I took my T registered BMW 323 E36 90K miles in for a service at a main dealer, the bill shows that they filled the engine with fully synthetic oil rather than the semi-synthetic that the car should have been filled with. This is not the first time that this has happened.
I am sure that I can recover the difference in price from the dealer (again).
However my concern is the possibility of damaging the engine by switching between semi and full synthetic, particularly as I was intending to run this car to 200,000+ miles. I am sure that I have read something on this site saying that it is bad for older engines to be filled with fully synthetic.
I have a few questions
1) Does anyone have any evidence to back up the statement that switching between fully and semi is bad?
2) Can anyone suggest an effective strategy for getting the dealer to warranty the engine against excessive oil consumption? (the engine currently consumes not oil between services)
3) Can anyone recommend a good independent BMW specialist in East Sussex?
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IMHO.
1) I wouldn't do it on anything over 20 years old say, or ones in very poor mechanical condition even then unlikely with modern synthetics.
2) Why do you think it is the wrong oil? It is to the correct specs.
3) No.
I think it all started with daft Americans whining because that there crankshaft seals started weeping on their pushrod engines and they love to find something to blame for everything!
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surely your T reg 1999 BMW uses the fully synthetic oil???
you just need to make sure it was the right grade that went in 5w30 ??? and not 0w 30 !!!! did you know that you can get 20w 50 synthetic,,,,as well as pretty much any grade??
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www.storme.co.uk
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www.imperialoil.ca/Canada-English/Products/Lubrica...p
have a look here for a brief list of different synthetic oils...
then decide if they have put in the wrong oil
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www.storme.co.uk
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Mine is an e36 which is the older model and uses semi synthetic oil, the fully synthetic is only required for the e46 which has the longer service intervals.
I believe that the reason for the garage?s confusion is that in 1999 (T) only the touring and convertible were e36 whereas the saloon was e46.
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As long as it's an approved oil (which it will be) it doesn't matter. The garage did you a favour and used their premium oil and charged you for the privelage. If you specified the other oil in writing you may have a case otherwise it's just the way having a BMW dealer service is!
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arthur
I too have a '99 E36, the 323 Coupe, which was also not changed till some time after the E46 saloon came out. As far as I can tell from the book these can use either semi or fully synthetic oil. However the normal oil recommendation is fully synth and BMW dealers usually use just that. It will cause absolutely no problem in fact I'd be more concerned if it they'd used the semi synth!
JS
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I woudn't worry about engine damage. I have a citroen zx td mreg '94. I changed to 5w 40 fully synthetic after I bought the car which was at 75k.
I have used a semi synthetic 10w 40 and then fully synthetic (5w 40) again twice since.
The car is currently on 107.5k - runs fine - doesn't use any oil.
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