Suitable Oil for 3.0d (193BHP)

That sounds like crap. BMW in league with Castrol to allow them to be sole oil manufacturers for oil for this engine ? Oil makers have agreed [between themselves and all manufacturers] standards for their oils.. You need to check your handbook and it will tell you which specs your oil should meet. For deisel engines this is often the lowest spec and therefore the cheapest oil. There is no advantage to paying more money for oil of the same or higher specification oil than is required.

You're wrong on one thing - the suggestion diesel engines use crap oil. Perhaps in the says diesels were solely for tractors - but now there is more stress in the 'd' engine that in petrol. Also, the turbo bearings require decent lube. Apparently, the filtration system is that much better too to allow longer life between servicing but the filters require a certain oil viscosity. This all said, I remain unconvinced need to spend £65 on oil alone (+ filter, + labour) for a lube change!

You will probably find that BMW would not have performed long term oil testing on Visco 7000. There are many oil suppliers and they can not possibly test every oil on the market.

Therefore, to be safe, go with the manufacturers recommended oil, otherwise you could potentially invalidate your warranty in the event that you suffer an engine failure, turbo failure, etc.

However, as Rusty said, if you look in the owners handbook, it should give the minimum standard for oil that should be used. If you have proof from the oil supplier that their oil is of an equivalent specification of higher, then you should be OK.

Of course, if you are servicing the vehicle outside of the dealer network, you will need to prove that you have used this oil in the engine at the recommended service intervals and that it is the equivalent or greater than the manufacturers minimum specification to be used in this engine.

Read it again. I never suggested that at all. Your dealer said only Castrol is good enough - that sounds crap.

When I had mine I contacted BMW UK at Bracknell - techy dept and they said any oil that conformed to that spec or better would be fine - I seem to remember that a Mobil 1 oil was OK

Nick

Aren't Castrol part of DuPont or Ashland Oil now????????

Sir Hugh of Bognor

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Intelligence is not knowing the answer but knowing where and how to find it!

Hugh Gundersen snipped-for-privacy@h-gee.co.uk Bognor Regis, W.Sussex, England, UK

Recent EEC (Euroland) law changes have removed this stipulation about who and where your car can or cannot be serviced however, it is wise to use genuine parts for mechanical items bearing in mind that no car maker makes tyres (tires) brakes, oil and air filters, light bulbs, paint, bearings (generally these are all standard sizes and can, theoretically, be bought from any bearing outlet such as SKF etc.

It might be prudent to get the servicing done by a main agent but at what point does it become foolish - after 5 - 7 years I suggest.

Sir Hugh of Bognor

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Intelligence is not knowing the answer but knowing where and how to find it!

Hugh Gundersen snipped-for-privacy@h-gee.co.uk Bognor Regis, W.Sussex, England, UK

My experience suggests Kwik Fit would make a more honest job of servicing your BMW than any main dealer - and I've had three.

I agree with you Dave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sir Hugh of Bognor

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Intelligence is not knowing the answer but knowing where and how to find it!

Hugh Gundersen snipped-for-privacy@h-gee.co.uk Bognor Regis, W.Sussex, England, UK

I think I read it OK the first time but I used slightly different wording to your own.

For deisel engines this is often the lowest spec and therefore the cheapest oil.

lowest spec interpreted as crap by me.

I remain adamant that in fact turbo diesels use high spec oil.

Tell us your experiences - always interesting where there is consistency

You may be adamant but some do and some don't. I run a Ford turbo diesel that requires oil to meet ACEA-A3-96 and ACEA-B3-96 or API SH/CD. This is about the basic spec in the UK now and most supermarket own brands meet this. What does your handbook ask for ?

Too many really to list here without boring everyone, but I've *never* had a totally satisfactory experience at service time etc at a main dealer over many years and several cars. I'm now sticking with my E39 well after I'd normally change and am using an independant who is much much better.

I'll give you just one example, though. I put the car in for an oil service and for a leak from the power steering to be fixed. Since I wasn't sure about where the leak was from initially, I'd checked the engine oil level. Which was near enough on minimum. I didn't top it up but booked it in for the oil service and leak. On collecting the car, they'd charged for removing and replacing a steering hose. The car had been valeted as usual. But before driving off I opened the bonnet to check on the leak - only to discover they'd not cleaned the engine undertray - or the engine itself where the fluid had leaked on it. Nor had either of the steering hoses been removed from the reservoir - they have crimps, and neither was new. Idly, I also dipped the engine oil to find it still on minimum...

Went back in and talked to the supervisor. He was immediately defensive saying that cleaning the engine etc wasn't asked for. He then said it was impossible for the engine oil level to be wrong as they use a dispenser that measures the exact amount needed for each model. On querying the fact that the hose hadn't been removed as stated on the invoice he said it was probably not one of the ones showing - despite that being where the leak was coming from.

My conclusion was they hadn't actually touched the car apart from valeting it...

They topped up the oil and cleaned the front of the engine while I waited. But no apology. The service manager also implied I didn't know how to check oil level properly. So of course I got him to show me how. Not that the level on the dipstick went up.;-) And for a man so superior on oil checking methods I was surprised he didn't take something to clean the dipstick with him. But I kindly gave him a wipe from the box in the boot.

The leak was still there, so on my next clear day I removed the crimp, trimmed the hose end and fitted a worm drive clip. That cured it. I also changed the oil and filter - I run the car till the service indicator says a change is needed and I wasn't going to risk that figure being doubled.

If you were getting some sort of bargain basement prices at a dealer some inefficiency might be expected. But mine charges some 120 gbp per hour plus top dollar for things like oil - over 12 gbp per litre. It's a lot extra to pay for a cup of coffee in a posh waiting room...

Fully synthetic 0W-30 Castrol longlife Min spec ACEA A3 spec (no number after it) Doesn't mean anything to me - but it is bloody expensive

Correction, I think that was for petrol ACEA B3 perhaps?

This is not low quality - B1 is low, B2 is medium and B3 is high performance.

Well you do run a FORD (fix or repair daily)

Sir Hugh of Bognor

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Intelligence is not knowing the answer but knowing where and how to find it!

Hugh Gundersen snipped-for-privacy@h-gee.co.uk Bognor Regis, W.Sussex, England, UK

Turbodiesels do not require special oil. I use cheap crap from the coop on my half million mile turbodiesel and have for a decade.

Having said that there is one point to consider - if you run the engine hard then shut if off the oil in the turbo may cook if it's dino juice whereas synthetic can tolerate the higher temperature.

I have said this previously. I used to design and fit turbochargers to new vehicles for Toyota in the early 1980s. this was a development stage in turbo charging as you probably know and lots of knowledge have been learned and passed on by persons like myself, Alan Allard, Turbo Technics et al.

One of the first things we decided not to compromise on was OIL. Mobil 1 was just coming on to the market and was hard to get so we (Turbo Engineering) and Alan (Allard turbochargers) decided to investigate the use of semi-synthetic oils.

I went with Huntingdon Chemicals semi-synthetic and Toyota honored the warranty through the dealers (they had to be retro fitted to avoid type approval testing). We never experienced bearing wipe-out due to heat but were very conscious of informing owners in no uncertain terms that the warranty would be voided if it was found that the oil had burned onto the semi-floating bearing as this would indicate a red-hot switch off after a fast run.

We used to say that it was wise to drive calmer for the last 5 miles home and to leave the engine ticking over whilst you emptied the passengers and shopping etc. to avoid burning the oil onto the bearings.

Developments in bearing cooling led to water cooled bearings that cured this problem but not all manufacturers offered this so we designed a heat exchanger system that is very similar to that used by some vehicle makers today.

One other problem we came across was that some people would OVERFILL the sump and the oil level would cover the turbo bearing drain thus the oil could not drain back into the sump and this will wipe a bearing instantly.

It is very easy to tell how a bearing assy was destroyed so nobody got away with lying and all but one bearing failure was through stupidness and not doing what was told.

The real bearing failure? - The bearing assembly was not machined correctly and the circlip locating the semi-floating bearing was too tight and as the bearing housing expanded the bearing stopped rotating. !00% free replacement + labour costs from IHI.

Remember instructions are there to be followed - Use crap oil at your own risk or be sensible with it. Remember you can by an awful lot of chap oil for the price of a turbo explosion - probably a new car as well.........

Sir Hugh of Bognor

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Intelligence is not knowing the answer but knowing where and how to find it!

Hugh Gundersen snipped-for-privacy@h-gee.co.uk Bognor Regis, W.Sussex, England, UK