Oil Change Total Quartz 5w30

08/07/10

141,213 miles

So I changed the oil today. The 15w50 was making the Vanos sound pretty chattery. I read this whole site Bob's the Oil Guy and decided to try a thinner oil. I picked up some of the same synthetic oil I used before from RMEuropean Total Quartz. But this time I used the 5w30.

I'm no expert on oil and I'm not saying "Bob" is either. But I do know a thinner oil will create less oil pressure and spin the engine more freely. A heavy oil is going to be thicker and cause the engine to not spin as freely. That is the extent of my logic and the information on BITOG gave me the idea to run thinner oil. Also the fact that a 5w30 weight is good enough for year round daily driving and it is the original oil weight BMW suggests.

Either way I will see how it compares and probably try 5/10w40 next.

UPDATE 10/13/10: After 2k miles the engine runs noticeably quieter with the 5w30.

UPDATE 03/28/13: 5w30 is way too thin for the track. Maybe ok for DD but use 5w40 or 10w40 if you can find it.