My oil "plan"... opinions?

[Beez540]

So I've only had my 540 about a week and a half, and judging by the prior owners maintenance records... it's about time to change the oil.

The oil looked fairly clean on the stick... but I'd like to start fresh regardless. Prior owner was using some kind of Schafer (spelling?) synthetic (green stuff, I think) in the ol' M60.

My engine has around 135k on it.. no real bad leaks or drips... however, the valve covers are starting to seep... and there seems to be the normal grime around the oil pan.

I live in Southern Oregon and it is still getting down in the high 20's / low 30's at night and in the morning. It's only around 45 - 58 in the afternoons.
After doing some research on this site and everywhere else I could find... It appears most people are running the new Mobil 1 0w-40. I figured I'd run that until it gets hot in the late spring - summer, where temps average around 65 - 80 lows and 75 - 105 highs. Then I thought switching to the mobile 1 15w-50 sounded appropriate.

Anyone have any opinions on this? Will that suffice? Should I expect an excessive amount of seepage from the 0w stuff for awhile?


Thanks,

Brandon

[Martin in Bellevue]

A good start with your new 540, might be to check for oil pump bolts floating about the oil pan. Maybe after draining the oil, you could fish in a magnet on a telescopic stick & see if any bolts are down. I wouldn't deviate too far from the mobil 0-40 oil; those lifters should like it.

[Bill R.]

A good start with your new 540, might be to check for oil pump bolts floating about the oil pan. Maybe after draining the oil, you could fish in a magnet on a telescopic stick & see if any bolts are down. I wouldn't deviate too far from the mobil 0-40 oil; those lifters should like it.

on the 540 and take a peek at those oil pump bolts rather than chance on a magnet finding them...then you could look to see if any are loose even if they haven't fallen out yet... And i would stick to mobil 0-40 year round also and my ambients in tucson are much higher in the summer than Oregon...I ran the bmw 5w30 in my sloppy old m30 motor without any problems in ambients as high as 127f in Bullhead city before... Lifters? i haven't seen any lifters in a long time...

[jjw]

When my 540 was new, I used mobile 15w-50, and it ticks. After few deal visits and can't find anything wrong. BMW came out with a service bulletin to recommand 5w-30, if useing synthetic. And sure, it tick less, only after sit a while. Have useing it ever since. Engine runs clean and strong at 161200 miles. Still an original engine.

[ryan roopnarine]

the schaffer's synthetic is kind of a boutique mail order oil....like amsoil with 1/5 the name recognition. i don't know what grade the "green" is....but if if the previous owner was using schaffers, and it was one of their full synthetic products (the price of the stuff is too high to warrant buying their conventional oil for anything) you won't leak when using one of mobil's 0w products. i believe that both schaffers and amsoil buy their base stocks from xom, so like=like in this case . if my engine used 0w30 like one of the other posters implied, i might use the german castrol 0w30 in my car all of the time, but right now, my m50 is eating some m1 15w50 i got from pepboys for 6/15.95 with coupon.

So I've only had my 540 about a week and a half, and judging by the prior owners maintenance records... it's about time to change the oil.

The oil looked fairly clean on the stick... but I'd like to start fresh regardless. Prior owner was using some kind of Schafer (spelling?) synthetic (green stuff, I think) in the ol' M60.

My engine has around 135k on it.. no real bad leaks or drips... however, the valve covers are starting to seep... and there seems to be the normal grime around the oil pan.

I live in Southern Oregon and it is still getting down in the high 20's / low 30's at night and in the morning. It's only around 45 - 58 in the afternoons.
After doing some research on this site and everywhere else I could find... It appears most people are running the new Mobil 1 0w-40. I figured I'd run that until it gets hot in the late spring - summer, where temps average around 65 - 80 lows and 75 - 105 highs. Then I thought switching to the mobile 1 15w-50 sounded appropriate.

Anyone have any opinions on this? Will that suffice? Should I expect an excessive amount of seepage from the 0w stuff for awhile?


Thanks,

Brandon

[Brian C.]

...with nothing creative to add....UNTIL....an oil change question pops up! Wazzup Mr. Jiffy-Dude?? How many changes since the 1st of the year for you?

Brian C.

[ryan roopnarine]

...with nothing creative to add....UNTIL....an oil change question pops up! Wazzup Mr. Jiffy-Dude?? How many changes since the 1st of the year for you?

Brian C.

are you directing your wiseacre comment at moi? yeah, i only contribute when i wants something from the board unfortunately, i've had to do 2 oil changes since the 1st of january on the e34. the jackasses here at the apartment thinkl they have some type of CCR enforcement power and don't want you doing "maintainence" or washing your car in the lot. i showed them....i parked in the most obnoxious manner possible at the end of the lot yesterday and changed it. they saw. i wish i could leave the oil in there for 40 or 50k miles...would make my life soooo much easier.

[ryan roopnarine]

oh, in case i forget....when i was in pepboys yesterday, i saw that they now have 0w20 in M1 (no 0w40 though). normally, this wouldn't warrant me saying anything, buuuuttt, if you have a honda or ford that eats ow20 oil, you might wanna visit because of the MADD calendar coupon. pepboys has a calendar on sale for $1 (no tax) which has a coupon in it for mobil 1. the coupon lets you buy 3 quarts of M1 and get another 3 free. For the grades they sell at wal mart in jugs, this is only slightly cheaper, but you get a extra quart for free, so 15.xx for 6, as opposed to 19.xx for 5 qts at walmart. but the ow20 isn't in jugs yet, so depending on your sump size, you might be able to get roughly two oil changes in for 15.xx, obviously notable because most places that have the 0w20 have it for at least 4.79 per quart, so you can save about $15 in this manner (5*6=30 and all).

[DanDombrowski]

I apologize, I didn't read the rest of the thread. I gotta say, my apartment complex is the same way, we used to have the biggest a**hole "courtesy officer" that would get on our case for everything, including doing stuff to our cars, while he was out there working on his himself.
Anyway, when I replaced my radiator a week or two ago I did it right out in the open and he never said anything. So much for that.

[DanDombrowski]

6/15.95? What coupon? Share, share!