Indie put 7 quarts of oil in my S54 Z4M

[sagdast]

Santa Monica BMW quoted me $374 for an oil change. Outraged, I bought the oil and the filter and took it to an indie "BMW" shop down the street. BMW sold me 7 quarts of synthetic. The mechanic poured all 7 quarts into the car insisting on that being what it takes. Now my dipstick shows well past full. What should I do? Image below.IMG_0749.jpg

[RJ237]

You can get a length of rigid plastic tubing from the hardware store and siphon some oil out. It's slow, bit easy.

[jclausen]

Is this right after the engine is shut off or after it sits for awhile.

[ross1]

Your owner's manual should tell you the correct fill amount, 7 sounds reasonable and concurs with what BMW sold you.
It is indeed overfull so either your "mechanic" didn't allow enough time for the oil to drain, left the filter in place while draining or the fill isn't 7 qts.
If the crankcase gets TOO full the crankshaft stirs up oil in the sump aerating it which lessens it's ability to lubricate.
Yours, while over, isn't so bad that I'd even bother correcting it. Racers commonly slightly overfill like this in an effort to avoid starving the pump during hard cornering.
This DOES demonstrate a lack of attention by the folks doing the service. If they can't properly perform an oil change I'd not let them do anything else.

[tekoo]

7 quarts (6.5 liters) is the correct oil volume when replacing oil and filter. Make sure the car is on a flat surface and engine hasn’t been recently running when you check the level. If oil measure is still indicating overfill then the indie did not drain the old oil adequately.

[TerraPhantm]

7 quarts (6.5 liters) is the correct oil volume when replacing oil and filter. Make sure the car is on a flat surface and engine hasn’t been recently running when you check the level. If oil measure is still indicating overfill then the indie did not drain the old oil adequately.

More like 5.5L in my experience

[tekoo]

Good catch! I apologize, I did not realize the vehicle was a Z4M. Z4 M is 5.5 Liters (5.8 US quarts), however all other Z4s are 6.5 Liters (6.87 US quarts). This is why 6.5 L was an overkill in his specific case. The indie probably did not realize/pay attention there is a variation among M vs non-M.

1F468D2C-22F7-40BD-A1C6-F7F95A9F530E.jpg2E502A0F-3599-4B0C-BDBE-4F74C621ACF8.jpg

https://applications.castrol.com/oilselector/en_us/c/recommendation?data=9d3877221f0355dde476ee679ca383 14

https://oil-change.info/bmw-z4-engine-oil-capacity/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/oil-cha...apacity/%3famp

[BimmerBreaker]

Take a little out, S54s do not like being overfilled

[tekoo]

I would return to the indie shop to correct the volume. Also make sure they used the correct oil grade. M S54 engines specifically require 10W-60 (Liqui Moly or Castrol 07510009420).

http://autoworksco.com/wp-content/up...ds.11-1.13.pdf

https://www.liqui-moly.com/en/servic...6a7b0bba5f8f3/

https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-3...0w-60-1-quart/

https://msdspds.castrol.com/bpglis/F...PXE-A26AG2.pdf

[KevinC]

Lots of misinformation in this thread!

The old, very common-at-the-time M54 took ~7 quarts. Dealers very commonly overfilled S54's at the time, apparently blind to the fact that the S54 had a different oil capacity. I had this issue early on with the free maintenance on my original Z4MC. I had a little heart-to-heart with my SA and educated him on the issue.

The S54 takes 5.5 liters, or ~5.9 quarts. If someone puts 7 in it, they've drastically overfilled it.

[sagdast]

Thank you everyone for the response. SO, I took it to a Jiffy Lube (didn't want to see the indie anymore as I was SO PISSED as I asked him multiple times to check oil capacity) and they removed half a quart. I drove to a gas station that seemed pretty flat and the line still looked over the max. I drove back to the Jiffy Lube, and they showed me the dipstick about a minute after shutting the engine off and it was a little below max. Frustrated, I decided to just leave as is (possibly 6.5 quarts vs. 5.85 per your comments) vs. potentially damaging my engine. I SO REGRET NOT JUST PAYING $375 AT SANTA MONICA BMW. I paid $160 for the oil and filter at Santa Monica BMW Parts, and $60 for the indie to put it in. I saved $115 in cash and suffered $1000 in brain damage.

[tekoo]

Thank you everyone for the response. SO, I took it to a Jiffy Lube (didn't want to see the indie anymore as I was SO PISSED as I asked him multiple times to check oil capacity) and they removed half a quart. I drove to a gas station that seemed pretty flat and the line still looked over the max. I drove back to the Jiffy Lube, and they showed me the dipstick about a minute after shutting the engine off and it was a little below max. Frustrated, I decided to just leave as is (possibly 6.5 quarts vs. 5.85 per your comments) vs. potentially damaging my engine. I SO REGRET NOT JUST PAYING $375 AT SANTA MONICA BMW. I paid $160 for the oil and filter at Santa Monica BMW Parts, and $60 for the indie to put it in. I saved $115 in cash and suffered $1000 in brain damage.

It will be alright, we all go through a learning curve. Now that you have the correct info, next time you can get it done correctly from first time and start saving more that 50% each oil change. Who knows, maybe you can learn to do it yourself at home and develop a personal bond with your M!

[KevinC]

I SO REGRET NOT JUST PAYING $375 AT SANTA MONICA BMW. I paid $160 for the oil and filter at Santa Monica BMW Parts, and $60 for the indie to put it in. I saved $115 in cash and suffered $1000 in brain damage.

Don't pay $375, holy carp! Next time, just buy the oil & filter yourself, for $80 for the whole kit & caboodle, from ECS:

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-assemble...427833769lmkt/

Liqui-Moly Race Tech 10W-60 costs half of what Castrol TWS or BMW's own "Twin Power Turbo" (worst name for an oil ever?) will cost you, and is totally appropriate for the S54. Take your stuff to a local oil change guy and pay him a double-sawbuck ($20) labor to do the change. He can't overfill it because you are providing 6 liters, of which you instruct him to leave you a half-liter when he's done. Boom, $100 for a proper oil & filter change. Don't go to Jiffy Lube (shudder!), find an indy oil change shop, or a regular local mechanic - almost anybody will do it for $20 if you supply the stuff. I had a fantastic guy right around the corner from me that serviced all our cars this way for years. Sorry you had to go through your ordeal, but you've lived and learned and won't have the same problem again.