E39 oil

[ab56452001]

Hi, had my 528i for a few weeks now and was going to top up oil,but,dont know what type is in there atm so i will drain and refill. Firstly can i replace the oil without changing filter? and secondly i plan to use Castrol Megatronic 10/40,will this be o'k' or should i go for a 20/50? as the car has 210k km on the clock but runs fine, i also plan to use it on my e36 320i aswell,cheers

[Tiger]

Go thinner oil. No need for thick oil today's cars. 0W and 5W 20 or 30 is all you need. If you got some oil burning... then thicker oil might slow down the oil loss.

Oil filter is so easy to change on BMW... pointless.

[ab56452001]

Thanks for reply,im a bit worried about synthetic have heard they can affect seals in older cars, also it gets up to 40+c temperatures here in summer thats why i was thinking of going thicker,cheers.

[Tiger]

I only use Synthetic today. That only applies to super super super super old cars. Modern cars... no problem. I switched from dino to synthetic at 190k miles... zero problem.

All Honda/Acura cars now is 0W20 dino oil... no problem at all.

If you do want extra thicker oil... go for the 5W30. It offers far more protection than thicker oils.

[John B.]

The E39 528i/540i Owner's Manual recommends either 5w/30 or 5w/40 Synthetic.

[Ross]

Hi, had my 528i for a few weeks now and was going to top up oil,but,dont know what type is in there atm so i will drain and refill. Firstly can i replace the oil without changing filter? and secondly i plan to use Castrol Megatronic 10/40,will this be o'k' or should i go for a 20/50? as the car has 210k km on the clock but runs fine, i also plan to use it on my e36 320i aswell,cheers

It's a fool's errand to change the oil and not the filter, factory recommends synthetic 5w/x for temps not below 10*f and 0w/x below. I run 5/30(5k mile interval) all year, seeing temps well below zero in winter on ocassion and have no complaints.
These engines, M52tu, are sensitive to oil viscosity