Changing type of oil used

Standard Magnatec is only a mineral oil. Use what BMW suggest in the handbook.

Tim..

That was quick. Not what I wanted to hear but never mind. :-)

Not that I'm saying any Castrol oil is poor, but why not just stick to the maker's recommendation, or better?

IIRC, the semi-synthetic that my dealer used on my BMW was Duckham's Hypergrade. But these names like Hypergrade or Magnetec etc don't always mean exactly the same oil, as they've been in use for ages.

I should have asked the question earlier. Just been to Europarts to pick up the service parts and bought their recommendation semi synthetic.

Very impressed with Europarts as well. My tickover has been ropey for ages and BMW told me the car was too old be able to get any useful diagnostics from the OBD I. (J reg). Europarts talked me out of buying another new Lambda probe (the last one was a wire it yourself cheapy). Phoned up a man who they knew who does the diagnostics and passed the phone over to me so I could have a chat. Apparently there are lots of info that can be got from the OBDI so I'm going to book up next week. A result thanks to Europarts.

I've always used them because of the price and efficiency. I am impressed with the service you got. Above and beyond the call of duty I'd say. Pat on the back for Eurocarparts. And a gold star.

diagnostics

I'm so dumb. They gave me the phone number on a postit note that I stuck on to my shopping list of parts I wanted. Got home and decided to check compression to make sure I haven't got any poorly cylinders. Wrote each compression result on back of shopping list which dropped down the side of the engine. I'll get that out later I thought. Did I? Did I ******y!! I also managed to lose one of the new spark plugs I'd just bought. Two reasons for another trip to Europarts. I'm going to look such a pratt.

I phoned them up today about the aux fan on my E39 which is kaput. They don't list it in their cat. Their computer was down and he said he'd phone back - which he did in about 5 minuets. Yes they did them. Asked if my nearest branch had one or would they send one there. Checked and no they didn't but offered next day delivery FOC. Impressive. ;-)

Mind if I ask how much they quoted? Mine occasionally sounds like it's attempting liftoff.

Approx 125 squids. This is the fan in front of the rad, btw. They often get blocked with leaves, etc.

You know that when the engine gets hot the main engine driven fan locks up its coupling and runs at full speed making much more noise?

If you do, sorry to teach grandma, etc. ;-)

Yep, that one.

Clean as a whistle.

Pretty sure it's the aux fan that's causing the noise but I'll check again next time it happens. Definitely louder than normal hot running though - can easily hear it from inside at 40mph, causes passing pedestrians to turn and duck etc. etc.

On mine, the aux fan runs all the time the AC is switched on. Never had it come on otherwise.