Help on getting an E90

[E46Fanatic]

1. Engine was ran pretty hard, because there was 0 sludge in the engine block.

Interesting comment by the SA. Means we should all drive faster and harder from now on!

 

[astroboy]

Wooohoooo.... another 325 in town.. vroom vroom! :top:

It's a sign I spend too much $$$ playing and maintaining my car LOL.

I think Jimmy is the sales manager/director there. Rabian runs the show in IA.

Jimmy is the GM, Rabian is the DGM. I think those who went to IA before would have seen Jimmy or/and Rabian's face. How many of us who went to AB have seen their GM's face.. So you know who is closer to the customer.. :wink:

The P Zero RFT on your ride tells a little about the previous owner.. I can tell the owner pay big bucks for the top of the line Pirelli tyres, RFT means he/she prefer to use factory spec high quality stuffs, confirm no cheapo fake parts used and the zero sludge means intermediate oil change is carried out and he/she care and understand the car. Everything sounds good and I wouldn't be worry about the ATF and axle fluid.

 

[MSport]

Sillycarx, congrats on your ride!

 

[OSFlanker]

Hmm.. having a very slow tuesday morning at the office. So let me share my experience. The SA drove the car up to my house at 8am. I took a look at the car, the engine was dusty but has NO sign of leaks or sludge. So that was a good signed, since I know for a fact that the didn't clean the engine or removed stains, since it was very dusty. The body work was quite decent, except for some stone chips which I suppose is common. The RIMs were a little scratch up, but I'm not too worried about that, since I could get that refurb. The tires were still Run-Flats, but it was not very old, probably 15k -20k clocked on it, so seems like the owner changed to RFTs P-zero after the intial tyres were due.

Took the car to IA. Liew served and service my car. Liew was really nice. Wanted for 3 hours for the car to go through the checking. The bills of health came back clean with minor fix. Liew said.
1. Engine was ran pretty hard, because there was 0 sludge in the engine block.
2. There is no leaks at all. But the Auto-transmission hose is beginning to decompose and will need to be change.
3. The car battery should be change because of it's age (approaching 4 years) and not because of the Amp output.
4. The suspension came back with 1% variation on the left front. According to Liew, the passing criterion for the suspension test is < 30%, so the suspensions are actually in very good condition.
5. All sensors and electronics are working fine.
6. Liew mention that the under-carriage of the car had NO signed of accidents. But was very dirty with mud and sand. He said that the car must have been used on building site / off tarmac. But other then that, the under-carriage looks good. No rust no accident.
7. Overall, Liew said the car is in pretty good condition and is a good buying.

So, with recomendation to buy from Liew and Damien ( Meet Damien in IA too!). I took the dive!

Now I have to get some minor stuff done. I plan to get the ATF changed, together with the ATF hose. I'll leave the battery alone for now. I am considering to change the axel oil as well, what do you think? And of course bring the car in for engine oil change as well.

I was told by Liew that, the 325 uses 5W30 engine oil, which seems REALLY thin. He said IA uses either Shell or Petronas. Any recommendation?

How about the 2nd part of the story, where you had a ride in an old and banged up E30 coupe? hehe :wink:

 

[Schwepps]

Interesting comment by the SA. Means we should all drive faster and harder from now on!

That's what I was told by a senior SA at IA too. Those who are susceptible to sludge are the auntie drivers who never rev beyond 2,500rpm, or weekend drivers who hardly use the car. He also said 1 year is too long for an oil change. :wink:

 

[sillycarx]

OSFlanker, thanks for the ride home! You've got a cool ride man! Now I need to get the interior rebuilt place you mention.

 

[astroboy]

"Driving hard would prevent sludge" seem logical because sludge is cause by water moisture mixed into the engine oil and result in condensation of hydrocarbon molecular sediment a.k.a sludge. Frequent hard driving is actually boiling the oil until such temperature to boil the water moisture away from the oil leaving the oil to remain pure minus the "hydro"..

Make cow sense ka?

 

[Schwepps]

You have very funny urban legends to tell, asto. From The Car Bible:

What does sludge look like?
I was contacted by a BMW driver who's been having a particularly harsh time with sludge and has been discussing it on the Bimmerfest forums. He posted some images of his problem and other readers posted similarly-framed images of the same engine components in "normal" condition. Below are two of those photos. On the left is what the cam case should look like in a well maintained engine when photographed through the oil filler cap. On the right is what the same type of engine looks like when suffering sludge buildup.
In this example, the consensus was that the sludge buildup was caused by an overheating engine, oil that hadn't been changed for 20,000 miles of stop-go city driving, a lot of cold starts and a period of about 12 months in storage without an oil change. Most of this happened before the current owner got it.

When is sludge not sludge?
Easy. When it's an oil and water emulsion from a leaking or blown head gasket. If this happens, you get a whitish cream coloured sludge on the inside of the oil filler cap. The filler cap is typically cooler than the rest of the cam case and so the oil/water mix tends to condense there. So if you take the oil filler cap off and it looks like it's covered in vanilla yoghurt or mayonnaise, you've got a blown head gasket. A surefire way to confirm this is if your oil level is going up and your coolant level is going down. The coolant is getting through the breaks in the head gasket and mixing with the oil. When it gets to the sump it separates out and the oil floats on top.

 

[E46Fanatic]

That's what I was told by a senior SA at IA too. Those who are susceptible to sludge are the auntie drivers who never rev beyond 2,500rpm, or weekend drivers who hardly use the car. He also said 1 year is too long for an oil change. :wink:

BMW engineers must have secretly engineered this into the engines then to get us to drive our cars faster so that we can enjoy the full extent of the engineering which went into our cars. They probably dislike aunties drivers as well

 

[astroboy]

....In this example, the consensus was that the sludge buildup was caused by an overheating engine, oil that hadn't been changed for 20,000 miles of stop-go city driving, a lot of cold starts and a period of about 12 months in storage without an oil change. Most of this happened before the current owner got it...

Then simple chemistry..

We need to continue boiling the engine oil to energize its hydrocarbon molecular chain so its bondage remain loose. Like the Eskimos turning ice into water, stop boiling and it will solidify and turn into ice again.

So if engine oil is not boiled enough, it will solidify into sludge. That's why lots of cold start, stop-go traffic, short distance drive or prolong storage without oil change would result in solidification of engine oil to become sludge. Frequent hard driving would prolong the process (buy time) but won't reverse the process, so the only way is to replace the oil at a shorter interval than the recommended 25k km.

Now got cow sense? :wink:

 

[Schwepps]

No lah, astro! In fact overheating the oil is bad. Tis' said that an oil's SAE rating drops within the first 20 hours usage, so an SAE 30 oil becomes less than 30, and SAE 40 oil becomes less than 40 very quickly. Oil that doesn't have enough viscosity is not protecting your engine (it's another myth that thinner oil flows more easily into the tiny spaces - on the contrary, they won't STICK to the tiny spaces) That's what Turbology was talking about when he said better HTHS performance (High Temperature, High Shear) and NOACK (evaporation of the oil through heat)

Sludge is caused by impurities such as sulphur and phosphorus among others. There would more such impurities in G-III mineral oils downwards than in G-IVs.

 

[astroboy]

..Sludge is caused by impurities such as sulphur and phosphorus among others. There would more such impurities in G-III mineral oils downwards than in G-IVs.

So the next time I see snakes, I use oil to chase them away.. got sulphur ma.. and phosphorus can make explosives or use as cactus fertilizer, or Chinese sausage (lup cheong) ingredient..

Then why the oil maker dowan to remove the sulphur, phosphorus and the other impurities?

Sorry... problem child here ask too many questions.. :stupid:

 

[Schwepps]

Haiyah, haven't I explained it before? Cheong hey la... I think it's good to ask though, then you won't go around believing the wrong info. It's just that I have an interest in chemistry, dunno why

An analogy would be the best way to explain: mineral oils come from the ground and contain all sorts of things, even in the same oil field. G-I and G-II oils are refined by the fractional distillation method. No matter how good the process, not all the impurities can be removed. G-III oils are refined by hydro-cracking, which removes substantially more impurities. (It is G-III oils that Castrol USA wanted to call 'fully synthetic' and won the case against Mobil USA who fought against it)

So if you think of making automotive oils as tennis ball manufacturing, crude oil will have all sorts of balls in it. G-I and G-II would have mostly tennis balls in the end product, but a lot of odd balls would remain: golf balls, baseballs and footballs - the impurities. G-III would have even fewer odd balls but there would still be some. G-IV, being synthesized in a plant from the molecules (polyalphaolefins) would have only tennis balls in the end product.

 

[Schwepps]

BTW, in American oil blending and marketing, there are few rules. A 100% G-III can be called a fully-synth. The proportions of semi-synths are not mandated, so a semi-synth can be 100% G-II, and if the additives are synthesized hydrocarbons (which they are) voila! That's a semi-synth!

Buying US oils is basically paying the freight and tax of an imported, heavily marketed oil. There are exceptions, Mobil One being the main one that's truly fully-synth. Use the price as a guide. If you can buy a fully-synth American oil at half the price of Shell Helix Ultra AB, Petronas Syntium 3000 and Mobil One here, you know what it is that you're actually buying then... And you know which example of 'racing oil' I'm talking about. :wink:

 

[Schwepps]

I've got my ride... it's the 325......!

How do you find your new ride sillycarx, after a few days of getting to know her?

I would be very interested to know what you think of the Pirelli PZero RFTs. You're the only active forumer using them.

 

[astroboy]

... but the next big thing remain the 3rd generation of RFT, cheaper and more comfortable.

Looking forward.. :39:

 

[sillycarx]

Well unfortunately the car is still going through the process of getting the ownership transfered to me. I just got my car Number plate, and the car just went for Puspakom inspection. Probably get the car in the next couple of days. But I am in Penang, so it will be my Dad enjoying the car for now. I'll only go back to KL in 2 weeks time.

But when I test drove the car, it didn't feel at all uncomfortable, compared to the new demo car which I drove the last time. I did hear someone commenting that the RTFs take a little while to soften. But I have to say that, I am not sure if the car tyres were fully inflated, cause the only way to really check that is to use the pressure gauge, cause the sides of the RTFs are just hard and wouldn't look deflated. I'll give an update on the ride, once I finally get the car.

 

[Schwepps]

Ride, road noise, traction and wear rate please buddy

Pirellis are famous for traction, but also famous for high wear rate. Want to know if those traits apply to their RFTs too.

 

[viewfinder]

How about the 2nd part of the story, where you had a ride in an old and banged up E30 coupe? hehe :wink:

Lucky bugger, two 3-series test drives in a day!! So what's the verdict?

 

[viewfinder]

BTW, in American oil blending and marketing, there are few rules. A 100% G-III can be called a fully-synth. The proportions of semi-synths are not mandated, so a semi-synth can be 100% G-II, and if the additives are synthesized hydrocarbons (which they are) voila! That's a semi-synth!

Buying US oils is basically paying the freight and tax of an imported, heavily marketed oil. There are exceptions, Mobil One being the main one that's truly fully-synth. Use the price as a guide. If you can buy a fully-synth American oil at half the price of Shell Helix Ultra AB, Petronas Syntium 3000 and Mobil One here, you know what it is that you're actually buying then... And you know which example of 'racing oil' I'm talking about. :wink:

Interesting. Mobil1 and Castrol fully synthetic cost about US$4 per quart. 4 bottles (almost 4 liters) would be around $16 which is less than RM64 even if I use 4.0 exchange rate. That would make semi-synth here more expensive than Mobil1... how can we use American lub oil price as comparison to local price? Or are those the G-III??

Can I make the following conclusion:
BMW Special Oil = G-III?
BMW LL-xx = G-IV?