I was low oil in my 530xi so I purchased a gallon to fill up. I put about 1.5 quarts of Penzoil Euro L 5W30 to replenish. This the first time in using this oil, but it said it was made for BMWs and I read where it's good for my car so I used it. Now my car is sputtering, shaking, and has lost power somewhat upon acceleration. What did I just do? HELP!

 

If you just added oil then that's not your problem. You can put any passenger car oil in your car and it will be fine. May not be the best for it emission wise but it will do. You'll have e to find out what your code is. You may just have run it low to long and caused an issue that just now coming to light or you just may have a vacuum leak, coil/spark plug issue or fuel delivery issue. Run it for codes so you can get an answer that helps you. The reasons could be endless.

 

Are you sure you didn't inadvertently knock something loose while you were in there?

 

Or not put the cap on correctly

 

No. Its not hard to unscrew the cap on the top of the engine, pour oil, then screw it back on. Its not like the cap comes off or can be screwed on improperly...Im guessing I'm good on that part, but have I missed something?

I will get the codes pulled and report back. Not sure why I didn't before I posted. 🤷

now that I think about it... I do remember something similar to this happening before and it was something to do with the plugs (if I remember correctly). Don't quote me on that, but I'll grab my paperwork to see if I can find something that may shed some light.

 

I managed to flood 2-3 plugs with fresh oil once while filling/spilling oil. If the coils don't seal well that could be an issue.

 

So I went up the street to get a quick code check at the local auto store. The codes came back as some may have expected cylinder 3 misfire due to ignition system fault (P0303).

Considering I added oil, could I have flooded the plugs?

 

I take it you do not work on your own car? You have a misfire on cylinder 3. You're looking at a bad coil (which can be determined by switching it to a different cylinder and seeing if the code follows), spark plugs need to be changed or a bad injector. The only way oil is on your spark plugs is if you need your spark plug tube gasket changed. You adding oil to your car has nothing to do with what's going on unless you pulled a coil and put oil on your spark plugs.

I would advise you to take your car to a mechanic and have them fix your issue.

 

BMWs are high precision vehicles (aka picky). It doesn't take much to nudge them out due to their tight tolerances. I still remember when I had a misfire on cylinder #5. I went in and gave everything an eagle eye look, and all I noticed was that the #5 coil clamp was like 1/2 millimeter unseated. I said, naw that's not it, but let me seat it flush anyways. Well what do you know, that fixed it.