Need help. 97 BMW

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Picked up a new to me 97 BMW 325I. 250Kish on the clock. UNK on the last oil change. Primary driving will be 7 miles round trip 4 times a week. Any other info I'm not sure what to provide. It doesn't run but after I get the parts the oil is going to be first.
 
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
Any 5W-30 will be fine, preferably synthetic.


28 miles a week, I would say dino oil because he is not gonna get any benefit from using synthetic, and he should probably be going by the severe service in his owner's manual, meaning instead of changing the oil at 5000 miles it should be changed at maybe 3000 miles or once a year.
 
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
Syn' is always better and is often not much more than than a premium dino bought on sale.


Syn is not much more that an on sale dino oil?
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Yeah, I know what your really meant, I just had to read it twice to make sure.
I eagerly await dnewton3's response to this blanket statement.
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Originally Posted By: threeputtpar
I eagerly await dnewton3's response to this blanket statement.

I'm a conventional fan, too, but this application is a tiny bit different. When I had the old Audi with similar viscosity recommendations, I tried two strategies (note that I did not do a lot of short tripping). The first was I'd run a lighter conventional in the winter and a 15w-40 in the summer. That was fine, except it consumed the lighter oil fairly rapidly in the winter. The other strategy was a synthetic 0w-40 or 5w-40 for a year round fill. That saved me the grief of seasonal oil changes and the consumption was minimized.

If I put few miles on, the synthetic was more cost effective. Seasonal oil changes can get expensive if few miles are accrued.
 
I'd put a cheap cleaning dino like PYB 5W-30 for 3k miles at first to clean whatever the previous owner put on there, then go with full synth 0W-30 or 5W-30 and change at 7k OCI for your short trip application.

Replace PCV valve if necessary and check oil level every 1k miles to see if it's leaking/consuming it.
 
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I'm assuming Amsoil got that temperature chart out of a 1997 BMW owners manual.

You guys don't pay attention to temperature charts no more ?
 
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