High wear metal in bmw N57

[ClydeCoastin]

Thanks for all the input. I’m actually quite annoyed as this was a dealer car with “full” service history.

I’ve never had wear metal results like this in all my time with cars. Sadly had too many CA18DET engines so I’m overly familiar with glittery oil and the associated expenses.

The car is under dealer warranty and I’m half tempted to have a chat with them, although I’d imagine they will probably not take an oil analysis to seriously.

Car now has 5-30 as recommended and a genuine oil and air filter.

Fingers crossed!

 

[kschachn]

Car now has 5-30 as recommended and a genuine oil and air filter.

Grade isn’t what’s primarily important here.

 

[Cujet]

How about a nice, robust, 5W-40 turbo diesel synthetic oil? Delvac 1 or similar?

 

[weasley]

A diesel engine oil will usually get thicker in use, due to soot loading and oxidation. The low KV40 is a worrying result and suggests to me serious fuel dilution, which would then lead to reduced oil film thickness in critical areas like crank and big end bearings. Without knowing what the oil started out like it's difficult to know what the element numbers should be - they are typical of a lower SAPS type oil but if this is a full SAPS oil then the numbers would sit neatly with fuel dilution too.

The missing results would have been helpful - TAN and fuel for example.

 

[Craig in Canada]

If the N57 is similar in this regard to the N55 --> Note that the rod bearing materials (in the N55) are G-444 and G-488. According to my readings and limited understanding this is lead-free and contains aluminum and copper. You look high in Al and Cu. Many UOA shops may not know of the materials used in some engines and may not signal rod bearings in their analysis if they don't know this.

Interesting results.

 

[KEVINK0000]

I put zero faith in UOA results, unless it is a long term trend monitoring program. The results are not telling you what created the metals. Nor are they out of line for a thin oil in a extended drain interval situation.

Flush it out, use more robust oil, and change much more frequently. If you choose to do UOA in the future, monitor the results over time.

Did you inspect the oil filter?

I took a high boost engine apart that had 225PPM Pb and 250PPM Fe for reasons unrelated to the UOA results. You know what I found? Nothing that would create the high lead and iron. The crankshaft, block, cams and followers were all reused without rework or problems of any kind, being in new condition.

That’s a lot of Iron and a ton of lead, regardless of engine type. If you found no obvious wear, it was likely corrosion and rust, or some external issue. I’m sure it wasn’t running pump gas. Deriving a conclusion about UOA is a reach, in my view.

 

[edyvw]

How about a nice, robust, 5W-40 turbo diesel synthetic oil? Delvac 1 or similar?

LL04 is step up.

 

[edyvw]

Thanks for all the input. I’m actually quite annoyed as this was a dealer car with “full” service history.

I’ve never had wear metal results like this in all my time with cars. Sadly had too many CA18DET engines so I’m overly familiar with glittery oil and the associated expenses.

The car is under dealer warranty and I’m half tempted to have a chat with them, although I’d imagine they will probably not take an oil analysis to seriously.

Car now has 5-30 as recommended and a genuine oil and air filter.

Fingers crossed!

WHich 5W30? The imperative is to use LL04, regardless of grade.