Too Late For "synthetic" Oil?

[agtur2001]

Hi Everyone, I am thinking of changing my Castrol 20/50 conventional oil to Castrol Synthetic. However I am worried that it's too late since my 318is has so many miles already. My M42 with 189k runs great... no engine problems. Any Thoughts???

B)

[RIBEMR26]

If it runs great with almost 200K...I wouldn't change a thing...except your oil every 3000 miles...

[Autotechnica]

Agreed, with older higher milage motors, just do more frequent oil changes using convential motor oils. I use Castrol GTX 10W30. If you're starting to burn a little oil, try a thicker oil. The only advantage of using synthetic oil over conventional at this point is less frequent oil changes. However, with such high milage my guess is that you're either leaking or burning a bit of oil anyways. Don't waste your money. Synthetic oil blends are also a waste of money.

I change my oil every 3000-4000km's. I know it's frequent, but I do it myself.

Bry

[drz]

I'd stick with regular oil.

I put synthetic in mine fo rthe first time about 500 miles ago. My car has 169k miles on it. Now I am a bit concerned. I know maybe the switch will not help much, but can it hurt my engine?? Should I go back to mineral oil, or will THAT switch be bad? Help!

[bigred318]

exaclty even with the miles my car is im getting in the habit of chaning my oil more frequently. youll get pretty fast at it haha

David

[supark]

Switching between oils is not bad for your engine at all - some people worry that deposits left by the mineral oil will come loose and clog lubrication pathways in the engine, but as long as you run a good engine cleaner before you switch over, I can't imagine switching to synthetic would do anything but good for your car. I figure I'd rather have a couple leaks then have a bunch of sludge in my engine. I use synthetic mainly because I'm lazy and don't like having to change my oil every 3000 miles.

[moe19x]

would u guys recommend i use syntheic in my 98 328i, its got only loke 9,000 miles, it was in storge a few years till august, its only had a couple oil changes, so i was thinking of usin mobile 5w30 when i change my oil, im thinkin of chaing it my self, is it hard? is it any diffrent from changing oil in a toyota?

[supark]

Well - instead of a traditional screw-on filter, the E36 uses a drop-in one. Other than that, changing the oil is about the same as any other car - expect a lot of oil to come out though when you drain it out (a buddy of mine with a 325 didn't realize his drain pan was too small until it overflowed onto the garage floor). I'd definitely recommend synth in your car - better resistance to thermal breakdown, increased change intervals. I heard of a guy on a Saab forum that went 12k miles between changes without ill effects using synth. He would take an oil samples every 3000 miles and send them in to be tested (I forget where he sent them, but I assume it was pretty cheap to get the oil tested) and changed it at 12k just to be safe even though the oil seemed fine.

[Fadec40]

Originally posted by moe19x@Dec 14 2004, 11:16 PM
would u guys recommend i use syntheic in my 98 328i, its got only loke 9,000 miles, it was in storge a few years till august, its only had a couple oil changes, so i was thinking of usin mobile 5w30 when i change my oil, im thinkin of chaing it my self, is it hard? is it any diffrent from changing oil in a toyota?

[snapback]251024[/snapback]

You should already be using synthetic in your 98 328i.
Changing the oil is a snap. You will need a 36mm socket to remove the oil filter cap which is located towards the front of the engine on the left side. you can't miss it. It's a big black round housing with the the hex head on top for the 36mm socket. You can get a new filter online for between $8-10. It comes with a new drain plug gasket and o'ring. Also, you will need 7 quarts of oil, so have a drain pan big enough to handle all the oil.

[93 325i]

Just switched to Castrol Syntec- Sythetic Blend 10W-40 for the winter. MY car has 129K. So far so good..

[fushuman]

Hey!!! I was just thinking about doing that.

Switching to Castrol Syntec Blend because its getting cold here (25 F) and because the engine feels heavy and rough in the morning warm-ups. My car has 130k miles and i'm not sure yet if i'll do the switch.

"93 325i" when did you switch to Syntec Blend? did it made a difference in warm-ups?

[93 325i]

It actually did..Not sure if it's just cause its new oil, but prior to the switch the morning start would be pretty rough (car would kind of shake a bit). Now it is pretty smooth during the morning start. And it got down to 15 degrees last nite. Figured doing the blend couldn't hurt and so far I am pleased..

[drz]

I didn;t get a chance to see how my car performed during cold starts whiel it still had mineral oil in it, but it starts beautifully even at 16 degrees surring mobil 1 10w30

[YoungExec728]

I made the switch to synthetic a few oil changes ago. I went from Castrol 20W-50 to Mobil 1 15W-50. I didn't run an engine cleaner before i made the switch, but i did do a blend first (5Qt synthetic, 2 Qt Mineral). I am kind of worried that i didn't run a cleaner first, but so far no problems. And i can definitely feel a difference. Engine runs much smoother and the roar of the engine upon starting is a stronger. I do have a little bit of an oil leak now, more like 4 or 5 drips. I plan on changing the oil pan gasket next oil change. btw, i have about 240K on the clock

What do others use as far as oil weight goes in so. cal?

[mmzcee]

I just changed my oil to synthetic at 153k today...will see what happens.