N54 Marvins Mystery Oil before oil change...

[shah269]

N54 Marvin’s Mystery Oil before oil change...

I change my oil every 5k miles, 100% synthetic Elf oil.
Going into BMW for an oil change and for them to check out a possible leaking rear main, hoping CPO covers this.
My question is this. I drive all of 15 miles each way to and from work, so my car only really heats up to temp once a week or so. When I had my old 1.8T VW Jetta a week before the oil change I would add a two cups or so of Marvins Mystery into the oil to help remove any built up water/sludge.
I got 130k miles out of that high strung engine that use to run to hot she would turn Castrol Syntech black as coffee! But then I switched to Elf and things got better.
My question is twofold,
1) Rear main…that should be covered by CPO?
2) What are your thoughts of running Marvins to help remove built up sludge? Of which most of it is just water and oil mixture.

[BavarianN54]

The rear main should be covered if it is indeed leaking and they don't try to BS you which is quite possible due to high cost of the job.
There's nothing better than the full synthetic oil you're feeding the every 5k. Marvel isn't going to offer anything more. IMO.

It's a good idea to get the fluids up to temp every time you take the car out. If I'm only driving a very short distance I add mileage to the trip just to get it to operating temps.

[shah269]

Yeah in the winter getting her warmed up is woooh not easy! By the time i get to work it's at 160f which is not hot enough to wash out all the crud. The same thing happened with the old VW. So i wasn't 100% it would work for the BMW.

As for the BSing me...I have a local mechanic which has very good community trust and even my local BMW guys trust them. So i'm thinking.....that should be enough.
But if it's not i'm just going to cross my arms and say ....really?

[Freon]

I would recommend sending your oil for analysis every once in a while. Blackstone is well regarded for that. They'll send you a sample kit for free, you mail it back in filled with oil and $25, then they send back a report showing how much of all sorts of metals are present, how much more life the oil probably has, etc. They'll also show how much gasoline, coolant, water, etc. are present, which can be an issue with cars that don't get up to temperature and evaporate off any blow-by. They keep track of averages for your engine type, and also give you a written expert analysis at the top telling you want jumps out as a problem.

For an extra $10 they'll test TBN to see how much "additive" is left, which is more for those looking to extend oil changes. "Additive" is the stuff that probably makes LL-01 oil capable of lasting 10,000 miles. If you are running a new or unknown oil might not be a bad idea to see how it fairs once at the mileage you want to try for (i.e. test it once for your Elf oil to see if it can stand 5k change). After that probably not necessary. I think that's more targeted at service vehicles, trucks, etc. trying to max the life of their oil.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

Example report:
http://www.blackstone-labs.com/gas-e...e-report-1.php
This one even shows how they can find gas in the oil, how it might impact wear, viscosity, etc.

Really this is an amazing service and would recommend it to just about anyone with a performance car, tuned card, or high-mileage car.

I generally shy away from adding third party additives to my oil. Mobile, Elf, Castrol, etc know what they're doing! It would be interesting to see oil analysis with and without this Marvin's stuff, but I would tend to think it's really not doing you any favors.

[syenisch]

Originally Posted by BavarianN54

The rear main should be covered if it is indeed leaking and they don't try to BS you which is quite possible due to high cost of the job.
There's nothing better than the full synthetic oil you're feeding the every 5k. Marvel isn't going to offer anything more. IMO.

It's a good idea to get the fluids up to temp every time you take the car out. If I'm only driving a very short distance I add mileage to the trip just to get it to operating temps.

I don't understand why you would intentionally add miles just to turn get the car heated up before turning it off. You're still driving the same distance with the car cold as if you didn't drive those extra miles, and then you're adding more miles on top of it. Just sounds like you're unnecessarily adding more wear on the motor. Please explain.

[Freon]

Originally Posted by syenisch

I don't understand why you would intentionally add miles just to turn get the car heated up before turning it off. You're still driving the same distance with the car cold as if you didn't drive those extra miles, and then you're adding more miles on top of it. Just sounds like you're unnecessarily adding more wear on the motor. Please explain.

Oil gets contaminated with cylinder blow-by. That is, some amount of unburned gasoline and burned gasoline byproducts (like H2O) make their way past the piston rings into the crank case and oil. When the oil gets up to temperature some of these byproducts evaporate and vent through the PCV system. If left in the oil they reduce viscosity, and some by products can even break the oil down over time.

How much of an issue this really is could be up for debate. Newer engines with super tight piston-wall tolerances probably negate a lot of the problem, which along with the special LL-01 oil is probably why you can get away with 10,000 mile oil changes.

The oil analysis would be a good indication of whether or not this is truly a problem for an individual. I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it, and trust BMW's engineers aren't just guessing that their long oil service interval is appropriate for all their customers. I'd be more concerned if you have extremely short drives (i.e. 2 miles to work every day), have tuned the car up, do track days or autocross a lot, etc.

[BavarianN54]

Thanks freon, I agree with your assessment except the last part about oil analysis which I'm not a proponent of.

[Stohlen]

15 miles should be plenty to get your car to heat up fully.

[shah269]

well my 09 with just a hair under 60k miles will be needing a new rear main seal....oh well....thank got for CPO.
Maybe i'll get another 60k miles from it?

[Freon]

Originally Posted by BavarianN54

...except the last part about oil analysis which I'm not a proponent of.

Ok, I'll bite. Why?

[RideThePigGir]

Originally Posted by Freon

Ok, I'll bite. Why?

+1. For ~$25, you either get piece of mind (nothing serious in the results), or a possible idea of what to repair/change in your driving habits/etc.

[shah269]

OK my 135 is now at the shop having it's rear main replaced...saw the bill hollllly ppppoooopppp! Thank you CPO!
I hope the oil didn't damage the clutch....

[shah269]

you think they cleaned up the flywheel and the clutch when they took it out?
the clutch feels a little....slippery?
as I release the clutch at 1,500rpm I feel a little shake/slip/huh?
Thoughts?