Is an Oil change every 24,000Km's unusual for 200K M54 engine?
- Thread starter NaweedMustafa
- Start date
[ref]B21[/ref], Of course you CAN use whatever oil you like, however that isn't the same as you SHOULD. And whilst they have a similar viscosity when cold they do not when at normal operating temperatures, given the OP's mileage I bet it spends more time hot than cold. Unless of course he spends all his time driving in Egypt or regularly tracks it, how is a more viscous oil going to better?
sars said:
The car doesnt go through harsh conditions, previous owner did mainly highway miles, because of where he lived. I only use this car to go to work, so highway miles. Occasionally to my gf's when she has a lot of things to bring back to her place. definitely more city driving than the previous owner but still a lot more highway driving when compared.
To add more data to this discussion. In roughly 12,000Km's, ive topped up ~2.5L. A "BMW specialist" garage i went to once kept pushing me to switch to 10W40 but i will see how my oil consumption is. Since i fixed my disa, ive been checking my dipstick often and didnt notice a sigle drop of oil, so im a bit suspicious about that or its just a placebo effect, that the renewed disa just made my car feel overall better. Not sure if this helps.
This whole discussion of oil has been cloudy for me, even before i purchased this car. I am yet to come across any failures reported online, due to engine oil for this specific engine
sars said:
SARS I’ll carry on with our more polite ping pong..
So BMW states formally you can use a variety of 5w-30 AND/OR 5w-40 in that engine..
So from a compliance viewpoint BMW say you should use 5w40 if you prefer
It’s interesting in TIS that later on BMW for later models does have can and preferred lists, but not in this case..it just has two lists both populated with both 5w-30 AND 5w-40 oils..
In that context your advice was misleading…IMHO..
Many people (note the avoidance of the phrase ‘it’s generally accepted’) find that the thicker oil at normal operating temperature reduces the oil consumption ..in a specific case I know on a 150k mile N52 by more than 50%
NaweedMustafa said:
It's a shame others decided to chip in to this thread with inappropriate, wrong and misleading opinions, the net result of which has left you confused unsurprisingly.
Frequency of oil changes and migrating to a higher viscosity are 'preventive' measures with NO disbenefits and is not only about oil consumption and/or engine/component failure.
But it's probably a better idea that you do your own research outside of the forum as you're only going to get a million and 3 conflicting opinions, which can and does invariably end up in a pointless fkg bun-fight and sniping as per this very thread!
I suggest the re/search terms you use are ones such as 'wear rates of engine components', 'operating design tolerances' and 'preventive maintenance for IC engines'.
Good luck!
Sludgepump
Member
How many people popped out to check the colour of their engine oil while reading this thread? I know I did!
I tend to err on the side of more regular oil changes. It isn't an expensive job in any case
I tend to err on the side of more regular oil changes. It isn't an expensive job in any case
