oil got black really fast...
 

whats the normal milage you get before the oil starts turning to crap? i had my oil changed at 13k miles, i now have 16k, i can tell its not driving like its supposed to, the oil is full, but its blacker than i dont know what! i found the reciept from the last oil change, and it doesnt say that he charged me for a filter, so as odd as it sounds, i dont think this guy put a new filter on at 13k...could that be the reason? its amsoil synthetic oil btw...

i just picked up a filter and 5qts of 5w30 mobil 1 syn. oil from NAPA. how are the napa filters and this oil?

and i saw the write up on how to do the oil change, im gonna try and do this monday :)

what other fluids should i check/flush? ive filled the anti freeze and break fluid. trans?

thanks in advance :)

VJ

Souds like the only fluid in need of being touched is oil, the rest just check levels (FYI I never add brake fluid, just bleed/ repelace) Do you do more city driving? Oil filters run about $8 from the dealer. Many of us here change after 5k oil and filter just to make sure its clean, and if you do it regularly you'll find it lasts longer. If 13k was your first change, then there was likely a bunch of junk in the system that wore the fresh oil down, change it again and I bet it lasts longer. (And is why on my last car with regular oil I was taking out oil just as clean as what I was putting in b/c I was anal about changing it every 3k.

How hard is it to bleed the break lines?

How is that napa filter I got? Only dealer is about 1 hour from me :-/

NAPA filter should be fine assuming its the right size (Should actually be a bit cheaper too!) (An hour is close!!!)

To bleed the brake lines, well a 2nd person goes a long way toward making it real simple (other wise you'll need a pressurizer) I'd rate it a 2 on a 1-10 scale with 1 being the easiest, same skill as doing an oil change, just a little more time consuming and a little more attention needed. Start farthest from the resivoir and work to closest, get different color fluid if possible, and bleed a little extra to make sure you get ALL the old stuff out. (will change to clean the got back to dirty then clean again) ANd get some extra the first few times you do it. Any DOT 4 is OEM approved, I've had good experiance with the $4 bottle of Valvoine.

Mobil 1 tends to blacken much more quickly than other oils. I'm not sure why but I don't believe it's because it's actually dirty. Brake bleeding can be done the old fashioned way with two people, with a pressure bleeder, or with speed bleeders (one-way valves). ATE Super Blue/Gold and Motul tend to be the recommended brake fluids.

Is there a write up on how to bleed breaks lol...I'm a visual learner :-)

What about transmission fluid?

Sorry I'm not very mechanically inclined lol

Tans fluid should be good until at least the 50k range, brake bleeds are so easy I'm not sure anyone has done a write up on just that, but you may find info in the how-to (PReformance section) there are some done on PAD replacement that may cover it.

Cool, ill check that out tomorow (I'm on my phone right now lol)

Thanks for the help so far guys.

There's a discussion about tranny fluid going on right now in Performance Mods: Drivetrain. It's not a hard thing to do.

Also an interesting discussion on oil change intervals in Beneath the Bonnet now.

Oil color is not an indication of how well synthetic oil is currently lubricating your engine.

Send a sample out for testing if you really want to know if your oil is still good.

Quality synthetic oil will last a lot longer than 3K miles. .

how is this socket?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-M...spagenameZWDVW

i cant find one anywhere locally....is it easier to use that or an open end wrench?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Brand-New-Proto-...QQcmdZViewItem

That one will work. I've found that a regular Craftsman 36mm socket will work but others say it doesn't fit :confused: . You won't have room for an open end wrench down there. You have to use a rachet and socket.

cool, thanks :)

The Craftsman socket does fit, and I have used it a couple of times to change my oil.

I use a Craftsman Flex head 3/8" ratchet and a Hazet 2169-36 socket.

The Hazet socket is very slim, so that you can unthread cap all the way, instead of just breaking it loose, like the bigger sockets do..

BTW, I have seen many, many oil filters that are not OEM that don't seal right. Half of them are twisted in the housing, and some that don't come out when the cap is removed, meaning that it wasn't sealed with the cap. If you think the OEM filters are too much, and you are going to keep your car for a long time, ask if you can get a break on buying a larger quantity. Still I think that the price difference is negligable when talking about protecting your engine.

1) As Yucca said, black oil does not indicate bad oil. In fact, I've heard that slightly blackened synthetic actually lubricates better then the fresh oil. (Black from normal use... not from contamination)

2) This is more of a personal experience thing, but stay away from NAPA and Purolator filter. NAPAs aren't the right size and Purolators collapse. Order OEM filters from OutMotoring or Detroit Tuned or the like.

3) If you want trust that it's done right either a: take it to a dealer or b: do it yourself. Those other places (JiffyLube and the like) are just plain scary.

im gonna take the napa filter back....

how is the mobil 1 syn. oil?

i hope that socket i ordered isnt poor quality...lol

It's good oil. I use the purolator filters and they work well. But I also do frequent oil changes, so filter durability doesn't really bother me. If I was going over 5k per oil change, I would be a little more concerned. I'm sure that socket will be ok as long as it fits...I usually use a self adjusting wrench for the oil filter. Last time, I opened it with my hand. It doesn't have to be TOO tight.

Might I suggest getting a Haynes or Bentley manual off of one of the vendors? They come in handy when you want to do any kind of work on the car...very detailed instructions.

ill look into that

you can never go wrong by going to an OEM filter, you can also use Fram, never had any problems with them, but then again that was with my old car.:nod:
As far as oil goes, always go with Mobil 1 Synthetic:thumbsup:

I've been using the NAPA Gold oil filter (#7303) for some time now, and have had absolutely NO problems with it. The "fit" is just fine in my MCS.
Jim
101154 miles as of today

Here is a picture of a collapsed Purolator filter for a MINI (near the bottom of the page). The second page shows a new one next to the OEM filter, which you can see has a plastic ecore cage inside to prevent collapse.

Napa filters are usually high quality Wix filters and I wouldn't hesitate to use one if it fits tight (needn't have the same size opening as OEM to do that). While generally it is a safe bet to use anything but Fram, in this case the Purolator has a known issue.

BTW Mobil 1 is no longer fully synthetic if we are to believe their own old definition. It has now been independently verified that Mobil 1 has switched to hydrocracked group III oil for some of their products (was long suspected as such due to changes in the volatility and pour point specs). This is exactly what they went to binding arbitration against Castrol over: they claimed at the time that only PAO or better was true synthetic, while group III was in American Syntec so it should not be advertised as such. Well they lost and now it's "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" because PAO is expensive, especially after Katrina damaged all those refineries.

I still think Mobil 1 works great but the price is now pretty outrageous when you can buy a group III "synthetic" oil at Walmart at $13 for 5 quarts. I mean for about the same price as Mobil 1 I'd rather use the German Castrol Syntec that is a true synthetic, is the factory fill in our cars that allows the factory extended oil change intervals, and is readily available at Autozone...

if you had it changed at 13k and now have 6k on it. thats a decent 3k miles on it since last change.......and in reality you should change it now. but the whole reason it is black is because it means its doing it's job by keeping all the moving parts clean and lubed right. oil turns black because of the detergants in it cleaning the parts.