Could buying oil be this confusing - help!

[MuhammadJ]

i have a E90 323i Sportspack. Car has 107K on the clock, last service done at 99K. The oil light came on and I need to top up with a litre. ok, so cool with that as i hear this is normal.

Called up a few dealers and they seem to stock different brands, why so? BMW at the glen has Fuchs, JSN and Alberante - Castrol Magnetec.

Tried Autozone - they say go with some Castrol Professional (sales guy says no to magentec for this car)
Shell lubmatch site suggests Shell Helix Ultra Extra 5W-30

gosh could buying oil be so confusing,
guys help plz. . . which is the correct oil and why do different BM dealers have different brands?

thnx

 

[chrisc]

i have a E90 323i Sportspack. Car has 107K on the clock, last service done at 99K. The oil light came on and I need to top up with a litre. ok, so cool with that as i hear this is normal.

Called up a few dealers and they seem to stock different brands, why so? BMW at the glen has Fuchs, JSN and Alberante - Castrol Magnetec.

Tried Autozone - they say go with some Castrol Professional (sales guy says no to magentec for this car)
Shell lubmatch site suggests Shell Helix Ultra Extra 5W-30

gosh could buying oil be so confusing,
guys help plz. . . which is the correct oil and why do different BM dealers have different brands?

thnx

I have always used Shell 10w60, its about R250,00 for 5 litres. Car has done 265000km and no trace of wear or decreased power (but I drive like an old toppie anyway). Make sure that the last oil change did not use synthetic oil, since its best (but not vital) to stick with a similar oil to what was put in last

 

[Twinz]

Take the castrol from the dealer...pour in and enjoy your car. :thumbs:

 

[moranor@axis]

the dealer who did the last service should have the same oil so you can top up with that... I dont believe in mixing oils...

 

[Mike1]

Chuck any old 5w30 or 5w40 in as long as it has a BMW LL04 or 01 approval on the can.

Hydro cracked oils can be safely mixed as long as you stick to the viscosity of the oil currently in the motor, no fully synthetics.

Twinz and moranor so far has given spot on advice. :thumbs:

 

[Philip Foglar]

As per what Moranor said, best is to go to the dealer that last serviced your car and ask them for a ltr of oil that they use. Chances are it is either Castrol Magnatec Professional (used to be SLX) 5W30 or Engen Syntium 3000 5W30 which are both BMW LL01 spec.

I would stick with whatever brand and spec oil that the car has always been on but just change the oil more frequently - once a year or every 10 - 15k km...

 

[herr bmw]

i use castrol magnetec,used by bmw club fountains and also bought some as spare in case the car needs it from there spares department

 

[Jerez]

SAE 5 w30 is what BMW would recommend

 

[kabal]

1 litre of oil in 8000km is normal? maybe when the car is new and rings arent fully bedded in, but after 100K+ that seems excessive.

my 328 used to eat oil, like a can every 1000km, but that had bad valve stem seals.
my e46 m3 was regularly raped, and never used a drop of oil in the 50000km I owned her (70000-120000)

 

[andrewbuch]

1 litre of oil in 8000km is normal? maybe when the car is new and rings arent fully bedded in, but after 100K+ that seems excessive.

my 328 used to eat oil, like a can every 1000km, but that had bad valve stem seals.
my e46 m3 was regularly raped, and never used a drop of oil in the 50000km I owned her (70000-120000)

These newer cars eat oil. My 1988 318i with 380k kms on it never used oil between services, got it on it 330k kms sold it on 380k kms, never topped up oil, and i drove it hard all the time. Same story with my e36.

Sent from my GT-P5100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Philip Foglar]

Yep, these newer engines used in the E90 and so on generally do use varying amounts of oil (seems a lot of other newer cars are affected by this too) which I gather does improve a bit over times as the engine runs in at higher mileage. And I can only go according to my 330i, but when I bought the car with 46k km it was using a ltr of oil every 6500 km, then 8100 km, and now it is currently on 25% level between min and max and has done roughly 8900 km, so definitely getting better over time with the car now on roughly 68k km...

 

[Jakkals_F30]

With my 323i... i drive the car hard so i need a litre of top up around 5k km..
Drive like an old lady and it take a bit longer but yes i have read in numerous places and even the dealers say it's normal.

Good thing is at least you get a litre of new oil in the car :rollsmile:

 

[Philip Foglar]

I wonder if the general E90 using oil thing is also not possibly due to the lack of a temperature gauge, therefore most people seem to forget the importance of driving their cars gently when cold...

 

[MuhammadJ]

thank for the help guys.
i spoke to the dealer who did the last service and they used Castrol Mag Prof 5w30 - so i'll go past them to grab a litre or 2 ....

seems like driving these machines hard uses oil - so a litre fresh oil every now n then

cheers