Whatis the best Engine oil to use?

I always recommend cod liver oil to the lube trolls I encounter.

Of course, even with today's bullet-proof engines, you still check your engine oil level weekly, don't you?

-- Larry

BMW's house brand synthetic is good and often sold at a good price. Mobil 1 is approved by BMW (5qt jugs at Walmart at good prices sometimes). The 325 is supposed to be fed 5W30. You can also go with the boutique oils (Amsoil, Redline, Royal Purple), all outstanding lubricants but probably not worth the price premium unless you plan on long service intervals and don't consume much oil between changes.

R / John

You'll have to show us how to do that on the new models that don't have dipsticks.

It's a very long time since I've found this necessary. Both my cars - one BMW and one 20 year old 'classic' don't need topping up between oil changes, and both have low oil level warning circuits. Of course it will depend on driving style and conditions, but I'd say those would have to be pretty exceptional to require a weekly check.

I agree with the above. For dino oil synthetic, I would go with mobile one. For pure synthetic, red line seems to be what most bimmer folks lean towards. The best performance/price/availability balance would be mobil one.

I'm not sure about castrol's synthetic line, while they do make good dino based oils- I haven't heard much about using their heavy additive derived synthetics. They add some chemicals to make your seals swell up and also some to clean the gunk out of your engine. But if your engine is clean and leak-free, mobile one is typically the standard. BMW doesn't typically recommend high end synthetics probably because of the price/availability.

ER

"Enoch ROot" wrote

You don't consider M1 products to be full synthetics? Care to elaborate and provide some supporting references?

Thanks,

Pete

Once again, you have it exactly backwards. Mobil 1 is a true synthetic (PAO base) oil and Castrol Syntec is the cracked mineral oil base.

Mobil 1 (0W40) is one of the few BMW Long Life endorsed oils besides the BMW branded oil which is supposedly manufactured by Castrol, but is not the same as Syntec.

If I had a newer model I'd use BMW oil. Get it in case lots and save a few bucks. It's about the same price as the others.

On all of my oldies, I now use Shell Rotella T Full Synthetic (5W40).

"Fred W" wrote

Yup, with one exception though. The 0w-30 Syntec that says "Made in Germany" on the back label (someties called German Castrol or GC), which can be found at some AutoZone stores in the US, is actually a repackaged Castrol SLX oil from Europe and does not contain group III (hydrocracked) components. Of course the "Made in USA" Syntec 0w-30 is like all other Syntec grades - group III.

One other Castrol oil called TWS Motorsport 10w-60 is also fully synthetic AFAIK, but I'm not sure if it can be easily found in North America. BMW dealers might have it as it was recommended for some M3 engines if I'm not mistaken.

Pete

Hear hear.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

What is the consequence? (GC or AC?)

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling