X3 oil report

[NIGHTMAREuki]

I acquired this X3 about 2 month ago with 46K miles, right now i have 47***.
My oil service thing says 1500 till oil change today, i changed it last Friday and got my Blackstone report today.
When oil was drained it was filthy, and i mean if it had a dipstick i could pull out it would be scary to see something like that.
Based on this i'll be changing my oil at least every 7-8K, still using Castrol 0w-30 european formula or try Amsoil.
I dont see a way any engine will be able to work at its full potential past ~80K miles with such dirty oil, compression loss and oil burning are the first symptoms, way too much metals floating around.
I guess BMW doesnt care about long term reliability or long term customers.

[JCL]

Thanks for posting this.

Some comments on your report, and a few questions:

1) Did you take the sample from a turbulent point, ie a pressurized gallery? Or did you take it out of the drain pan stream? The latter will be contaminated with everything that was sitting in the bottom of the pan.

2) Best practice is never to respond to a single sample result. If you want confirmation of the figures, take another sample. Even better would be to run the same oil change interval several times, and then reduce it slightly, and see if the wear rate changes. Your single sample doesn't mean anything in terms of wear metals.

3) The TBN figure shows the oil is still good, in that it still has active additives. Not surprising, but good confirmation that your change interval isn't a problem. It suggests that you shouldn't change oil from whatever you were using before, given how well it stood up.

4) The viscosity figures confirm that the oil is still within specifications, again confirming the change interval, and that the oil selection was a good one.

5) Insolubles seem fine, indicating that oxidation isn't a problem. Another confirmation that the oil stood up fine to this oil change interval.

6) The universal averages are Blackstone averages, based on what their results show for a group of engines that in this case, had 5400 miles on them (average). Yours isn't at that mileage. Blackstone say on their web site that these samples are for all this type of engine. What type is that, all six cylinders? All BMWs? All gasoline engines? You need to decide how appropriate the universal averages are before comparing your results to them. I would ignore them, myself. After you have 3 to 5 test samples, you can plot your own trend lines, and that is where the real value comes in.

7) The wear metals they are reporting on are microscopic particles, too small to be filtered. I wouldn't consider them abrasive, given their size. They are an indication of where there is wear in your engine. If you want to see if there are any abrasive particles, you would need to do a particle count test, as it measures large particles. Blackstone will likely do it for an additional charge, but it doesn't look like you paid for that analysis, so in the absence of any information, I don't think it is right to say that there are too many metals floating around. The microscopic particles that are floating around aren't the ones you would need to worry about.

The classic response to an oil sample result is to react to it immediately, or ignore it. Resist the temptation in both cases. If you do a number of further samples, you will have a trendline that will provide value. If you don't want to do further samples, just ignore the wear metals, and know that your oil stood up fine to this change interval, that is what you learned by sampling this time.

[NIGHTMAREuki]

sample was taken from hot engine with latter part of oil, like i did in the past on other cars.
i agree that oil is fine for the mileage, i will have more samples in the future just need to figure out a way to get to oil, no dipstick sux.
i wish there was less wear, i've seen many oil reports but mostly from VQ engines and was expecting less metals in oil.

[JCL]

Hot oil is good, but a better sample will come from a pressurized (turbulent) oil flow. I don't think the dipstick would help with a sample, although I agree there is a certain comfort in being able to measure the oil level physically. On heavy equipment, we installed permanent sampling ports on all machines we sold so that we could do quick samples. The sampling ports are very cheap, and easy to use.

Since the oil lasted so well for the 14,000 miles, it would be good to know what it was. Do you have service records, and know if the last oil change was done at the dealer? Based on the mileage and age, it seems that it might have been under the prepaid maintenance program, meaning bulk BMW 5w-30 oil (Castrol, not GC)

I wouldn't worry about the metals too much given how low the insolubles are. That reading indicates you don't have high levels of wear material in the oil, which is what counts.

Do you have low compression or excessive oil consumption?

[NIGHTMAREuki]

Originally Posted by JCL

Hot oil is good, but a better sample will come from a pressurized (turbulent) oil flow. I don't think the dipstick would help with a sample, although I agree there is a certain comfort in being able to measure the oil level physically. On heavy equipment, we installed permanent sampling ports on all machines we sold so that we could do quick samples. The sampling ports are very cheap, and easy to use.

Since the oil lasted so well for the 14,000 miles, it would be good to know what it was. Do you have service records, and know if the last oil change was done at the dealer? Based on the mileage and age, it seems that it might have been under the prepaid maintenance program, meaning bulk BMW 5w-30 oil (Castrol, not GC)

I wouldn't worry about the metals too much given how low the insolubles are. That reading indicates you don't have high levels of wear material in the oil, which is what counts.

Do you have low compression or excessive oil consumption?

i had the car for just 2K miles so cant be sure about oil consumption but so far i did not have to add a drop.
last oil change was at the dealer at 33K, i;m not really worried about the engine, its seems to work fine, i did have Vanos solenoid? replaced this week and a thermostat when i came in for light bulb warning light.
so far the only thing that i worry about is the tranny, humming noise when decelerating from ~40mph, and clunk on gear changes.
"final drive" was already replaced which solved the humming when accelerating at same speeds.
i'm a little dissapointed so far, my friend has 04 G35x with 70K+ miles and did not have to do a single thing to it when it comes to powertrain and he beats the shit out it

[JCL]

Originally Posted by NIGHTMAREuki

I had the car for just 2K miles so can't be sure about oil consumption but so far I did not have to add a drop.
Last oil change was at the dealer at 33K; I'm not really worried about the engine, it seems to work fine...

Good to know. I agree that the engine is doing well after the 14,000 mile oil change, and the oil report is still good. So, is it fair to conclude that your rant in your first post in this thread was due to having a bad day?

There is a lesson here for those who decide to get oil samples done. Oil sampling can be a valuable part of a preventative maintenance program. However, one sample, and basing any conclusions on that sample, is not the way to go. While it can be interesting to see the numbers, it shouldn't be the basis for very many of the actions that usually follow. What should guide oil samplers are the comments of the interpreter, and in this case the interpreter doesn't seem to have added any value. Their suggestion to change your change interval appears to be nothing more than a grab for more sampling business based on fear tactics.

[NIGHTMAREuki]

Originally Posted by JCL

So, is it fair to conclude that your rant in your first post in this thread was due to having a bad day?

probably, wisdom tooth(3rd molar) killing me since Wednesday.