any 535i owners on here??

[PARAMEDIC]

just curious and also need some help

I have a 85 e28 535i, wanted to find out if there are any good shops in the GTA and also im at my wits end deciding what type of oil to use, 10w40 or  15w50..both are synt mobile 1.
there were a lot of discussions regarding oils..5w50, 0w30..etc i think i just confused myself reading all that...lol

been surfing for hours on end but only come across opinions..not specs...see i dont have the owners manual and its taking forever for that online order to get here :crybaby:
also wanted to know what works best in regards to e28's during our winters and our summers...
my limited knowledge..winters thinner, summers thicker.
also in 10w40...the last digits are for viscosity....my brains on vacation...so i dont remember what the first digits represents...temp??nah thats not it.

Today being a lovely day i decided to change the oil....aaah the luxuries of being a civi...wake up when you want and do what you want.

looking fwd to replies and hopfully come across some 5er fanatics who will give me some good tips.

 

[q_1966]

Which make is the vehicle you are talking about?

 

[BDG.CalgHighrs]

That's a BMW, papke.

The simple answer, I suppose would be to lift the hood. BMW usually puts charts for which oils are acceptable at which temperatures somewhere in or around the engine bay (at least this is true of my 1973 BMW model 2002, and my neighbor's e30s). The best bet is to use the type of oil for which the car was designed. In my case I go non-synthetic 20w50 in the summer and 10w40 in the winter.

In multi-weight oil,t he first number is the cold start viscosity rating which is usually a number from 5-20 for normal gasoline applications. The thinner/less resistant to flow, the lower the number, and probably the better for cold applications. The second number is the operating temperature viscosity  or how the oil will resist flow once warmed up. The reason we can have multi-weight oil is due to polymers in the oil which expand and increase viscosity when heated. So basically you can think of 10w30 as a 10 weight oil that will not get thinner than a 30 weight oil would at operating temperature.

At any rate since it is an older car, the mechanical wear on the engine tends to loosen things up and compromise viscosity. If you can't find a specified oil, I'd go with a wider range like 10w40 in winter, and 20w50 in the summer. You can also buy high-milage oil that has conditioners, detergents and such in it but I'm not convinced that it's of huge benefit. I tend to Top off the oil I use with a bit of Heavy Duty instead it's designed for diesels and has a high detergent content which prevents soot-loading.

 

[PARAMEDIC]

yes papke as gaisford said it is a 1985 Bmw. I like the lines of old cars, personally all new cars look like rounded pleasure tools for the opposite sex...especially the mazda rx8.
my favourite cars of all time are: the economy porshe  ;D (mazda Rx7...1983-87) my first love
                                                the real deal ..porshe 911 or 928
                                                pontiac fiero........lol yeah go figure ( even with all the engine fires)
                                                Bmw m5 and 535i without the american super bumper....(unfortunately i have a super bumper)
                                               
I like to restore old cars or more accurately put try to restore. Iam a hands on type of learner and its easier to convince yourself to take the risk and fix your car, when you know you havent spent a fortune buying it. So if you screw up its either you try and fix it or off to the scrapper it goes, without feeling too miserable about the whole experience. I find its a good way to get real time hands on experience with automotive technology. Although a lot of research is required, online, local mechanic, parts shop pros..etc

specs for the bmw...254bhp without catalytic converters...185bhp with cats ..and thats back in 1985...whoa neo 
218 torque...engine inline 6, 5 spd manual, rear wheel drive, 0-60 in 6.2secs and its not ricey ;D

zoom zoom this..lol

cheers

 

[BDG.CalgHighrs]

I hear you on the old cars bit. They look better for my money, and there's something pleasingly mechanical about them, none of that quiet ride, engine-noise-lacking  no road-feel nonsense. What's the point of driving way too fast if you can't feel or appreciate the speed? I'm not sure about the 80's thing you have going on, though. The 60's and 70's were the height of automotive excellence.

 

[Quag]

Paramedic,

Having 2 Years of a 4 Year Automotive Apprenticeship done before I pursued the military as a career, I feel I can help you out here.

Everythng Pte. Gaisford has said is entirely true, however I'm not entirely sure what he means by this sentence.

I tend to Top off the oil I use with a bit of Heavy Duty instead it's designed for diesels and has a high detergent content which prevents soot-loading.

I wouldn't personally reccommend this.

I would strongly suggest that you go with a full synthetic oil.  The advantages to this labratory created oil are so numerous, that it is worth the extra money for the oil.  People have very mixed opinions about the use of synthetic, however if you ask any respected technician, they will tell you synthetic is the way to go.

I can tell you some stories regarding the use of synthetic.  There was a time I was rebuilding an engine of one of those "rebuild after 100,000 km" type of customers.  The engine main and rod bearings had virtually no wear at all.  In fact, the crank surfaces were true and did not need grinding.  The customer ran synthetic always since his break-in. 

An advantage to synthetic is that you can usually get away with going double the amount of kilometres than you would normally do with conventional "dinosaur" oil.  However, I would highly reccommend you change the filter after 5,000km. 

There is much literature available about synthetic oil online and I suggest it.

In terms of what viscosity to use, let me know what kind of mileage is on your car.  As more wear occurs based on km's, you sometimes want to step up the viscosity because there is more of a clearance between the bearing surfaces.

I run 20w50 fully syn. in a personally built race-prepped Chevy 383 ci., sitting in an 86 Camaro Z28.  The reason for this is the slightly larger clearances required for proper lubrication at higher rpm's.

I am currently running 10-40 dino oil a 70 GTO Judge that I am restoring.  The reason for this is that the engine has about 4 km's on it and is still being broken in.  Dino oil provides enough friction to allow the rings to seat properly against the cylinder wall.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask

-Quag

 

[Good2Golf]

Paramedic, I have a 95 540i and run Mobil1 0W40.  The engine is as clean as a whistle, as are the engines from all my friends with E34 and E28 535i's.  Your M30 motor will have no problem running a high quality SL or SM-rated synthetic oil.  You will hear some guys say, run what the manufaturer's manual says...well, oils improve over time...even BMW says to use the latest spec'd comparable-weight oil to the original.  Your engine was probably spec'd with an SAE SC or SD-rated oil in 85.  SM is current now.

Visit here if you haven't found a e-home for your car yet! 

Cheers!
Duey

 

[PARAMEDIC]

thanx quag and yeah im not that trusting about using an oil designed for deisel cars on one that runs on gasoline...something about that doesnt seem right to me either..lol..maybe gaisford stumbled upon something revolutionary but unless its proven i dont put much faith in that...higher detergents or not. dont feel to bad gaisford.lol  :-*  maybe if i had a firefly i might have tried it.

I run M1 10w30 all year round in my other car coz im too lazy and busy to remember to get the oil changed on time :-[

thanx duey for the info and the site gonna get there after I have finished up here, I was debating with myself whether or not to use mobile1 LL01 spec oil...i know, i know after hearing how much mileage i have, im gonna get recomended to mobile 1 LL01. My car was spec'd with an SAE oil. she now sits with the odometer reading at 421000.

duey what oil do you find best for our summers and our winter respectively. I was looking at 20w50 for the summer and 10w40 for the winter.

 

[Good2Golf]

Paramedic, 20W50 is pretty thick for summer and 10W40 still thick for winter, gevien the tight machining tolerances the M30 (3.5L) engine was built to, even in 1985.  I run 20W50 in my ~500hp 440 Charger simply because there are larger tolerances in assembly of the motor and internal losses due to the greater viscosity won't relative hurt any mileage I might think I get with seven and a half litres of displacement! 

I run M! 0W40 all year round on the 540...the M60 V8 loves the stuff.  I dropped the oil pan last summer to check on my oil pump bolts (which have a habit of loosening on M60 V8s) and the underside was sparkling...there wasn't a hint of sludge in the bottom of the pan.

If you read the Mobil 1 0W40 spec sheet, you note that the oil meets (actually exceeds) LL01!  Good enough for me.  Otto's in Ottawa uses M1 products for the cars they service, new and old.

The only issue with moving to a synthetic is for an engine that has lived it's life on dyno-goop...there may be some leaking from some seals that were previously "sealed" [with gunk] but that flow some when the synth flushes all the crap out of the system.  Not to be unfair to conventional-based oils, if properly changed at recommended intervals, even conventional-oil lubricated motors should be in good shape!

Cheers,
Duey