1996 BMW 328i S6 what oil should I be using?

[Scoutermike]

So many choices out there, have been using Mobil 1 10w30 and in the Winter Mobil 1 5w30
Live in Canada, car has 160,00km on it, used everyday, a lot of city driving.
Would like to keep synthetic oil in it and the oil is changed every 5000km or less.

What do you guys think I should be using in it?

 

[aquariuscsm]

I say keep on with the M1. It`s good stuff!

 

[Quattro Pete]

German Castrol 0w-30. Run it year round. By the way, you're changing it way too often, but if it helps you sleep better, fine.

 

[Scoutermike]

What should the interval for the oil change be 8000k or 10,000?

 

[Bandito440]

Is it possible that BMW specifies 40wt oil for this car? I'd probably use Mobil 1 0w-40 year-round if that's the case.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Scoutermike
What should the interval for the oil change be 8000k or 10,000?

How many miles a year do you put on?

 

[JHZR2]

GC 0w-30, M1 0w-40 or RTS 5w-40 would be my choices.

 

[artificialist]

I would use M1 0w40 or GC 0w30.

 

[fdcg27]

Your e36 probably has the same temperature/viscosity chart in the OM as does mine, although you have the largest available engine.
BMW recommended quite heavy oils for warm weather, so I'd probably use a 10W-40 at a minimum.
BMW did not require synthetic oils when your car was new, either, and drain intervals by the maintenance minder were pretty long, as well.
BMW later recommended oils meeting LL-98 for these engines, which would include M1 0W-40 and GC, both high HTHS oils.
If you're going to run 5K OCIs, you really don't need synthetic.
The six has a generous oil capacity anyway, so even a dino or syn blend oil should be capable of more than 5K.
I'm liking Maxlife 10W-40 in my little four cylinder, and I'll UOA this run after about 4K. Not sure how relevant that is to your entirely different six, though.
I also really liked the M1 15W-50 I used in the car for 6K last summer.
A number of owners use Maxlife 10W-40 in their old BMWs, while some favor 15W-40 dual rated HDEOs, as well as oils like Rotella T6 5W-40, a synthetic dual rated HDEO.
If you don't mind paying more, M1 0W-40 and GC meet BMW's current requirements, while M1 HM 10W-40 would also be a good choice.
Bottom line is that I don't think that any of the oils I and others have mentioned will hurt this engine in the kind of use you're giving it on the short drains you're running.
While you don't mention it, old German cars love to leak oil and to consume it.
Does your car either leak oil or have excessive consumption?
A thicker oil than what you're using would greatly reduce both.

 

[Scoutermike]

I put about 19,000 miles on it

 

[Scoutermike]

The car doesn't leak oil, and when it is time to change the oil it is down only a tiny bit.

 

[Quattro Pete]

If you're going to use synthetic, then changing it every 10K miles or so should be OK.

 

[fdcg27]

Well, after ~3000 miles or less, I wouldn't expect the oil to be down much.
I would go a minimum of 7000 kilometers, or around 4000 miles on any oil.
This thing holds seven quarts, IIRC.
It will do just fine on this sort of drain interval on a dino or syn blend 10W-40 and could go much longer on sythetic, and oil is expensive in Canada.
The maintenance minder would also allow drains of well beyond 4000 miles.
You could then spend some of your oil savings on a UOA to see how well whatever oil you select is holding up in your car as you use it.
The 328i is a very nice and pretty fast little car.
I hope you enjoy it for years to come.
If you're as obsessive about other maintenance as you are about oil changes, I have no doubt that the car has many years of life left in it.

 

[CATERHAM]

Hi Scoutermike and welcome to BITOG.

For the way you use your car you don't need to use anything heavier than the M1 5W-30 year round. Forget the 10W-30 as this archaic grade offers nothing over M1 5W-30 other than being heavier on start-up which you don't want.

While M1 5W-30 is a fine oil, another oil choice you could consider is Pennzoil Platnium 5W-30. It's a bit lighter especially on start-up for the winter and is usually cheaper when bought on sale as it often is at Walmart for as little as 20 bucks/jug.

 

[fdcg27]

You're right, Caterham.
What does BMW know about the viscosity requirements of the engines it builds?

 

[SteveSRT8]

Any info from 96 is quite old and it has been shown beyond any doubt that the lightest oil you can run under your operating parameters is the best oil for you.

That said, we have just about converted our entire fleet over to the wonderful M1 0w-40, which is really a bit light for a 40w.. It's OEM spec for my car, my trucks love it, and it even works well in my toy ride.

 

[CATERHAM]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
You're right, Caterham.
What does BMW know about the viscosity requirements of the engines it builds?

I rely entirely on BMW's viscosity requirements for my M52 engine, that's why I have an oil pressure gauge installed.
Driven on the street their is no way one will test the minimum viscosity requirements of their Bimmer running a premium 5W-30 synthetic oil such as M1.
The following is a UOA of the FF 5W-30 from a X3:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...111#Post2505111

The BMW 5W-30 may have a virgin KV100 of 12cSt but it routinely shears down into the 9.0cSt range. It's the viscosity in service that counts and BMW knows 9cSt still provides more than enough viscosity reserve.
Every 5W-30 available on the market will start out heavier than the used BMW FF. If you're not pushing the OCI any premium 5W-30 syn' will more than satisfy the lubrication requirements of the M52 engine.

 

[fdcg27]

You are running a pretty daring blend in your 328i.
Have you UOAed any of your runs with this blend?
Also, is it not possible that oil pressure will look just fine while the journals are in contact with the bearings using a thinner oil than recommended under high load conditions?
BMW does recommend oils of at least 3.5 HTHSV.
Will thinner oils really be adequate under all conditions?
I must admit that neither the OP nor I run our cars really hard on a routine basis, so it may be that a lower HTHSV oil would be perfectly adequate to the OP and to me.
I wish I could really accept this.
I could then start feeding my G-Oil stock to my old BMW, or the Ultra or the QSUD.

 

[CATERHAM]

Actually I have been running a 0W-20 in the winter for the past 8 years. I just thicken it up in the warmer months.
Except for a 10,000 miles period on M1 0W-40, it has never been filled with anything heavier than a light 5W-30 (HTHSV 3.1cP)
I'm the second owner. The original owner once he started servicing the oil himself used Castrol GTX 10W-30 exclusively.
The car now has 200,000 miles on it and runs like new.
The car is driven reasonably fast cruising in the 85-95 mph range traffic permitting.

An OP gauge is an effective viscometer. If the oil pressure is "fine" then the operational viscosity in more than adequate.
I can run a 0W-20 in the winter since the oil temp's rarely get above 85C.
Running a light (HTHSV 3.0-3.2cP) 30wt synthetic oil there is no way short of the race track that one can generate oil temp's high enough to come close to testing the minimum OP spec' for the engine. If you don't track you Bimmer you have nothing to be concerned about.
As a point of interest, the current 300 hp twin turbo Bimmer (forget the engine #) routinely generates quite high oil temp's (260F) on the street and the recommended oil in NA is the shear prone BMW (Castrol) 5W-30. Obviously BMW doesn't consider the oil too light but I can tell you the operational viscosity will be lower in that engine than running a typical 5W-30 syn in a normally aspirated L6.

 

[fdcg27]

Hmmm...
Maybe my old 4 cyl machine really would benefit from a thinner oil.
It does beg the question, though.
Why does BMW spec oils with minimum HTHSV of 3.5, including the BMW branded Castrol?
I'm thinking that I could UOA this run of Maxlife 10W-40, and then run a couple of OCIs on G-Oil 5W-30, which appears to have fairly high HTHSV, and see whether there is any significant difference in wear metals in the used oil.