BimmerFest BMW Forum banner

Quick Guide to Oil in Your E36

377K views 407 replies 108 participants last post by  hornhospital 
#1 ·
This guide will help you understand what we recommend for your E36. This guide primarily focuses on the I6 models (M50, M50TU, S50, M52TU, S52), but is a good starting point for those of you with the I4s (M42 & M44). This guide is NOT intended to spoon feed you exactly what you should use for your exact car in your exact location, rather, to provide you with the information necessary to make an intelligent, educated decision based on your knowledge.

The first thing is, ABOVE ALL, read your manual. There is a chart printed with the proper viscosities in it. If you don't have one, there are places online you can download copies for free, or you should buy one. It is invaluable to have, and you absolutely should have a copy for your model of E36. The chart for the;) E36 M50TUB25 engine is shown later.

Filters

Your E36 uses a paper filter that sits in a canister, which is much more convenient than the metal units. BMW uses 3 suppliers for its OEM filters: Mann, Mahle, and Hengst. It's generally accepted that OEM BMW filters are superior to pretty much everything else on the market for E36s. They're available at your dealer, or you can buy them in bulk (~12 filters) from various sponsors for much cheaper. My recommendation here is absolutely to stick with one of the OEM BMW filters listed above.

Oil Types

Your E36 came with dino oil from the factory. Will it hurt to keep using it? No. But, full synthetic oil does have its advantages. Primarily, extended oil change intervals due to its chemical properties. If you're a nerd like many of us and want to know more, there are many great sites that go VERY in-depth about oil types. I won't cover that here. That said, it's generally accepted that once you use synthetic, you shouldn't switch back to dino. Also, it's generally accepted that higher-mileage engines shouldn't switch to synthetic. Again, I'm not going to debate the merits of those here, but if it concerns you, there is plenty of information on both sides of the debate available with a quick search on Google.

Oil Intervals

Another hotly contested subject. The quick recommendations:

Dino Oil: 3000-4000 miles
Full Synthetic: 6500-9000 miles

You'll hear claims that you can go to 8000 miles on dino from some nuts, and sadly even BMW recommends 15-18000 mile intervals for its new cars on synthetic. Personally, I would never dream of driving anywhere close to that long on one change. Keep in mind, if you put HARD MILES on your car, you need to change at or earlier than the lower recommended numbers above.

The HARDEST driving you can do to your car is frequent cold starts, and short drives. That 1.5 mile drive around the corner 10 times a day is the worst thing you could ever do, and you NEED to change the oil regularly if you drive like that. Obviously, tracking/racing/auto-x'ing is also hard driving, and if you do this regularly you should keep short intervals. The easiest type of mileage on your car is a nice constant cruise at 70MPH on the freeway.

Oil Brands

Oh fun. This is a good topic. I won't bother with dino oil here, but lets deal with synthetics, which are becoming increasingly more popular. In fact, I'll narrow it down to 2 that I'll discuss.

Mobil1: To be short, you can't go wrong with Mobil1 full synthetic of the right viscosity. It's a tried and true oil that performs to expectations. If you have any doubts or are not feeling particularly sporting or adventurous, no one will be upset if you use this.

Royal Purple: The drama. Royal Purple makes some pretty outrageous claims, like increasing horsepower and gas mileage. There are some that swear by it, and there are some that claim it will destroy your engine. A simple search should bring up plenty of arguments for and against. I won't pretend that you'll get a huge bump out of RP. I will say that I have used it on several cars for tens of thousands of miles combined, and the engines do seem to run smoother and quieter to the untrained ear on RP than other oils of the same viscosity (including M1 full synthetic). Personally, this is the oil I use, and will continue to use, until someone develops something better.

Oil Viscosities

There is NOT a one-size-fits-all answer for this. However, lucky you! BMW published just what you should use in your owners manual. It is climate specific, and if you live in a region that climate varies from season to season, then you likely will need to use different viscosities for cold and hot seasons. I would recommend using either exactly or just slightly above what BMW recommends for a higher mileage E36. Personally, living in sunny coastal California I was able to run 20W-50 all year round. Chances are, you won't be able to. So, READ THE MANUAL. Don't ask us what viscosity you personally should use, because we are not meteorologists for your region and we don't know your driving style. For most E36s on this board, this chart will give you a pretty good representation of what to use - I am fairly certain the same specs should be used for the M52 family, but not positive - hence why I say to read the manual for your model.

For the M50TUB25 engine, here is the chart BMW printed in their manual:



Hopefully this cleared up some confusion, and gives you a good idea of what we recommend around here. If you have a suggestion or correction, please feel free to post it or let me know and I'll add it. It's late and I may very well have missed something or screwed something up inadvertently. :rofl:
 
See less See more
1
#383 ·
What's the difference between t5 and t6?

My climate definitely needs 5w 40. Id be scared to run 10 weight due to drastic weather changes
T5 isn't fully synthetic as opposed to T6 which is fully synthetic.

I've been using the T6 for years now, love the stuff and its cheap.

I've run a 15W-50 before with no serious issues (cold starts were tougher).
 
#393 ·
10w-40, 15w-40, 15w-50, 20w-50 are all fine for hot weather/high mileage engines. My M42 leaks ten times as much oil as it burns and it only uses/leaks a quart in 5000 miles. It has nearly 265k miles and still burns clean. I've been using T5 10W-40 for several years and like it. Before that I was using Royal Purple 20W-50 year round without any problems, but it got hard to find and gosh-awful expensive. T5 is half as much and works as well.
 
#398 ·
Synthetics are more heat resistant and don't break down as fast, but dino oil is still fine in most any of our (old) cars. The important thing is to changing it and the filter regularly, and use a weight appropriate to your climate.
 
#399 ·
I need to do my first oil change ever on my 98 323is and all of this is so confusing. The general consensus is that Mobile 1 Full synthetic is one of the best oils for the e36 but I don't know what viscosity to get. I live in Philadelphia, Pa and temps can be from 0F to 100F. What viscosity do I need?
 
#402 ·
New owner of 1998 323i

Just bought a 1998 323i convertible that hasn't been driven much over the past seven years. Previous owner kept it instead of trading it in and drove it rarely. It's been 2000 miles in those seven years. I know the previous owner and she took great care of it and didn't abuse it at all. Her driving habit would definitely be considered mild. The oil change sticker said they used Quaker State 5w20 last time. It has 99,900 miles on it so I'm guessing I will stick with conventional oil. I live in West Texas. It's typically a warmer climate. Even in the winter it's fairly mild. Today is 75 degrees. I've read through this forum and it seems like answers are all over the place. This car will be driven gently. I don't speed or accelerate fast. Honestly I really like the MPG gauge. My goal is to use this car as a daily driver. I looked in the owner's manual and it only said let BMW change the oil. Since the last oil change was 2011 I'm going to change the oil and coolant before doing anything else. If the weight it's been using is fine, I'll probably just stick with that. Thanks in advance for your advice.
 
#404 ·
I recently bought myself a 1996 318i. I just have a question about the oil ratings.
I’ve read already its widely accepted to use Diesel engine oil which is good because I could not find any 15w-40(owners manual recommendation) for gasoline. While this viscosity matches, I could not find ANY oil to match the API rating being called for. Does this matter if I use the right viscosity? To be more specific I bought the Rotella T4 15w-40.

Basically, in short, can I use an oil with matching viscosity rating but wrong API rating?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top