Best oil for BMW 335i N54 twin turbo?

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: bluescoupe
Also: http://www.animegame.com/cars/Oil Tests.pdf

The authors of that "study" later retracted a lot of this, agreeing that the science behind it didn't really reflect real world conditions.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1142032#Post1142032

Also, do a search for StreetCommodores on this forum - this article has come up here in the past.

 

[JAG]

I now have the 135i (with oil cooler and oil temp gauge) and the oil temps have been stabilizing around 240 to 245 F during normal driving. Do any of you with this engine (regardless of what car it is in or whether it has an oil cooler or not) have oil temps to report?

FWIW, I will be using Mobil 1 5W-40 TDT CJ-4 when I change the factory fill.

 

[jesbo]

I have not found a screen in BMW iDrive that reports oil temperature in the N54 engine. There is no oil temperature gauge or display on the dash. There may be some "back door" way to display it, but I'm unaware of the method. If I figure a way to measure, I'll report back my results.

 

[RI_RS4]

Originally Posted By: cosynthetics
Most of the RLI stuff here is on an Audi. Even with all of the Audi data I wouldn't say it championed. A lot of the other oils were showing good results as well. There are also MANY oils that were never tested so we can't say that RLI is the only one that works. It just didn't fail as early as some. IMO, it's over hyped.


What in the world are you talking about? All the data on RLI oil in Audi RS4, and other Audi engines, show it outperforming all other oils that have been tested. 3 different types of RLI oil, and 14 other oils have been tested. RLI is the only oil that will go to 10K mile OCI's in this engine.

As I understand, RLI is performing extremely well in the 335i, and that there are a number of BMW 335i engines that have failed catastrophically when the oil failed at high temperatures. This has been confirmed by tear down and tribological investigations.

 

[VeeDubb]

Originally Posted By: JAG

I now have the 135i (with oil cooler and oil temp gauge) and the oil temps have been stabilizing around 240 to 245 F during normal driving. Do any of you with this engine (regardless of what car it is in or whether it has an oil cooler or not) have oil temps to report?

FWIW, I will be using Mobil 1 5W-40 TDT CJ-4 when I change the factory fill.


Jag, congrats on the new ride. Nice car. :!.
What do you think of it so far?

 

[TeeDub]

RI-RS4,

The best Amsoil product for this App is almost certainly their 10w-40 marine oil (HT/HS of 4.5 Cp @ 150c). These two Amsoil marine synthetics - there's also a 10w-30 - are very shear stable. In addition the NMMA/FC-W spec requires standardized testing with 6% fuel in the oil, which seems to be relevant for these direct injected turbo motors.

Sometimes you have to think outside the box!

 

[ttvr4]

A friend of mine just bought a 2009 335i which has a factory oil cooler. He is going through break in period and I ordered him 7 quarts of Amsoil 5w-30 ASL. However, after reading 15 pages of this thread, I should of gone with the 5w-40 instead. I am thinking that 5w-30 is too thin and on top of that, he drives less than 10 miles to work everyday. He is planning on changing his oil every 5k and bringing it back into the dealer every 15k for his factory oil change.

-ttvr4

 

[jaj]

Originally Posted By: ttvr4
A friend of mine just bought a 2009 335i which has a factory oil cooler. He is going through break in period and I ordered him 7 quarts of Amsoil 5w-30 ASL. However, after reading 15 pages of this thread, I should of gone with the 5w-40 instead. I am thinking that 5w-30 is too thin...-ttvr4


The 5w-30 should be fine - the viscosity is adequate as far as BMW is concerned, especially since the engine has an oil cooler.

What's interesting is that the oil cooler in the 335i is also used in the new V8 M3 (same part #). However, it's used with an electric oil pump to cool the transmission, not the engine. The engine oil has a massive cooler across the bottom of the lower grill that vents straight down into the airstream under the car.

 

[jesbo]

I'm resurecting this thread to report my UOA on German Castrol drained from my '08 535i (N54 Twin Turbo Engine). I changed the factory oil at 1700 miles and ran the GC for 6000 miles before changing it at 7700 miles. Took the sample hot. BTW, this analyzed oil was in the engine for approx 12 months.

The UOA came back better than I expected - particularly since it showed NO fuel dilution and the used oil had a very high flash point. No contamination, and only moderate wear metals which are expected to be somewhat higher in the first few changes.

Since Castrol Syntec 0W30 (German Castrol) is approved for the N54 engine, I think I'll stick with it and maintain 7K OCI's as recommended.

 

[benjamming]

they use a different flashpoint method
also, they don't measure the % fuel (it's calculated) as does Terry's lab via FTIR