Oil in a 328i

[iantosca]

My car is inching towards the 100,000 mile marker and is in need of an oil change. What oil do you recommend i use in a '98 328i with that kind of mileage?

Thanks in advance.

[jllphan]

BMW North America recently sent a memo to authorized BMW service centers recomending a 20W50 for year around oil changes. IMO castrol would be my choice in this weight.

My car's engine is rapidly approaching the 100K mark, and was iffy about changing to synthetic. My desire to do so was predicated on the fact that it has been said that synthetic contains superior lubrication and protection against viscosity break down. It also supposedly extends the life of the VANOS unit, which can be very expensive to replace if failed.

I decided to switch to RedLine 10w40. This lighter weight sythetic is said to offer superior lubrication over a petroleum based 20W50. It may be psychological, but I swear my car idles smoother and has better low end acceleration. It is pricey at $8 a quart, but the recomended change intervals are 13-15K miles compared to 3K for a standard oil. I plan on changing the filter every 5K and the oil every 10K.

[iantosca]

Thanks again.

[Q_BMW]

hey
i have 106K miles and only get synthetic oil changes. I thought it was recommened to change synthetic every 7K miles? is that correct? so it would be good to still change the filter every 5K?
thanks
Q

[jllphan]

Q, stick with your routine. Your all good.

Red Line is different from Mobil 1 and others, and has a longer change interval. And while they say the oil is rated at 17K intervals, it doesn't take care of any potential crap that can get in there. Changing the filter more often, will aleviate that. Plus, I'm a little anal....

[Q_BMW]

hey
thanks jilphan, it also depends on how one drives right ? high revin sporty drivin will suck the oil out sooner then scheduled. is redline better then mobil apart from the fact that it last longer?
Q

[jllphan]

opinions vary, but after much research, I am now convinced that Red Line is the best consumer engine oil available. Take a look...{HERE}

And it really doesn't matter how you drive (unless of course you track your car). Standard recomended change intervals are 3K for petroleum based oil and 7K for synthetics. Like I said, Red Line is a little different.

[iantosca]

I hard that if i was to change to synthetic right now that my engine would leak. Also, how much oil does a 328i engine hold?

[Kevin325i]

To each his own. Jllphan likes Redline, I like Mobil 1, others like Amsoil. Really they all say you can go up to 15k miles on their synthetic oil. Basically I feel that the 8 bucks a quart for Redline is really just buying the name brand. ALso I'm kinda lazy and I jump into things, I can find Mobil 1 relatively easy but I have to drive a long way to get Redline.

Bottom line. Find the company with the full synthetic in the weight you want. Or the one that has the fanciest sounding website, in any case synthetic gives you a wider temperature range then conventional oil and has better flowing properties, blah blah read some websites till you get sick of their info, then buy the stuff from whatever site you're on.

Kevin

P.S. Anyone know a good online distributor for Redline, I think I might get some ATF from them. Right now I'm rollin' the full synthetic B&M Trick Shift, I don't know if I'll keep it.

[EuroBeem]

my 97 328i held 6.9 liters...thats what the bmw dealership said to....I live in jersey also and the guys at BMW told me to run 5w-30 Synthetic oil. I used to run regular oil in it, but finally decided to change the filter, drain the oil, and run synthetic !
Works great.

[iantosca]

Thanks eurobeem and everyone for their input.

[roguesniper1]

I run mineral oil , 20W-50 Castrol GTX. Yus, I am a cheap bitch, but I still change my oil at every 3000 miles religiously.


PS: A month ago on sale, I picked up 10 Cases of Castrol for $14.51 each. Talk bout UBER deal