[Napoli1926]

Just this afternoon I went to change my oil and noticed some buildup inside the engine looking in from the oil cap....I normally follow Bmw oil change intervals with bmw 5w-30 oil but last oil change I used Castrol 5w-30 from autozone which the habberstadt bmw dealership told me was the same thing as BMW oil, Well come to find out now that's a load of bullshit...I went just under 10k on this OCI and boy am mad for taking the service advisor Anselmo Paulinos word about being the same oil....these r the pics of what I could manage to take with my phone camera....Any suggestions on What to do?????... I was thinking of using a liqui Molly engine flush be4 my next oil change also Bmw told me about an induction service for about 200$.....Please help, ALL SUGGESTIONS WELCOME

[ctuna]

This is why some of us change our oil at 7500 miles or less
or once a year regardless of milage.
My guess is this in not due to just one oil change , the last one.
What kind of driving do you do in town or highway and does your
car sit unused for long intervals?
Induction Service probably means they will put a can of cleaner
in the gas tank. I would ask them about that 325 , 328 and 330 usually don't have a problem with dirty intakes . You are not looking at the induction side of the motor in these pictures.

[Napoli1926]

Thanks for the response....I do mostly highway driving but a good mixture of both....85,000 miles... Yea your right this could very well be from more than the last oil change but I'm pretty sure it was the last one that did the most damage because I occasionally do look in there and never seen it this bad at all....Yea I looked up induction service and I'm still not completely sure everything involved with it but I don't think it's going to clean any sludge from in my engine...a service rep recommended it to me at bmw...just shows you how untrained these guys really are....it's sad to see this low quality service depts BMW puts out

[DC_Oldboy]

I have always followed BMW oil change interval but I may have to check mine. Goddamn that looks horrid.

[Simple5]

Auto RX or a couple bottles of seafoam in the crank case

[ctuna]

There are some other engine flushes
Like Amsoil. You need to do an oil change almost
immediately after using the stuff as described in the
instructions.
This is and oil additive which makes more sense for
cleaning a sludge problem in the lubrication section of the
engine than a product meant to clean the fuel system.

[DASHOCKER]

get a bilstein flush service..google it

Actually you should have been using Castrol 0-30 Euro Formula which carries BMW's long life approval LL-01 or Mobil 1 0-40 Euro Formula which also carries it, that looks pretty bad, I would try switching to the correct quality oil driving 5k and doing a hot oil change before doing any of the harsh cleaners.


IF IT DOSEN'T HAVE BMW LL-01 Approval on the bottle don't put it in your car, unless you know what your doing, simple.

The 5-30 weight is garbage and can't even be compared to the entirely different formula of the 0-30.

Read more about german castrol (castrol 0-30) here.
FAQ
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums...&Number=718643

[roadcarver]

That is odd and bad looking. On the 328i coupe I traded in last month which had 98000 miles on it it looked new inside there with now sludge at all. I did change oil at 7500 using either Motul or BMW oil every time. The engine still ran like new if not better.

[Napoli1926]

Originally Posted by index1489

Actually you should have been using Castrol 0-30 Euro Formula which carries BMW's long life approval LL-01 or Mobil 1 0-40 Euro Formula which also carries it, that looks pretty bad, I would try switching to the correct quality oil driving 5k and doing a hot oil change before doing any of the harsh cleaners.


IF IT DOSEN'T HAVE BMW LL-01 Approval on the bottle don't put it in your car, unless you know what your doing, simple.

The 5-30 weight is garbage and can't even be compared to the entirely different formula of the 0-30.

Read more about german castrol (castrol 0-30) here.
FAQ
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums...&Number=718643

Defenitly going to use that next oil change actually pepboys had a sale yesterday n I bought them funny u should recommend it...5 quarts for thirty bucks

[Napoli1926]

Originally Posted by DASHOCKER

get a bilstein flush service..google it

Definitely going to check that out thank you!

[ctuna]

I use the BMW oil cause it's the most correct .
There have been discussions on oil here before and from
what I have read the LL-01 only has and extra concentration
of one ingredient that protects the valves. So I suspect that this
is not the cause of Sludge build up and if you used regular synthetic
with a reasonable change interval it wouldn't make any difference at all.
But since the BMW synthetic is no more expensive than any other, at least
where I can find it why not use it.
Also all the people that sent there oil in to Blackstone pretty much report that all the additives in the oil are shot at 10k.(but these is acid and containment buidl up before that)
Also anybody that has been following the BMW fluid replacement lifetime fluid policy should be thinking about changing those.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...53217764,d.cGE

[Meeni]

Mine looked the same at 54k (used only BMW oil at the time, per computer service interval). It cleaned itself up during the next oil changes. I did use a shorter oil change interval (10k miles) and I used Total 5w30 oil, then M1 0w40.

[smallseafishie]

Your service advisor was slightly correct, it is castrol but european version... USA version is different. I've been running OEM oil and 0w-40 mobil one without any issues.

[DUI Elite]

WOW, now I'm curious how the inside of my engine is looking. I have followed 7,500 miles oil changes (using BMW oil only) since about 40k miles. I currently have 104k miles on the car now.

What are these flush oils that people recommending? Any harm in using them? (experiences?)

[GoRomeo]

Wow... thanks for sharing. Something to look out for. I ll check mine as well. I do oil changes twice a year. Maybe a little overkilled but is better safe than sorry.

[kunal_d]

Yet another example of BMW's ridiculous oil change intervals. If you plan to keep the car for longer than the warranty term it is wise to shorten the intervals to atleast 7500 miles. I believe BMW scrapped this 15k miles interval themselves recently.

[BenõrTheBMW]

0w-30 FTW

[ctuna]

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=627435

[GoRomeo]

yeah as far as I remember oil changes are due every 3k miles so I was shocked when my SA mention about oil changes such a long intervals.

[The Cleaner]

The vast majority of slug is caused by moisture in the oil (engine design aside). If you live in cold snowy climate that is your most likely cause. Since the oil is build up on the oil cap which has little if any contact with the oil I think you need to look at getting a new cap and seal and replacing your vent valve. You could also have other areas where moisture is entering the oil, I don't think this has anything to do with oil type and change frequency.

I live in a warm climate and have taken BMW's to 15K between changes since at least 2001 and never had slug.

[alexwhittemore]

Anyone know what BMW's minimum interval is for the free maintenance plan? Mine's up in a month or so and it's been 8500 miles since my last change.