I have started looking around to buy 2 x 5 litre cans of engine oil, which is BMW LL-04 compliant. (My car is a 530d).

Found the following at fairly decent prices:

Texaco Havoline Ultra S 5w/30 (?50 for 10 litres)

Motul BMW SPECIFIC LL-04 5W-40 (?60 - 10 litres)

Fuchs TITAN GT1 5W-30 Zinc-Free Synthetic BMW LL04 (?73 - 10 litres)

Which of the above would you recommend ?...........I know some of you will chime in and say you use Mobil 1 or Castrol Edge, and that's great, but the above are noticeably cheaper than these, so I'd like to consider them.

Alternatively if you know of any cheaper offerings, I'd be happy to listen.

All comments welcome.

Thanks.

 

Let's see --- $60,000 car ... then looking to save $40 a year by shopping for cheap oil .... I don't get it!

 

Thanks for the input.
Actually my car has a market value of only around ?12,000 (about $18,000).

Secondly, what's wrong with trying to save a few ???'s .........all of the oils I mentioned are BMW LL04 compliant, so they're not "cheap" in the sense of poor quality.

I am trying to invite people's opinions on the brand of oil they use and why. This forum is about sharing experiences is it not.........although I guess for someone like you it's probably more fun to just criticise.

 

Isn't it those oils rated BMW LL-01, not 04 that are approved?

 

For deisel engines LL-04 is preferrred. LL-01 is an alternate. I think for petrol it doesn't matter:

 

BMW's engines are high tech and expensive. I always use BMW approved oil from the dealer or Red Line which Turner Mototsport uses in their race cars.

I have read Motul is quality, Texaco Havoline is stuff you buy at the discount store where I live, never heard of Fuchs.

 

BMW's engines are high tech and expensive. I always use BMW approved oil from the dealer or Red Line which Turner Mototsport uses in their race cars.

I have read Motul is quality, Texaco Havoline is stuff you buy at the discount store where I live, never heard of Fuchs.

I try and find a good price on the best oil.

 

Sorry but you've mistaken my finely developed sense of humor for caustic sarcasm ... you'd have to know me better!

Motor oil is one BMW bodily fluid where looking for a bargain brand is tooooo risky and potentially very expensive. So, especially the case, no matter how oil specs are marketed, where I'd want a "respected brand" oil. Better to try and save money elsewhere.

 

So what should a 04 530D take 5W/30 or 5W/40?

 

If you are referring to viscosity the picture below is from BMW's owner's manual for model year 2004.

There are several acceptable motor oils that meet or exceed BMW's specifications. My point on this post was that shopping to save a few dollars on motor oil now only opens the door for expensive repairs later. In my experience [maintaining my cars in the USA] that the difference between a top brand name oil and a no-name/discount brand is less than $25 for # quarts of oil required to complete the service. If you do the math, that's probably a couple of pennies / mile.

I've used full synthetics [matching or exceeding BMW specs as noted from my owners manual] including Mobil 1 Extended, Castrol Syntec, or BMW Oil [especially when my dealer has a discount coupon] ... recently bought a few quarts of Pennzoil Platinum for one of my other cars. Others have recommended some more exotic synthetics from Red Line and Amsoil.