Oil Question

M

MTomlinson07

New member
My mom has a BMW M3 and just got the oil changed , the place where she gets maintenance done (which specializes in BMW performance) charged her $86 and said they used Royal Purple motor oil. I told her that she did not need this oil and quality regular oil would be good enough for how she drives her car. Do you think this is an ok suggestion, or should she keep using the Royal Purple?
 
I'm almost positive that the M3 requires synthetic. But I would just use a different synthetic. There is a web site that tested these things and found Royal Purple to be the same as one of the other, but less expensive, brands. I will try and dig up the site for you, unless someone else knows which site I'm talking about.
 
definatley she should probably be running synth with the M3 (year?)

i would go with mobil 1. $86 sounds about right, what is her oil capacity? RP is like $6/quart M1 is about $4.50/quart
 
These places know that a new M3 runs a minimum $50000 and if you can afford to drive a car like that you can certainly swing $90 for an oil change 3 times a year. Personally I would just do it for her with Mobil 1 and a Puralator PureOne filter and save the $50-60 service charge they make for doing a simple 30 minute task. My friends father has a new 911 Turbo S and the dealer wants something like $350 for an oil change being that there is a secondary filter tucked under the front passanger quarter, they can only charge these prices because people are willing to pay it, truly crazy.
 
I think the Porsche is a bit different. 2 filters, 12 quarts of oil, and partial removal of the suspension or exhaust system is required. Brad B. did a write up once on his oil change. I think it took him 2 hours or something. :)
 
It's a 1999 M3 I think, it is the last one of the old body style. It takes 6 quarts, I will tell her just to go with a cheaper synthetic next time. She is going to get rid of it soon anyways so maintenace will be covered by the dealer for 36,000 miles on the new one.
 
wow that is one expensive oil change, I use Mobil 1 and would say it has performed very well for me. just be sure to check the manual to see what wt they call for. Pep Boys has a 2005 calendar that has coupons for buy 3 get three qts for free ( 1/2 price around $15.00 I paid for a case how could you go wrong? ) hope this helps
 
q_tip98444 said:
I was about to edit my post to put that in there. Good Job! :xyxthumbs
Click to expand...



As I was reading this I thought of oily bob the guy and was going to add 'great minds think alike' but then in my case I lost my mind a long time ago.



Great advice, that site has lots of really usful 'oil' info



JonM
 
I'm not certain of the M3's oil change interval, but as for the 5401 and the 740iL, the change oil light comes on after about 10-15K miles depending on driving conditions. If you amortize the $86 over that kind of change interval, you just about break even. Keep in mind that I'm only familiar with the 4.0 engine in those two vehicles.
 
the M3 cars have had a lot of oil issues....I think they require a 10W60 and it's always going to be syn. I'd definitely crack open the Owner's Manual before you void the warranty.



Also, you could telephone BMW's hot line....they are going to have the most contemporary info on this and are very helpful. That may be the quickest solution.
 
360RamGuy01 said:
I told her that she did not need this oil and quality regular oil would be good enough for how she drives her car. Do you think this is an ok suggestion, or should she keep using the Royal Purple?
Click to expand...





360RamGuy01, do you know what model year her car is? Is it still under the mfr's warranty?
 
It's not under warranty anymore, and is starting to have stuff go wrong so my mom is getting rid of it soon, it's a 1999 and she just had to replace all the rotors, tha cat (twice actually the replacement went bad in two months), a power steering hose and some other stuff. It's got almost 100k on it so it has served her well.
 
FWIW:

If memory serves BMW was amongst the first OEM's to advocate the use of synthetic oil (Castrol Snytec, I think)



There comparison testing was to fill an two engines one with synthetic one with 'ordinary oil, drain both engines and let them run to failure, the BMW lasted far longer than the non-Syntec oil



JonM
 
Bimmerfest.com



or



e46fanatics.com





all you ever wanted to know about this car.



Im my opinion Royal purple is a good product, no need to sweat. You will find that the BMW oil is sometimes the cheapest oil that meets the specs called out for that car.



Circlebmw.com or PacificBMW.com are great places to get what you need for a fair price. If you join the BMW Car Club the dicount you get on parts pays for the club and you get a great magazine. BMWCCA.com
 
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