Wrong oil in 218i Active Tourer
Discussion
Hey,
Just picked up a used BMW 218i active tourer. It needed topping up with oil but iv put the wrong oil in it stupidly. I have put mobil super 3000 x1 formula fe 5w-30 in it. The viscosity is correct but this oil is ACEA A5B5 but when checking the car manual it needs A3B4.
Do I need to drain the oil out and do it again or will it be ok for a few months?
Just picked up a used BMW 218i active tourer. It needed topping up with oil but iv put the wrong oil in it stupidly. I have put mobil super 3000 x1 formula fe 5w-30 in it. The viscosity is correct but this oil is ACEA A5B5 but when checking the car manual it needs A3B4.
Do I need to drain the oil out and do it again or will it be ok for a few months?
Edited by raspire on Monday 8th April 22:26
Actually I think I might of messed up big time here. Damn BMWs with no dipstick!
OK so here's my situation and the more research I do the more confusing it becomes due to how Idrive monitors the oil levels.
I picked up the BMW Active tourer and within the first day of driving it said "Oil Below MInimum please add 1 qt as soon as possible"
Everything seemed fine, no engine clunks, a bit of smoke initially out of the exhaust but I put that down to being sat on a drive for 3 months before we started it up again.
Initially the Idrive only reported a problem with tire pressure, not with the oil , after driving it about then the "oil below minimum" warning came on. I havent seen seen any warning to do with Oil pressure, my car manual isnt clear if it will tell me on idrive if i will be alerted to oil pressure problems.
As I understand it, below minimum low oil can be managed temporarily due to a oil store in the crankshaft to protect the engine? But low oil pressure is truly when the oil is too low and its now causing engine damage? That correct?
So on the second day when it reported the oil below minimum, I went to buy some oil and I ended up putting a whole 5 litres in it!
Turned the car on again, ran the oil check after letting the engine run for 15 mins. Oil levels now show as full.
The car has not reported as yet there is too much oil either.
But now I am worried since I completely disregarded the 1 qrt oil message and added in 5 litres. That I have actually done some damage to the cars engine by adding too much in. It might of already had so many litres in it before I added in 5 litres but I wouldnt know because the idrive level just showed slightly below minimum so therefore I thought it needs filling up fully.
The car itself still drives fine, before writing this post, I actually drove it for 120 miles, mixture of hills and motorway driving. The car seems fine, again no obvious problems have presented itself. Engine sounds normal or so I think anyway, drives normal, after this 120 miles I checked the oil temp on the hidden menu and it showed as +99c so within its normal tolerance range.
So initially I was worried that I caused damage by driving on too little oil.
Now I am worried I am causing damage by overfilling the oil.
The BMW idrive would tell me if it had too much oil wouldnt it?
I wish bmws just had a damn dipstick then I could of just done it properly. First time iv owned a beamer and iv made some major mistakes straight off the bat.
What should I now be checking to see if Iv caused any damage.? Any experienced BMW owners know any further advanced information to advise me further? I mean everything seems fine but im just worried I messed up a car I just spent a lot of money on.
OK so here's my situation and the more research I do the more confusing it becomes due to how Idrive monitors the oil levels.
I picked up the BMW Active tourer and within the first day of driving it said "Oil Below MInimum please add 1 qt as soon as possible"
Everything seemed fine, no engine clunks, a bit of smoke initially out of the exhaust but I put that down to being sat on a drive for 3 months before we started it up again.
Initially the Idrive only reported a problem with tire pressure, not with the oil , after driving it about then the "oil below minimum" warning came on. I havent seen seen any warning to do with Oil pressure, my car manual isnt clear if it will tell me on idrive if i will be alerted to oil pressure problems.
As I understand it, below minimum low oil can be managed temporarily due to a oil store in the crankshaft to protect the engine? But low oil pressure is truly when the oil is too low and its now causing engine damage? That correct?
So on the second day when it reported the oil below minimum, I went to buy some oil and I ended up putting a whole 5 litres in it!
Turned the car on again, ran the oil check after letting the engine run for 15 mins. Oil levels now show as full.
The car has not reported as yet there is too much oil either.
But now I am worried since I completely disregarded the 1 qrt oil message and added in 5 litres. That I have actually done some damage to the cars engine by adding too much in. It might of already had so many litres in it before I added in 5 litres but I wouldnt know because the idrive level just showed slightly below minimum so therefore I thought it needs filling up fully.
The car itself still drives fine, before writing this post, I actually drove it for 120 miles, mixture of hills and motorway driving. The car seems fine, again no obvious problems have presented itself. Engine sounds normal or so I think anyway, drives normal, after this 120 miles I checked the oil temp on the hidden menu and it showed as +99c so within its normal tolerance range.
So initially I was worried that I caused damage by driving on too little oil.
Now I am worried I am causing damage by overfilling the oil.
The BMW idrive would tell me if it had too much oil wouldnt it?
I wish bmws just had a damn dipstick then I could of just done it properly. First time iv owned a beamer and iv made some major mistakes straight off the bat.
What should I now be checking to see if Iv caused any damage.? Any experienced BMW owners know any further advanced information to advise me further? I mean everything seems fine but im just worried I messed up a car I just spent a lot of money on.
raspire said:
So on the second day when it reported the oil below minimum, I went to buy some oil and I ended up putting a whole 5 litres in it!
Turned the car on again, ran the oil check after letting the engine run for 15 mins. Oil levels now show as full.
rassi said:
The oil capacity is 5.5 litres, I believe, so unless you have a very serious oil leak, you will have overfilled it by 100 %, assuming you put it 5 litres in the first place! Please take it to a garage and don't drive the car any further!
Yeah I probably should but wouldn't the car tell me if it's too full?thebraketester said:
Well if I put 5L of oil in my car when it told me to top up then it would be approximately 3.5-4L over filled.
Probably not a good idea.
But would the car tell me though? Like the car hasn't and that's what I'm confused about logically yeah it's excessive but the car seems to not mind and hasn't complained Probably not a good idea.
Personally, i would stop driving the car straight away. Its probably got a good 9 litres of oil in it now 
Take it to a garage (any garage) and get them to pull 4 litres of oil out of it, you're effectively drowning your engine in oil currently.
For reference, the difference between min. and max. on most cars is about a litre.
Take it to a garage (any garage) and get them to pull 4 litres of oil out of it, you're effectively drowning your engine in oil currently.
For reference, the difference between min. and max. on most cars is about a litre.
Edited by Sir_Dave on Wednesday 10th April 12:43
raspire said:
Actually I think I might of messed up big time here. Damn BMWs with no dipstick!
Are you sure you do not have a manual dipstick?My 335d x has all the electronic oil measurements, AND a manual dipstick. See here. It is not obvious and has no bright coloured handle, but it is there, tucked away for manual use.
Breakdown fraud suggestion aside (please don't do this) I would certainly not be driving the car around like that. Certainly not any long drives, or an anything other than low revs. You could very easily write off the engine/car.
If it's anything like my older and larger BMW engine, the low oil light (driven by a level sensor) comes on within a litre of the max line.
There is no over-filled sensor as said, so the engine won't know it's about to eat itself. If you get to the point of oil starvation and low oil pressure, you have done damage to the engine, which is why they now fit low oil warning sensors.
Daniel
If it's anything like my older and larger BMW engine, the low oil light (driven by a level sensor) comes on within a litre of the max line.
There is no over-filled sensor as said, so the engine won't know it's about to eat itself. If you get to the point of oil starvation and low oil pressure, you have done damage to the engine, which is why they now fit low oil warning sensors.
Daniel
Thanks for the image, nah there's defo no dipstick just checked again and from what I research it is only the diesel engines that have them.
Fair enough about the car not telling me there is too much in. From images I saw on Google I thought idrive did tell me this and that's why I thought it was ok. IV drivin it quite a lot before I realized the gravity of my mistake and the car is still fine. Somehow I don't think it's been overfilled enough to cause aeriation of the oil because there's no smoke from exhaust and the fact I drove it over 150 miles miles without wrecking the engine already.
I'm gonna have to get it to a garage asap
@Daniel will too much oil cause the oil pressure warning to come on or high engine temp? Because none of these things have happened. The car seems fine which makes me worried about how little oil might of been in the car when I picked it up
Fair enough about the car not telling me there is too much in. From images I saw on Google I thought idrive did tell me this and that's why I thought it was ok. IV drivin it quite a lot before I realized the gravity of my mistake and the car is still fine. Somehow I don't think it's been overfilled enough to cause aeriation of the oil because there's no smoke from exhaust and the fact I drove it over 150 miles miles without wrecking the engine already.
I'm gonna have to get it to a garage asap
@Daniel will too much oil cause the oil pressure warning to come on or high engine temp? Because none of these things have happened. The car seems fine which makes me worried about how little oil might of been in the car when I picked it up
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