E36 328i oil recommendations

[Daniel1]

Just purchased a 328i shed and it needs a top up of oil. Anyone recommend any?

The car has covered 110,000 miles

Internet searches reveal 5w-30, 5w-40 and 10w-40, I think all fully synthetic, so just looking for clarification and not a member of bimmerforums yet.

Thanks

[steve_bmw]

5w 40 fully synthetic wil do nicely.

[4rephill]

Really depends on if the engine uses oil or not.

If you find it uses a litre every 500 miles then there's no point shelling out the extra for fully synthetic.

[s m]

4rephill said:

Really depends on if the engine uses oil or not.

If you find it uses a litre every 500 miles then there's no point shelling out the extra for fully synthetic.

I've used a 10/40 in mine for the last 70k miles ( 130k -> 200k ) and oil consumption is practically nil

[helix402]

I use 5w40 fully synthetic, this in a car that has now covered 180k miles.

[4rephill]

s m said:

I've used a 10/40 in mine for the last 70k miles ( 130k -> 200k ) and oil consumption is practically nil

I'm using mobil super 2000 10/40 semi-synthetic because My car drinks oil like Oliver Reed used to drink alcohol! (a litre every 300 miles )
I've tried various different oils- makes no difference, she drinks like a Geordie Lass on a Saturday night out!

She's done it since I bought her 6 years ago! A compression test by BMW showed no issues and changing the CCV made no difference at all. I'm suspecting a valve/valves issue but I'm not spending any more money on her so I just top up the oil on a weekly basis (or after every long journey).

Yes I could use even cheaper oil but I don't want to totally neglect the old girl!

On the plus side, I no longer need oil services as the oil is always fresh!
(I do change the filter ever year though. a nice easy job due to BMW's superb placement of the filter! )

[s m]

4rephill said:

s m said:

I've used a 10/40 in mine for the last 70k miles ( 130k -> 200k ) and oil consumption is practically nil

I'm using mobil super 2000 10/40 semi-synthetic because My car drinks oil like Oliver Reed used to drink alcohol! (a litre every 300 miles )
I've tried various different oils- makes no difference, she drinks like a Geordie Lass on a Saturday night out!

She's done it since I bought her 6 years ago! A compression test by BMW showed no issues and changing the CCV made no difference at all. I'm suspecting a valve/valves issue but I'm not spending any more money on her so I just top up the oil on a weekly basis (or after every long journey).

Yes I could use even cheaper oil but I don't want to totally neglect the old girl!

On the plus side, I no longer need oil services as the oil is always fresh!
(I do change the filter ever year though. a nice easy job due to BMW's superb placement of the filter! )

Blimey, unlucky, I've heard of 330s liking a drop of oil but that seems a fair bit for an M52. As long as it goes Ok though

[4rephill]

s m said:

Blimey, unlucky, I've heard of 330s liking a drop of oil but that seems a fair bit for an M52. As long as it goes Ok though

Forgot to say, there are no leaks anywhere but it does blow out a bit of oil smoke at the top end revs (despite this, the compression test still came up okay! ), and the emissions for the MOT (done every year at My local BMW Dealership), have always been smack bang in the middle of the tolerance! weird!

it still pulls extremely well (or so the Police have told Me on a couple of occasions! ), and runs as smoothly as you could want.

I went to 10/40 oil in the hope it would lower the oil consumption but it made no difference. I just live with it these days and top up weekly.

[s m]

4rephill said:

s m said:

Blimey, unlucky, I've heard of 330s liking a drop of oil but that seems a fair bit for an M52. As long as it goes Ok though

Forgot to say, there are no leaks anywhere but it does blow out a bit of oil smoke at the top end revs (despite this, the compression test still came up okay! ), and the emissions for the MOT (done every year at My local BMW Dealership), have always been smack bang in the middle of the tolerance! weird!

it still pulls extremely well (or so the Police have told Me on a couple of occasions! ), and runs as smoothly as you could want.

I went to 10/40 oil in the hope it would lower the oil consumption but it made no difference. I just live with it these days and top up weekly.

I've not tried a thinner 5W oil in mine - I guess I should try one next winter but the 10W has been ok

[528Sport]

4rephill said:

Forgot to say, there are no leaks anywhere but it does blow out a bit of oil smoke at the top end revs (despite this, the compression test still came up okay! ), and the emissions for the MOT (done every year at My local BMW Dealership), have always been smack bang in the middle of the tolerance! weird!

it still pulls extremely well (or so the Police have told Me on a couple of occasions! ), and runs as smoothly as you could want.

I went to 10/40 oil in the hope it would lower the oil consumption but it made no difference. I just live with it these days and top up weekly.

Hi,
as you have changed the ccv and it did not fix the issue make sure the dipstick drain tube at the bottom of the ccv is clear. my 528 was blocked solid.

[E38Ross]

i use 5w-30 in my 728i, has had it all its life, 120k miles now and runs smooth as silk. last changed 5k miles ago and hasn't used a drop. i use the castrol magnatec stuff.

[4rephill]

528Sport said:

Hi,
as you have changed the ccv and it did not fix the issue make sure the dipstick drain tube at the bottom of the ccv is clear. my 528 was blocked solid.

I changed all the pipes at the same time. To be fair, they were in better shape than I was expecting.


I started off using 5w30 fully synthetic but due to the amount the old girl drinks I went for a thicker oil in the hope of reducing the consumption (and the 5w30 did look awfully thin!).

Turns out the difference was like giving Olly Reed the choice of Vodka or whiskey to drink, either way it's going to be drunk damned quickly so it didn't really matter. The semi-synthetics cheaper so it makes more sense to stay with it now and it meets the recommended specs according to My owners manual.


As for all of those who's engines don't use a drop of oil between services: Urgh!, stale, old worn oil in your engine for a whole year! - no thanks! mine gets fully refreshed every 7 weeks!

[fushion julz]

My 328i runs on Fuchs TITAN SUPERSYN 5W-40 High Performance, Fully Synthetic stuff from Opie Oils

Uses no oil whatsoever, although there is a small leak from the rear of the cam cover seal...

gets changed every 10K miles along with the filter (UFI or Purolator)...

Currently just coming up to 200K miles

Edited by fushion julz on Tuesday 22 May 13:26

[helix402]

Good choice of oil.

[528Sport]

4rephill said:

I changed all the pipes at the same time. To be fair, they were in better shape than I was expecting.


I started off using 5w30 fully synthetic but due to the amount the old girl drinks I went for a thicker oil in the hope of reducing the consumption (and the 5w30 did look awfully thin!).

Turns out the difference was like giving Olly Reed the choice of Vodka or whiskey to drink, either way it's going to be drunk damned quickly so it didn't really matter. The semi-synthetics cheaper so it makes more sense to stay with it now and it meets the recommended specs according to My owners manual.


As for all of those who's engines don't use a drop of oil between services: Urgh!, stale, old worn oil in your engine for a whole year! - no thanks! mine gets fully refreshed every 7 weeks!

mine does not use oil, i do change the oil every 8-10k miles or once a year.
i have used 5/30 semi oil for the last 40K miles. But stragne you don't see any smoke.

[B234R]

Time for an oil change: now I´m using Motul Xcess 5w40 fully syntethic in my 328i E36 with 120,000 miles, oil consumption is negligible (about 0.5 litre in 7,000 miles) but the engine is a bit noisy (lifters principally, when the engine is hot).
Reading some american BMW forums some people use 20w50 oil (Castrol GTX) in their M52s and assure that their engines have become very quiet.
A change from 5w40 to 20w50 is huge, but in USA it seems "heavy" oil is still popular, compared with Europe, and I´m tempted to try it...if I see it´s not going well I would switch to 5w40 again.

Why do you think? Experiences?

P.D. Where I live winters are not too cold (about 5ºC lows) and summers very hot (35º-40º highs).

Thanks.

Edited by B234R on Saturday 20th January 19:28

[g3org3y]

B234R said:

Time for an oil change: now I´m using Motul Xcess 5w40 fully syntethic in my 328i E36 with 120,000 miles, oil consumption is negligible (about 0.5 litre in 7,000 miles) but the engine is a bit noisy (lifters principally, when the engine is hot).
Reading some american BMW forums some people use 20w50 oil (Castrol GTX) in their M52s and assure that their engines have become very quiet.

Always used 10w40 in my 328s and never had any issues/excessive oil consumption. Engine seems quiet enough. Seems like a reasonable middle ground if you will.