RE: '99 M3 oil

["Wesleyan Hsu" <wes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You know, I've been trying to find out for what seems like forever as to
what exactly they put in our '99 M3s. My dealer says that the car is shipped
with dino oil. This agrees with BMW NA's corporate web site. My salesman
said he doesn't understand why the M3 doesn't come with conventional oil,
but he thinks it's because the service indicator is "calibrated" for
conventional oil (i.e. every 7500 +/-). Now, why my manual says to use BMW
"Long Life" or Mobil 1 is truly beyond me. That's what I use, but it just
doesn't make sense with everything else BMW NA and my dealer are saying.

One data point to note is that Porsche puts Mobil 1 in all of their cars
straight out of the factory and all new BMWs come with synthetic oil, so I
suppose it's okay to break in these cars with synthetic oil nowadays.

Wesleyan Hsu
'99 M3 Convertible
BMW CAA 162477 / NCC

Gary wrote:

>I've got a couple of questions re: my '99 M3.  The
>book no longer calls for an oil change at 1000 mi,
>which I think is a mistake, so I plan on having that
>done at my own expense.  However, the dealer says the
>car comes with synthetic oil from the factory.  I've
>always heard that you should break in any car with
>mineral oil for at least 5,000 mi before going to
>synthetic.  Can anyone confirm that the '99's are
>actually coming with synthetic from the factory, and I
>would appreciate any comments on the break-in theory.

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