0W30 Oil for E90?

[KerstingE90]

I work at a bmw dealership and get a lot of extra new oil from doing daily oil changes. I've got a stock of BMW 0W30 full synthetic that's just waiting to be used. I drive an E90, which recommends 5W30. Would the switch to 0W30 be an improvement, negligible, or ill-advised?

[154e90]

Engineering explained has a good video explaining what happens when you switch oil viscosity. As long as the oil meets ll-01 or ll-04 I don't see an issue. Make sure you have explicit permission from work so they don't use this as a petty excuse to fire you later on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKdhgKUZhPA

[JDStrickland]

My question is, what BMW takes 0w30 so that you have a collection of unopened bottles? I thought all BMW engines, with the possible exception of the M Series cars, take BMW Full Synthetic High Performance 5w30.

[jclausen]

0 vs 5w is the winter rating so the 0 would flow quicker than the 5w, but really by how much, probably not a lot

[JDStrickland]

Engineering explained has a good video explaining what happens when you switch oil viscosity. As long as the oil meets ll-01 or ll-04 I don't see an issue. Make sure you have explicit permission from work so they don't use this as a petty excuse to fire you later on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKdhgKUZhPA

The problem I have here is that the OP works at a BMW dealership and does oil changes, which has allowed him to collect 0w30 oil. If the factory is putting in the recommended 5w30, then his dealership is already changing out the recommended oil and putting in something different.

If it's good enough for his customers, then it should be good enough for him, so I see no reason to not use the stocks of 0w30 that he has built up. And clearly his service manager is not concerned, so I don't care.

But, if the topic is "recommended", and "is this okay because it's different" then this should color the comments a little bit. The OP is putting in different than recommended and he's presumably doing it as part of the warranty service, so the oil must be okay else the exposure to future damage is huge. Of course, who would know and how would they find out.

FOR THE RECORD
My position is that the most important qualities of motor oil is that there is enough and that it's not worn out.

[154e90]

The majority of cars that show up to a dealership are newer models less than 10 years old. There's a long list of 0W-30 cars listed in TSB SI B11 01 15 (linked below). I would bet that OP's dealership uses pumps and oil control guns like the one in the link below to dispense other types of oil, while the relatively new 0W-30 is done from a bottle.

From what I saw in my time at a (non-BMW) dealership, bottle quantities were rounded up to the nearest bottle and given with each car. You were expected to keep the extra oil around for later use or top ups, but nobody kept track as long as new unopened bottles weren't disappearing.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...47859-9999.pdf

https://www.grainger.com/product/5TC...P7A1P:20501231

[KerstingE90]

I would bet that OP's dealership uses pumps and oil control guns like the one in the link below to dispense other types of oil, while the relatively new 0W-30 is done from a bottle.

We use bottles for Customer Pay, pumped oil for warranty, regardless of weight. Idk why exactly. It's just how we do it.

[Critter7r]

We use bottles for Customer Pay, pumped oil for warranty, regardless of weight. Idk why exactly. It's just how we do it.

Are these opened bottles that are half used?

If they're unopened, then give them back to Parts. I wouldn't use 0w30 in anything, even if it recommends it. And especially not in something more than a few years old.

- - - Updated - - -

The majority of cars that show up to a dealership are newer models less than 10 years old. There's a long list of 0W-30 cars listed in TSB SI B11 01 15 (linked below). I would bet that OP's dealership uses pumps and oil control guns like the one in the link below to dispense other types of oil, while the relatively new 0W-30 is done from a bottle.

From what I saw in my time at a (non-BMW) dealership, bottle quantities were rounded up to the nearest bottle and given with each car. You were expected to keep the extra oil around for later use or top ups, but nobody kept track as long as new unopened bottles weren't disappearing.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...47859-9999.pdf

https://www.grainger.com/product/5TC...P7A1P:20501231

0w30 use in BMWs has been going on for nearly 10 years. And I think everything (or, almost everything) that BMW produced in the last 5 years uses it.