Oil Pressure test on M30- How does yours compare?

[genphreak]

Hey everyone,

Ever wonder how well your oil pump is managing? Here's one from a V10 M5 (it has no less than 4 of them!)

Our cars only have one pump which isn't half as nice as this one... so its a good idea to make sure its in good working order as our engines are now getting on. Mine had her 18th birthday last month...

After a recent scare with the 'LOW OIL PRESSURE GONG' and 'LCD warning' (as well as the oil light (idiot light) that refused to go out). I had to consider all the bad things that might have happened. Thankfully now, she is running fine (following a careful check/removal of the canister and a swap to lower viscosity oil). It now takes 2.5 seconds after a warm night for the oil light to go out after ignition.

However since posting about the problem I have had many members contact me with their experiences. It seems to be that the same thing could happen to anyone on a cold morning.

If you are not familiar with what can be the cause of this check the info here , here and here as oil pressure is one thing you cannot afford to do without now, or at any time in the future.

But it got me to thinking it'd be nice for us all to know how well our oil systems run, so I thought I'd post a poll to help us all ascertain if our cars are running properly, or not!

This is where the oil light is in your cluster, if like me you've never had much cause to notice it before: It shouldn't stay on very long after your engine is running.

Of course, without an oil pressure gauge it is hard to know if your oil pressure is good or not. However, there is another way. If enough of us that have an M30 help out and do the following test. Any of us that have a problem will then be able to do something about it before it causes any engine's to prematurely wear or fail.... yay!

So if you have an M30 powered car (ie 535i, 635i, 735i, 735iL) , please do the following check **exactly** one morning, then place your vote. For those with another kind of engine, feel free to cut and paste anything you want from this post to start another poll .

Hopefully this will get us some valuable info. If you aren't sure of what to put, or just think you do (but have not checked exactly), please DON'T vote- at least not until you have done the procedure.

Remember to get it right as you only get once chance to vote!

Test procedure

1. Only do this test when your car has sat unused, overnight
   (ideally between 8 and 12 hours).
2. Note the ambient temperature 4 hours prior to starting the engine.
3. Turn the ignition on (run position), check your oil light illuminates as it should.
4. Watching the oil light, turn the key to crank the starter motor
5. As soon as the engine fires, count how long it takes for your oil light to go off.

Please try to be get it down to the last second... it's not as easy as it seems to get the test right the first time. If you drive your car daily, taking an everage of the time it takes each morning is a really good idea.

If you don't get it right or mis-count, etc. you must wait until the next day to do another test. If you just shutdown your engine and restart, the result is not worth anything to us! Posting it will badly skew the results..

If you screw up voting somehow; please just leave a post in the thread so we can take errors into account.

To participate you need to know your oil weight and the rough temperature at night. If you don't know your oil weight just check the container.

Example answer:
I now use 15W/40 (it is winter in Oz), so in the poll I answer one of the choices listed for 15W/XX oil and 'warm night'.

Many thanks in advance for taking the time to help out!

[rob101]

i didn't know you had an import?

[genphreak]

i didn't know you had an import?

No mate, mine is an Aussie. I just call mine a Euro as Aussie ones are (from what I can make out) very similar to English ones - and as most of the poeple on the board are from the US it would seem a Euro to them... maybe I should change it!

Wow that poll took a while to write. It was a monster!

[rob101]

No mate, mine is an Aussie. I just call mine a Euro as Aussie ones are (from what I can make out) very similar to English ones - and as most of the poeple on the board are from the US it would seem a Euro to them... maybe I should change it!

Wow that poll took a while to write. It was a monster!

um australian deliveried cars don't have speedos in MPH, or at least the ones i've seen. did see a UK import that did though!

[genphreak]

um australian deliveried cars don't have speedos in MPH, or at least the ones i've seen. did see a UK import that did though!

Suspension, options and perhaps other differences exist too. btw; Did you vote in reference to your e28?

[rob101]

Suspension, options and perhaps other differences exist too. btw; Did you vote in reference to your e28?

no, sorry but for the record it takes about a 15 seconds to go off, on 20W yes, she's a bit tired

[genphreak]

no, sorry but for the record it takes about a 15 seconds to go off, on 20W yes, she's a bit tired

Awww no, the poll is ****ed already! on ya Rob!

[Bimmerman]

Where's the "who's Winfred" option?

[632 Regal]

exactly, this isn't a real poll at all.

Where's the "who's Winfred" option?

[JerseySi]

Who is Winfred anyway?

*more on topic:
Currently got Castrol GTX 10w40 semi-synthetic in mine, tappets can get a little noisy after a "spirited" drive otherwise it's good..
The only time i've ever seen the oil light come on for longer than it takes to start the motor, was when i was running low on oil (below the minimum level on the dipstick - front main crankshaft oil seal needs doing )
Not got my blue one on the road yet, but from just firing it up, it seems the same