My high mileage E70 is sucking a lot of oil. It normally uses 5w30 but I heard it’s better to use 5w40 due to higher viscosity so it burns slower. Recently I switched to “high mileage 5w30” I’m wondering if that will essentially be better and last longer than the regular 5w40? Or should I try the high mileage version of 5w40. Trying to prolong my top offs in between 7500 mile oil changes.
Oil
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"High mileage" oils have additives that restore rubber gaskets and seals (softens them up and causes them to swell). This can reduce or eliminate oil leaks.
BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and VW Group (VW, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini) use synthetic "super oils."
Various 5W-40 and 0W-40 synthetic oils meet BMW's Long Life 01 (BMW LL-01) specification. Back when your car/truck was built, BMW required an oil that met ACEA A3/B3 oil. ACEA spec's are European, and not all synthetic oils sold in the US meet them. The BMW LL-01 spec' exceeds ACEA A3/B3.
The BMW (branded) 5W-30 that meets BMW LL-01 is actually "thicker' than most 5W-30s, and its "almost" a 5W-40. But, there are cheaper BMW LL-01 certified oils made by Castrol and Shell (sold under their Pennzoil and Quaker State brands in the US).
Burning one quart or liter of oil in 7500 miles with a turbocharged engine with 125k miles on it isn't bad. It's probably better than average. Also, the electronic oil level measurement becomes less accurate with time. Your actual oil consumption might be less. The only way to really know what your oil consumption is is to do you own oil changes and measure what you drain out.
I recently changed the oil in my 2014 535i with the N55 engine. The car has 78k miles in it. It burned about one liter in about 6900 miles. That's higher oil consumption (less mileage) than previous oil changes. But, my last oil change was done at the dealer while they were doing other work. So, they might have short-filled it by a quarter liter or so. I need to do two DIY oil changes in a row to have an accurate measurement of oil consumption.
Do a website search for "LL-01." The resident oil expert here is "edycol." He works in the industry. Listen to what he says, and question anything anybody else says that contradicts him.
BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and VW Group (VW, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini) use synthetic "super oils."
Various 5W-40 and 0W-40 synthetic oils meet BMW's Long Life 01 (BMW LL-01) specification. Back when your car/truck was built, BMW required an oil that met ACEA A3/B3 oil. ACEA spec's are European, and not all synthetic oils sold in the US meet them. The BMW LL-01 spec' exceeds ACEA A3/B3.
The BMW (branded) 5W-30 that meets BMW LL-01 is actually "thicker' than most 5W-30s, and its "almost" a 5W-40. But, there are cheaper BMW LL-01 certified oils made by Castrol and Shell (sold under their Pennzoil and Quaker State brands in the US).
Burning one quart or liter of oil in 7500 miles with a turbocharged engine with 125k miles on it isn't bad. It's probably better than average. Also, the electronic oil level measurement becomes less accurate with time. Your actual oil consumption might be less. The only way to really know what your oil consumption is is to do you own oil changes and measure what you drain out.
I recently changed the oil in my 2014 535i with the N55 engine. The car has 78k miles in it. It burned about one liter in about 6900 miles. That's higher oil consumption (less mileage) than previous oil changes. But, my last oil change was done at the dealer while they were doing other work. So, they might have short-filled it by a quarter liter or so. I need to do two DIY oil changes in a row to have an accurate measurement of oil consumption.
Do a website search for "LL-01." The resident oil expert here is "edycol." He works in the industry. Listen to what he says, and question anything anybody else says that contradicts him.
Your mileage isn't too bad, IMO, for your 6 cylinder. I'm not sure which engine you have with out the vin.
What do you consider "HIGH OIL consumption? 1 qt every 7500 miles?
Not to get into a spitting contest with others on type, weight & brand of oil for your BMW BUT, a good full synthetic is fine for your car. I still use 5W30 in our '15 N55 8 cylinder & burn about 1/2 qt between oil changes at 6k. I use to use Mobil 1 & switched to Pennzoil several years back since BMW was using them. I have 6 BMW's & 1 truck & use Pennzoil in all of them, just as a my choice. Other brands should be fine as well. If you feel BMW's oil is better, use it. The biggest issue is changing it before it gets too dirty. The longer you run the oil the thinner it'll get, as it gets diluted from all the contaminates from the engine, again, IMO. BMW's recommended 10k plus & above miles before oil change is a marketing effort to sell cars. Most bimmer guys (and others) ALWAYS change their oil before what the car manufacture says. BMW used to use Castrol as their supplier, then changed to Shell and I'm not sure who they use now.
I would recommend a High Mileage oil, as mentioned above, as it has additives to try to keep your seals soft & swell.
To clarify, I change my oil once every 7500 miles. The yellow light just came on asking me to fill 1 quart of oil and the last time I did it was 2600 miles ago from the last top off. So I’m averaging 2-3 top offs every 7500 miles oil changes. I’m just using Mobil 1 high mileage full synthetic 5w30 this time instead of Liqui Molly High Tech 5w40 since it was most readily available. I’m going to track the consumption but I’m assuming it will burn though faster than the 5w40.
No it’s not leaking oil because I just had a major service at the dealer where they replaced the oil pan gasket and seals. But it does seem like a quart of oil needed to top off every 2-3k miles seems unusually high.
No it’s not leaking oil because I just had a major service at the dealer where they replaced the oil pan gasket and seals. But it does seem like a quart of oil needed to top off every 2-3k miles seems unusually high.
Here is a good write up on BMW oils & also oil consumption levels that I believe BMW goes by. I personally don't think your 5W40 is an issue but that's something you need to determine.
Engine Oil Info for BMW (bimmerworld.com)
You wanna talk oil usage... Go buy a F01/2012 750i.... Mine at 140k used a quart a oil every 750-1000 Miles .. so much in Fact I never "Changed" the oil Instead I changed the filter every 7500-10k and just kept adding oil....
That V8 N62 is a shytshow....
That V8 N62 is a shytshow....
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1976 VW Rabbit... 155k miles, a quart every 300 miles. I started using used oil drained out of other cars for my "perpetual oil change." Compression was even, but very low across all four cylinders. VW/Audi's back then had defective piston rings. Mine started smoking at about 75k miles.
Yep, notorious hardened valve seal. Isn't there a class action suite on this?
Use this:
Valvoline European Vehicle 5W40
Castrol Edge 5W40 or better 0W40 (there is new version now).
Mobil1 0W40.
Stay AWAY from high mileage oils!
If no leaks and your piston rings and valve stems are ok , you have PCV issue that could be caused by those non-approved oils.
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Valvoline European Vehicle 5W40
Castrol Edge 5W40 or better 0W40 (there is new version now).
Mobil1 0W40.
Stay AWAY from high mileage oils!
If no leaks and your piston rings and valve stems are ok , you have PCV issue that could be caused by those non-approved oils.
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Just curious, why do you say stay away from high mileage oils?
1. It is NOT approved by any manufacturer. It is not as good oil for numerous reasons. You are actually paying for lesser oil.
2. It has specific additives that will eventually cause more damage to gaskets.
3. They are usually very heavy viscosity but lower HTHS which indicates cheap, low quality base stocks.
For your engine ALWAYS look oil that has BMW LL01 and MB229.5 approvals or MB229.5 if no LL01.
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I had a few minutes of free time today and decided to call BMWNA and talked to a rep there (super friendly) I asked for the most updated info on approved/recommend oils for my 2011 BMW X5 (N55). After a short hold, he stated that BMW recommends 5W-40 oil (varies by climate) and only gave me a very short list of oil providers: Pennzoil-Euro (Shell & QS falls in this one) and Havoline PRO-DS Euro. I might have missed another brand (should have been writing). I don't know if they only have three brands now, or he just picked three to tell me.
Here is an example of approval/meets/recommended Havoline PRO-DS 5W-40
![Font Number Parallel Pattern Screenshot]()
Here is an example of the same oil lineup but in "High Milage" branded:
![Font Rectangle Parallel Slope Pattern]()
The approvals could be different due to the fact, Havoline doesn't make a 5W-40 in "High Milage", but again I wasn't informed of any "High Milage" oil on the BMW recommend list.
Crazy, I haven't seen Havoline Euro oil before. Here is the product description .
Here is an example of approval/meets/recommended Havoline PRO-DS 5W-40
Here is an example of the same oil lineup but in "High Milage" branded:
The approvals could be different due to the fact, Havoline doesn't make a 5W-40 in "High Milage", but again I wasn't informed of any "High Milage" oil on the BMW recommend list.
Crazy, I haven't seen Havoline Euro oil before. Here is the product description .
You are wasting your time calling them. They know as much as your local mechanic.
Meet is NOT approval!!! Period!
Grade is irrelevant! BMW approvals are based on HTHS not grade.
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Both articles are absolute garbage.
Second one has top pick oil that under no circumstances should find its way into ANY BMW engine!!!
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