Oil Analysis Reports

First oil report on my 2012 M3. They seem to think it’s good.

dparm wrote

It's one report in isolation, but it is the first step in establishing a baseline. Next time, pay for TBN and TAN. Nothing looks out of line: wear metals are low, oil is still in grade, no dilution from fuel/coolant/water, no air filtration contaminants, add pack not totally gone.

2,500 miles isn't much. How long was this in the car for?

4 months, I'm sending another in as I just registered another 4,000. Thank you for the feedback!

If one changed with extra clearance rod bearings (assuming there’s no wear now)..is there way to track metal wear from main bearings?

Factory bearings. Plan on getting them done soon

Krypptic wrote

First oil report on my 2012 M3. They seem to think it’s good.

Hard to say without more reports to compare to. The iron at 12 seems high, but that might just be the norm for your motor.

Shiza wrote

Factory bearings. Plan on getting them done soon

Wow, impressive -- no change in wear metals over 3 years and over 50k miles.

TheRussski wrote

If one changed with extra clearance rod bearings (assuming there’s no wear now)..is there way to track metal wear from main bearings?

Main bearings use the same material as rod bearings.

FWIW, my lead readings have dropped to zero after changing to BE (which are lead-containing)

Two track days, daily driving, winter storage, then daily driving duties again followed by two days of driving about 1000 miles per before the oil change. Not bad overall for the Rowe.

Previous oil analysis was on the Liqui Moly 10W60. Next one will be on the BMW-Shell oil with BE bearings.

Didn't intend to run my oil this long but was at an academy down in GA where they couldn't get my car on a lift and no place had pits! Car drove from NY to GA then GA to AZ.

I love reading these reports.

08 135i
Mostly stock besides suspension exhaust and regular maintenance.

What's the feeling on 10,000 miles!? That's insane I'm trying to keep my car past 500,000 idk if that would be smart...

Thanks guys

Oh and the new plate came in!

Ladydragonz wrote

Didn't intend to run my oil this long but was at an academy down in GA where they couldn't get my car on a lift and no place had pits! Car drove from NY to GA then GA to AZ.

I love reading these reports.

08 135i
Mostly stock besides suspension exhaust and regular maintenance.

What's the feeling on 10,000 miles!? That's insane I'm trying to keep my car past 500,000 idk if that would be smart...

Thanks guys

Oh and the new plate came in!

Wait, why do i35's need oil tests? FYI, this is an E9x m3 thread.

wfdeacon88 wrote

Ladydragonz wrote

Didn't intend to run my oil this long but was at an academy down in GA where they couldn't get my car on a lift and no place had pits! Car drove from NY to GA then GA to AZ.

I love reading these reports.

08 135i
Mostly stock besides suspension exhaust and regular maintenance.

What's the feeling on 10,000 miles!? That's insane I'm trying to keep my car past 500,000 idk if that would be smart...

Thanks guys

Oh and the new plate came in!

Wait, why do i35's need oil tests? FYI, this is an E9x m3 thread.

M3MPH1S wrote

Still going strong


-

Similar reasoning, check to see if the injectors are leaking fuel, viscosity, rod bearings failures..

I'll be sure to post it in the 1 forum thought I was. Love reading these anyway! Mod can delete it if they want.

Cheers!

Ladydragonz wrote

wfdeacon88 wrote

Ladydragonz wrote

Didn't intend to run my oil this long but was at an academy down in GA where they couldn't get my car on a lift and no place had pits! Car drove from NY to GA then GA to AZ.

I love reading these reports.

08 135i
Mostly stock besides suspension exhaust and regular maintenance.

What's the feeling on 10,000 miles!? That's insane I'm trying to keep my car past 500,000 idk if that would be smart...

Thanks guys

Oh and the new plate came in!

Wait, why do i35's need oil tests? FYI, this is an E9x m3 thread.

M3MPH1S wrote

Still going strong


-

Similar reasoning, check to see if the injectors are leaking fuel, viscosity, rod bearings failures..

I'll be sure to post it in the 1 forum thought I was. Love reading these anyway! Mod can delete it if they want.

Cheers!

no need to delete, was just an FYI if you were going to read and see a bunch of Rod bearing fatigue!

wfdeacon88 wrote

Ladydragonz wrote

wfdeacon88 wrote

Ladydragonz wrote

Didn't intend to run my oil this long but was at an academy down in GA where they couldn't get my car on a lift and no place had pits! Car drove from NY to GA then GA to AZ.

I love reading these reports.

08 135i
Mostly stock besides suspension exhaust and regular maintenance.

What's the feeling on 10,000 miles!? That's insane I'm trying to keep my car past 500,000 idk if that would be smart...

Thanks guys

Oh and the new plate came in!

Wait, why do i35's need oil tests? FYI, this is an E9x m3 thread.

M3MPH1S wrote

Still going strong


-

Similar reasoning, check to see if the injectors are leaking fuel, viscosity, rod bearings failures..

I'll be sure to post it in the 1 forum thought I was. Love reading these anyway! Mod can delete it if they want.

Cheers!

no need to delete, was just an FYI if you were going to read and see a bunch of Rod bearing fatigue!

-[/QUOTE]

Glad I'm not dealing with that! You guys can keep that

I'll keep the slew of other issues with the n54

Ladydragonz wrote

wfdeacon88 wrote

Ladydragonz wrote

wfdeacon88 wrote

Ladydragonz wrote

Didn't intend to run my oil this long but was at an academy down in GA where they couldn't get my car on a lift and no place had pits! Car drove from NY to GA then GA to AZ.

I love reading these reports.

08 135i
Mostly stock besides suspension exhaust and regular maintenance.

What's the feeling on 10,000 miles!? That's insane I'm trying to keep my car past 500,000 idk if that would be smart...

Thanks guys

Oh and the new plate came in!

Wait, why do i35's need oil tests? FYI, this is an E9x m3 thread.

M3MPH1S wrote

Still going strong


-

Similar reasoning, check to see if the injectors are leaking fuel, viscosity, rod bearings failures..

I'll be sure to post it in the 1 forum thought I was. Love reading these anyway! Mod can delete it if they want.

Cheers!

no need to delete, was just an FYI if you were going to read and see a bunch of Rod bearing fatigue!

-

Glad I'm not dealing with that! You guys can keep that

I'll keep the slew of other issues with the n54 [/QUOTE]
You should drive an e9x m and take the plunge. You will forget the i35 in a second

2008 6MT
7136 miles on the oil
90504 miles on the engine

Follow-up from this.

Did valve cover gaskets shortly before this drain, so that's probably where the Si is coming from.

Pb is down as expected for the second oil change after the rod bearing job. Hoping that copper number is just a blip or something...

Copying the numbers here because Polaris's reports are kind of annoying to read:


Iron - 11
Chromium - 0
Nickel - 0
Aluminum - 10
Copper - 3
Lead - 1
Tin - 0
Cadmium - 0
Silver - 0
Vanadium - 0
Silicon - 15
Sodium - 5
Potassium - 3
Titanium - 0
Molybdenum - 51
Antimony - 0
Manganese - 0
Lithium - 0
Boron - 49
Magnesium - 27
Calcium - 2503
Barium - 0
Phosphorus - 818
Zinc - 909

Fuel Dilution - 1.3% (GC)
Soot - <0.1% by vol.
Water - <0.1% by vol. (FTIR)

Viscosity @ 100º C - 18.3 cSt
TBN - 4.00
Oxidation - 13
Nitration - 11

Particle Quantifier (PQ) Index - 13

Yay, another good report! 101k miles and she's going strong! Just before the oil change I did the valve cover gaskets and new spark plugs. She looked clean under the valve covers too. Did the oil change right after, i did have the car running for a few mins so that might be the fuel spike they are talking about. It's amazing I had still enough oil additive to about 11k. Might go to 10k this time and see what it reads. This is my daily so I'm doing about 90% highway and 10% city, don't redline much but I do get on it for the most part.

Hey guys,

New to the forums and have bought a 2011 MY last year from a dealership at 42k miles. Fastfoward to now 65k miles, I finally decided to do the analysis and was pretty surprised at the results (In a negative way). I know that only one oil analysis isn't suppose to say much or mean anything but mine just scares me a bit. I"m usually doing oil changes at every 5k but when I got the sample, it was at a 7.5k interval.

I just wanted to see your guys' take on this one just so I can know what to do. Thanks in advance. If I'm missing any info, please feel free to ask.

https://imgur.com/ybQOmYn

ATLm3LOVE wrote

Hey guys,

New to the forums and have bought a 2011 MY last year from a dealership at 42k miles. Fastfoward to now 65k miles, I finally decided to do the analysis and was pretty surprised at the results (In a negative way). I know that only one oil analysis isn't suppose to say much or mean anything but mine just scares me a bit. I"m usually doing oil changes at every 5k but when I got the sample, it was at a 7.5k interval.

I just wanted to see your guys' take on this one just so I can know what to do. Thanks in advance. If I'm missing any info, please feel free to ask.

https://imgur.com/ybQOmYn

Iron and aluminum are quite high, all else look ok. Given this is your first report I’m going to guess that oil has been in there longer than indicated. Iron usual tracks to mileage and often aluminum does too. Other option is you have bimetal bearings near failure. The latter seems less likely with iron being so high.

CarPoor wrote

Iron and aluminum are quite high, all else look ok. Given this is your first report I’m going to guess that oil has been in there longer than indicated. Iron usual tracks to mileage and often aluminum does too. Other option is you have bimetal bearings near failure. The latter seems less likely with iron being so high.

Thanks for the reply. That would be scary if it's a bimetal bearings failure. Yeah I normally do oil changes every 5k. This sample was taken after about 7500 miles driven. Any thoughts on the copper content?

ATLm3LOVE wrote

Thanks for the reply. That would be scary if it's a bimetal bearings failure. Yeah I normally do oil changes every 5k. This sample was taken after about 7500 miles driven. Any thoughts on the copper content?

To me the copper looks ok and my guess is that it’s wash out from the oil cooler. That iron looks really high for that mileage though. Only thing I can Monday morning quarterback is shorten the OCI for a few back to 5K and trend it. Hopefully it ends up being a particle streak or dirty sample. Also,
ask BStone to re-run. Could be a lab error.

Oil change after 650 miles on new BE bearings. Oil is BMW OE 10W-60.