Which oil to use?

I've had my 7 for 5 years to be soon and have been using either BMW oil or lately Mobil1 0w-40. I know that BMW recommend Long Life oils only which are very limited to choose from. Everything I've used poors like water and I'm concerned about its ability to protect the engine especially having almost 130k miles on it. Did anybody use anything higher than 0w or 5w? Does it make any difference on the car's performance, funcionality?

Use the weight of oil tht bmw says to use.
Seriously.
If BMW says 5w-30, USE IT.
Millions of dollars are spend finding out what fluids work best with the vehicle. Don't mess with it.

its usually hot as hell here where i live. personally i use 10W30 with almost 115000 miles. i also like to let the car idle after a cold start to warm the fluids. seems to work for me. if you live in a colder climate, i'd go with the 5W30, maybe a 5W40 with the higher mileage. the "W" is the winter, or cold weight if you were wondering. particularly how it pours in colder temps, this is what multivisosity oils have been enginered to do to meet the tolerance specifications in modern vehicles engines.

I have a 02 745Li. Aside from BMW oil, BMW has approved Castrol Syntec 5W-30 to be used. Have been using it with no problems since 02

Just an FYI. From an engineerinng stand point of view. Remember, these engines are overhead cam. The engineers has formulated the

correct viscosity in light of the fact the oil must get to the top of the motor as quick as possible. This is especially important in getting the lubrication

up to where the cams are. If the oil is too thick, it takes too long to be pumped up to the cams(very oil hungry). My engineering instructors used this

analogy....The oil must be pushed up to the overhead cams. This 10W or 5W is like the difference of pushing a 5 pound weight over your head vs a 10

pound weight over your head. And with overhead cams, you don't want to go too thick. Its 5W for that reason. Too thick and it will take too long to

lube the upper end of the motor. The days of overhead valve motors are coming to an end.

stlbmw

I am using castrol edge extended life 5w30 and have no problem change once a year or every 15k as they recomend

i personally use the 10W30 Castrol Syntec because the vanos oil passages that oporate the cams varriable timing were making some noise. no more noise, its been working well for me now. i also run the car a bit vigorously, its not going to hurt it.

When I called BMW NA they recommended 5w30 9n Valvoline, Castrol or Mobile one fully synthetic for my area, Colorado mountains

i use Mobil only for all my oil