Dino oil withdrawl

[Ross]

The last oil service to the touring included Mobil 1 synthetic. So far no leaks which was my biggest fear when changing over. I assume it was a change but am not really sure as the car had no records to indicate what had previously been used.
Anyway I had a chance to actually use the car this week as the GF is out of town and the first green light on the service indicator has blinked off. This has traditionally with all the previous BMs I've owned been my signal to change the oil. ~2300 miles has elapsed since the last service. I know even with dino it is a bit excessive to change that frequently but I usually did soon after the first light went out and never went past the proverbial 3000 miles. It never cost much more than ten bucks so WTF. Right?

Is there a twelve step program or something I need to investigate? The urge to change the oil is bothering me, every little noise I hear is beginning to sound like death rattles in the engine.
All my cars have records documenting meticulous lubrication schedules during my ownership. This one's record now about to be sullied by exceeding 3k. How to cope with these feelings of dereliction of duty?
I tried syn oil once before and couldn't resist the urge, changing it at less than 1k for the usual annual routine on a seldom used car. That was 19 quarts folks, over a hondo in oil alone, thats how bad the addiction is.
The influence of you guys here got me into this mess so I'm hoping for support getting this monkey off my back.
If any of you have found any value in my feeble advice, agreed with my oft offered opinions or been amused by some anecdotal story please help.
Common sense says everything will be fine and in fact this is really better for the car.
Any offers of encouragement greatly appreciated. It won't really blow up tomorrow will it? The green light is off, oh my.

[pingu]

Seems to me that if you've still got one or more green lights left then there's no need to change the oil yet.

Strangely, one sees many people on this forum paying hommage to the quality engineering of BMWs but then ignoring the service indicator lights (and changing the oil much more frequently than indicated) - seems inconsistent to me. On the other hand, fingers crossed that my oil really is OK!

[brick8]

Going through the same thing with my new to me 92 touring. Switched to Mobil 1 about 1,500 miles ago and still no leaks. Fortunately, this car and my others have plenty of other things to fix, so I haven't gotten to the point yet where I am thinking of an early oil change. Hang in there man!

[John B.]

It probably won't make you feel any better but I never look at those service lights & do all my maintenance by mileage/time. The 95 525i Touring we just bought w/136k has had Dino oil changes every 3k since the second owner bought it with 24k. After running a tank of gas mixed with injector cleaner I dumped the Dino/filter & filled with Mobil 1 0w-40 which I won't touch for 5k. I did the same thing with my 535i when I bought it 4.5 years ago. The oil pan gasket weeped when I bought the car & still does so no difference there. The M50 is bone dry so this will be a good test bed to see if the synth oil leak storys are just old wive's tales.

[acidfire52]

I also do not user the service indicator. I also use synthetic, always have.

What I do is set me distance counter on the OBC for 5000 miles and wait for it to count down, then change it.

[dennyg]

Ive heard some opinions that changing the oil has some disadvantages. Ever listen to click and clak? On NPR radio? There idea is that when you drain all the oil and change filter it actualy hurts the engine the first few seconds of start up until all the all circulates and passes through the filter. So changing your oil too often may actually hurt! Maybe that will infulence your compulsion.......or maybe not.......do you check the doors twice after locking car? My obsessive compulsive disorder is to look for more E34s.....I have a need for a 540...anyone with a cure?

[KenB]

I went thru this too, I am finally to the point where I will let it go to around 5000 miles (even a little beyond) before I can't stand it any longer and must change it.

I didn't spring any leaks when I changed to synth but the 3k change compulsion was harder to fix.

Hang in there, it will get easier.

[BillionPa]

you need to remember how much oil capacity our cars have.

the "3000" standard is for cars with 5 liter capacity and pathetic little oil filters.

my car at least has 8 liter capacity and a massive filter, and BMW's recommended service interval on dino oil is 15000 miles!!!!!

of course thats rediculous, 7500 should have been the number for dino, with 10-20000 for synthetic depending on oil TBN and driving style.

for you cars with smaller spin on filters or small sump capacity, take 25% off of that, so max 5500 for dino, or 7500-15000 for synthetic.

the larger synthetic interval number is for those who can change the filter half way without losing much oil, or those who have a bypass filtration system.

[Paul in NZ]

i have a 535 which i have had for about 3 and a half years and have put over sixty thousand kilometres,I run catrol synthetic 5 w 30 for the FULL service interval ie when the last light goes out i service it be it oil ins i or 2...absolutely no problems.One time a new mechanic put castrol dino in it... I changed that at about halfway through the green light term.My car uses a little bit of synthetic i know i have a couple of weeps but i never see oil stains anywhere...I have some incentive though cos 6 litres of synthetic oil is about a hundred bucks here....
SYNTHETIC WILL BE FINE FOR THE WHOLE SERVICE INTERVAL.I drive my car every day though......

[RobPatt]

...so that at 140,000 miles, then 145,000, then 150, 000 etc...

But I'm going to switch to M1 0w40 "extended life" (the one that claims 15,000 miles)...

and I'm going to change it every 10K with filter change at 5Ks.

As to the addiction, find something else man. It's just steel and iron. May make you feel good, but doesn't give a crap about you. Just do the maint when it's required to keep the motor runnign.

[attack eagle]

Rob stay the hell away from that extended life crap.

I know 2 people who have lost engines (under load) to that crap, and there are many more stories out there. Stuff doesn't seem to have the same protecting abilities as normal synth...

[John B.]

Rob stay the hell away from that extended life crap.

I know 2 people who have lost engines (under load) to that crap, and there are many more stories out there. Stuff doesn't seem to have the same protecting abilities as normal synth...

You would think that just the opposite would be true since it's supposed to last longer but I've heard the same thing about the new Gold Cap 15w-50. The original red cap M 1 15w-50 was very popular with the motorcycle crowd & I'm still using it in several of my bikes. Unfortunately the reports from those who tried the new ext life version have not been good so I'll be using something else when my supply of R/C runs out.

[DanDombrowski]

Wow, this sounds eerily familiar.

When I first got my E46 330Ci, I couldn't believe the service interval was 15000. Of course, as most say, thats too long for my tastes, but I didn't want to go randomly resetting the service light, because then my insIs and IIs would come way too early (not that I take it anywhere for that).

So I did what roundel said, and changed it when the interval said 7500. Its a good middle ground on the synthetic and it keeps the service interval light somewhat normal. The first time I hit 3000 miles though, it was tough to let it keep going.

The way I got over it? Saving $50 on Mobil 1 every 3 months is $50 more I can put towards some awesome tires. Problem solved!

[markus]

atleast the lights go off on these cars. my E30 would take 10k before the oil service light came on. i say 5k for synthetic and 3k for dino oil. never heard of clean oil being a bad thing.

[markus]

the only thing im a little worried about is changing to 0w-40 M1 in my next oil change. the PO ran penzoil synthetic 10w-40 in it which isnt acceptable to me. maybe im just thinking the 0w-40 is too thin for my M60. But a lot of people on here like the 0/40 in their M60s and even mobil 1 recomends it on their website.

[New Owner 95 E34]

Ive heard some opinions that changing the oil has some disadvantages. Ever listen to click and clak? On NPR radio? There idea is that when you drain all the oil and change filter it actualy hurts the engine the first few seconds of start up until all the all circulates and passes through the filter. So changing your oil too often may actually hurt! Maybe that will infulence your compulsion.......or maybe not.......do you check the doors twice after locking car? My obsessive compulsive disorder is to look for more E34s.....I have a need for a 540...anyone with a cure?

Denny- I think we're on parallel trains of thought here! I absolutely LOVE Click and Clack (my wife knows that 0900-1000 on Saturday is MY time), HOWEVER, I think their theory on the momentary lack of oil after a change being harmful is a BIT thin. I used to change the oil on our '95 530 more than was PROBABLY necessary, but I know that the engine felt better with clean oil (especially at 5k+ RPMs in "permanent" sport-mode). My wife actually did the time/mileage math once and "caught" me trying to do an early change- such are the woes of being hitched to a too-smart-for-her-own-good woman, I guess. But now I'm stationed in Korea for a year, so I KNOW that the oil won't get changed until the service light is yellow or even RED. Heck... she'll probably drive the Bimmer until the service light is red, and then garage it and drive the Volvo until ITS service light comes on. Y'all should just be thankful that you are in a position to be able to CARE for your cars, instead of being forced to entrust their care to an un-auto-educated woman! (No offense, Gayle, but you're the exception to the rule.) Oh yeah... and Denny, we both share the "E34 radar" compulsion and a craving for a 540. (It is a 6-speed standard in MY fantasy!) The 530 is just enough to really whet the pallate, isn't it?!

... on the switch to synthetic... the PO of my car had done meticulous 3,000 mile changes with GTX dino oil. I switched to Mobil1 on my first change (after reading all the advice in this forum), and no seepage here either! I'm starting to think that the big hullabaloo about switching between dino/synth is a bunch of urban legend hoo-hah.

[BillionPa]

it is an urban legend now, it was true back in the day when synthetic oils didnt have ester content.

for thinking 0W40 is too thin compared to 10W40, think again! the 0 part determines its cold (and i mean cold) weather performance, and the lower the number the better. the number after the W is for its operating viscosity. having the difference between the numbers too high generally means there are lots of viscosity index improvers which shear out over time, however M1 0W40 seems to have exactly the same viscosity index as castrol syntec 0W30 from germany, which doesnt even contain viscosity index improvers! i would assume that the M1 does however, but not much.

[attack eagle]

if you are really worried about it split the difference and use half 0-40 and 10-40???

[632 Regal]

not too thin at all...
the only thing im a little worried about is changing to 0w-40 M1 in my next oil change. the PO ran penzoil synthetic 10w-40 in it which isnt acceptable to me. maybe im just thinking the 0w-40 is too thin for my M60. But a lot of people on here like the 0/40 in their M60s and even mobil 1 recomends it on their website.

[BillionPa]

some people use 0W30 to THICKEN up their 10W30 oils, think about that for a second or 3.