My First Oil Change On My E36

[SuperFreaks 323is]

Okay so its a nice day get up and just got my rear wheel bearings done and my car is ridin sweet, so figured nothing better than to change the oil for the first time and have it runnin perfect, afterwards give it a short detail and its ready to roll! well thought i had everyhthing i needed then found out didnt have what it took to get my oil filter cover off, so after 3 or so hours fiddling with that, got it, a lil nicked up but no harm no foul. so then i go to drain the oil and plug is very hard to get out, but got it, well part of it at least, so it breaks off and half of it is stuck in there, but its hollow so all the oil drains out anyways, so then go and find a drill bit to screw it out, comes out a like a charm !!! and put the new in one, oh yeah got to napa 5 min beofre it closed to get another oil plug, had it in stock too couldnt believe that, so ready to go and finally put the new oil in , put 7 quarts in and only got it to the bottom of the first line?!? anyone else ever have to put that much in, so believe it or not after about 7 hours haha yeah i know pretty bad, got it done, and put another half of quart in and its topped off, even had time to detail inside and out, whew crazy, reply back with what amounts of oil u guys usually have to use for the diys out there. i used mobil 1 5w 30 by the way with a Mann filter

[97alpineM3]

Working on a BMWs can be fun.. and it could also give you a headache.... besides that... looks like your using some good products...

Good luck,

Les

[dark_islight]

Its German and they love oil capacity. One of the main reasons the engines last so long. Mine takes 8.5 liters and a litre is slightly less volume than a US quart.

The capacity chart for the M50/M52 engine lists 7 US quarts or 8.5 litres.
My guess is that it doesn't include what stays in the filter.

[kearnyme]

Mine's an M42 and it takes 5 quarts..

[3serbmdubya]

7.5 quarts... god i love it when that temp gauge doesnt move

[xsperf]

yep, ud be surprised the first time, 7.5 quarts... lol, isnt the recommended oil change 15000 miles? i dunno

[E36KindaGuy]

To hell with that. I use synthetic every 5,000 MAX

[Henri]

5.5 liters in a M44 (318i).

I was surprised also when i did my 1st oil change :-)

[mech9T8]

I did my first oil change over the weekend as well.
Had the same problem with the oil filter cover. I started by using vice grips to remove but after after the first slip I stopped. Well I already drained my oil so I had to call a friend to stop by a local hardware store to buy me a 36mm socket. After that it was smooth sailing...untill the clean-up. I didn't realize how sludgy oil really is. I didn't want to toss my drain pan so I spent a good hour cleaning it. Next time I'm going to buy some kind of liner.
As for how much oil I used, the owners manual says 6.5 liters. I used about that much. Funny thing is that 6.5 liters of oil did not drain out. It was less that that but maybe I was running a little low.