetic cracked hydrocarbon cleaning oil added a decent filter , skipped the tectron , and saved the arx for really dirty engine. I'd bet that aerostar of yours needs a good bottle or arx.
just another mans thoughts.

I put a $20.00 bottle of ARX in a 100K engine just to clean whatever needed cleaning.
An engine that has had regular oil changes throughout its life will stay pretty clean.
That was what I found when I ARXed the Aerostar last year.
We have owned it since new, so it has seen regular changes over all of its life.
 
You still have 5,000 miles to go. And if your sump is similar to my 325 it should be two bottles and ester free oil I hope? Simple instructions, but appears just to hard for most to follow.
 
The 325 has a much larger sump.
The 318 takes 4.5 liters, or 4.7 quarts.
The six takes another two liters.
I doubt that the Tection has much ester, or at least that was what I was aiming for when I used it.
I also thought that a HDEO might be desirable for both clean and rinse.
It may simply be that the little four doesn't have much to clean up.
I also wonder how many of these engines have suffered due to the owners' following the service indicator for oil changes, particularly given the oil specs BMW had at the time?
I think that 4-5K on a conventional HDEO is plenty and should work well, since the oil is pretty cheap, and the change is not particularly difficult.
 
Add a few more ounces (didn't realise 318 is a much smaleer sump). Factory oci here is 25,000kms, way to long I believe. I'd run 6-8,000 miles on your clean. Good luck...s
 
I think you are right on the OCI.
Absurdly long factory OCI!
Why buy an expensive car and then scrimp on maintenance, particularly since BMW was not at all shy about recommending biennial brake fluid changes, with DOT 4 in the US?
I guess I don't really understand this German obsession with long OCIs, which you also see in MBs and VAGs.
Oil is not cheap in the EU (nor in Australia), but engines are always more expensive than oil.
Motor oil here is quite cheap by developed world standards.
No real reason to try to push the envelope in the US.
 
ARX at 1300 miles on the odometer might be a little soon.
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Originally Posted By: fdcg27
[/quote]
I put a $20.00 bottle of ARX in a 100K engine just to clean whatever needed cleaning.

You mean $10 since you only use half a bottle for the oil.

If ARX were moving sludge then you could expect the oil to get dirty. Me and many others have established that Auto-RX doesn't do much for sludge, nor does it need to because sludge is largely cosmetic, nice to get rid of but not a show stopper. There are plenty of lower cost solutions for sludge and some sludge won't move until prodded with a sharp metal stick. The real value of ARX is what it takes out of the ring grooves to improve compression which wouldn't be enough to change the shade of the oil. Regular oil changes ensured the ring groove contaminants wouldn't come up from the oil but fuel was still supplying them from the top.

If your MPG is up then ARX FTW!
 
Supposedly the cleaning phase is where you will see the dirtier oil. I am one that never had any results with this product but I believe the positive posts note that the cleaning phase is where you will see the results, if any
 
OTOH, the little dear exhibited some seep from both front and rear mains when I bought it, which has now gone away.
The dime sized drip in the driveway no longer appears.
ARX, Tection, or simply driving the car regularly?
Who knows?
I tend to credit the ARX, but I agree with sprintman than ring pack cleanliness is an important benefit.
 
Originally Posted By: sprintman
RX rejuvenates seals (rubber not cork), VANOS seals in particular.


...although IMO replacing the seals on an M52, M52TU or M54 with Beisan seals is easy enough and way quicker than waiting for ARX to "maybe" do the job if that's all you're going for.
 
No it was an side benefit that saved a fortune in labour costs not to mention importing Beisan seals. RX is getting a lot of traction on BMW forums in three continents in recent months.
 
In my case, I had a bottle, I thought that a 100K engine could maybe benefit from a dose, and so I dumped it in with fresh oil.
I noted the main seal leaks in my pre-purchase inspection, and figured that a proper fix would be fairly straightforward and inexpensive, even though the rear main would involve a fair amount of work. A leisurely weekend of work, not a killing pace.
I also thought that if the ARX took care of it, then great!
The ARX appears to have solved my main seal leak problems.
Once again, ARX proves its worth to me.
 
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