Magic Sauce or Mumbo Jumbo?

I have this 96 E36 BMW 328i. Overall it is a nice car, but it is a high mileage (165k+) all-weather daily driver.

According to BMW and to the (questionable) folks who frequent the BMW boards, if you don't put the right filters and the right oil in this thing you are doomed. And I don't just mean good oil and good filters, but specific oil and specific filters. In other words, not just Mobil 1, but special BMW approved "European Formula" Mobil 1. Same thing with the filters - use OE or replace your engine.

So here is my dilemma. Is the stuff that folks would consider premium products like full synthetic motor oil and brand-name filters that I might put in my other vehicles really going to grenade the old BMW? On my last oil change I was a good boy and got the right BMW approved oil and OE filter from a mail-order BMW shop, but it sure is tempting to just stop by the auto parts place on my way home for the next change. I'm not going for extended change intervals, 5-6k miles tops. WWGRMD?

No warranty, no care. :)

no.

Go consult on BobIsTheOilGuy forums, and find out everything you ever wanted to know about the best fluid for that specific car.

Seriously.

BTW< I run Rotella T5 on my e30

Mine seems to like Rotella T6. It also liked Lubro-Moly and German Castrol, but the Rotella is a lot cheaper and easier to source. I tried M1 0W40 once and made the valvetrain tick. Mann or Mahle filters from one of the mail order places will probably be cheaper than whatever you can get at parts chains (for some reason there seems to be a steep tax on cartridge filters from those kinds of places).

+1 on the Man brand filters, I buy mine 4 at a time from eEuroparts.com. I also buy most of my SAAB and BMW parts from them.

I would never bother with synthetic oil unless the manufacturer specifically calls for it, I might possibly make an exception for an engine used for racing, but not a DD engine.

I've had several SAABs go well past 250k miles on thier original engines using quality conventional oils and no other special treatment.

There is also a kid in my neighborhood with a 300k mile E34 525. Its been ridden hard and put away wet for atleast half of its life, and still has its original engine. It leaks like a sieve, but has compression in all 6 jugs and only smokes a bit on cold starts. That one pretty much puts to rest the advice of those so-called experts.

Your car predates the BMW Long Life requirements (LL-98, -01, and -04), so you have a wider choice of oils. If it were me I'd use the ACEA A3/B3 standards as my guide; the BMW standards are derived from these. 5-6k mile changes should be no problem provided that your PCV/CCV system is in good shape, and that you are not doing purely city-cycle driving.

The LL oil requirements seem to take two things as their guiding principles: oil life and fuel economy. In my experience the expected oil life is highly optimistic, while the fuel economy gains come at the expense of consumption. The ACEA A3/B3 and A3/B4 standards allow for a wider array of choices, including some heavy-in-grade Xw40 oils that I've had better results with than the Xw30 LL-approved options.

Personally, I'd be more concerned about the filtration and the crankcase ventilation than the oil itself.There are, of course, plenty of BMWs and other cars running around on the "wrong" oil without suffering immediate self-destruction. That doesn't mean they aren't being affected, it just means that the effects may not be easily noticeable. A change with an ACEA oil and a good filter is going to cost maybe $60; with a cheap oil and Chinese filter, maybe $30-40. Not much a difference in cost over 5-6k miles.

One thing to consider would be resale of the car. Seems like the first thing anyone asks on TDI club is what coolant/oil/filters did you use, and if its anything other than what TDIC agrees to, they think the car was poorly maintained. That's why I run the fancy stuff, which isn't that expensive once you hunt down deals.

An engine is an engine.

Quality fluids and filters is all it needs as long as they are changed regularly.

btw: Amsoil has a "European Car" oil that meets BMW specs.

My ti had 140k+ miles on it when the body died. The last 60,000 where done on Mobil1 and Mann Filters. Engine still ran strong with no more than a quart of use between changes at 5000 mile intervales (generally, once it hit the quart low line.. I changed it)

iceracer wrote: An engine is an engine. Quality fluids and filters is all it needs as long as they are changed regularly. btw: Amsoil has a "European Car" oil that meets BMW specs.

Not really true, with reduced ZDDP in modern oils. Certain VW's are tremendously sensitive to oil type, with high correlation between incorrect oil and cam failure. Motors with flat tappet cams (like my 964) are also prone to early cam wear with modern, low ZDDP oils.

That said, I've always used Rotella T5 in my BMW's (including 328i and E36 M3). Diesel oil typically has high ZDDP, which helps me sleep at night. . It's also cheap, and quieted the lifter tick that I was getting after auto-x runs.

rotella T6 in my E36... 230,000 miles on stock bottom end components, and she runs just fine and dandy. I do use Mann filters though, but that's because they're cheap enough.

Edit- This is also a track/autox/summer only car... It gets put through its paces, and still burns very little oil.