In January of 2009, I bought a 1997 M3 sedan manual. It was an impulse buy, but I loved the car, despite its 206k miles. I was amazed how smooth the engine was... until two weeks later. This tapping developed. I changed the oil & filter, using Mobil1 15w-50. It was back to it same smooth self......until a few weeks later, I had the windows down and there was that tap again. I added some oil, and it went away....rinse and repeat.....
Now its june, and I have put a bunch of damn oil in this car.... I backed off the mobil1 and started using Napa High Mileage 20w-50 dino juice. I should have logged how much I had been adding, but I did'nt.
So now I find this AutoRX stuff, and I'm intrigued. It's obvious I'm burning oil like a sum' ****. Hard acceleration yields a puff of smoke. I'd like to preserve this motor if I can. Honestly, once the engine is warmed up, my right foot becomes a 50 lb sledgehammer. I really like to hammer down, so I'd like to give my engine the protection it needs to survive. I'm due for an oil change, just a little over 3,000 miles since my February oil change. I'd like to try this product, and document the results... I would appreciate some input Selecting and Oil, and areas I should watch for "sludge". Damn I don't wanna be those guys on the Castrol commercials.
If 20w50 is acceptable for your car(sounds like it is), then use any Dino oil in that grade. Examples include Pennzoil yellow bottle, Mobil Clean 5000, Supertech, Castrol, Shell, Chevron; basically any dino will do.
Just make sure you get the car on long hot runs, and you should have success.
Of course you will definately need two treatments. After two treatments, you could go back to Mobil 1 or stay w/ dino, and use a maintenance dose of Auto RX.
I can't add much to what Pathermike said. Use an SJ or SL dino due to the consumption and engine requirements ..as well as the short mileage that the Auto-Rx treatments will take. No sense in even a Group III synthetic.
You may consider a 15w-40 mixed fleet HDEO like Delo 400 or Rotella ..or Mobil Delvac depending on availability. They should manage your heavy foot without trouble and may be easier to find. About $11-12/gallon.
The rest requires only patience. A couple of treatments ..measure the results.
If any of these are clogged you could have oil consumption problems.
Auto-rx should clean up the ring packs and this will decrease your oil consumption.
We had an auto-rx user on here who was using oil like crazy, seems his valve cover baffles were clogged, your PCV Valve and breather go right into the valve cover baffles.
If his is like most BMW engines I've seen, he should have a massive PCV hose. They tend to run the crackcase under full vacuum. I don't know how they engineer the seals on those engines. On an American engine, you would suck the seals in. If you pull the dipstick on these engine, it will most likely stall.
..but that would be a good test to see if he PCV system is in order. Try pulling the dipstick or opening the oil cap at idle. If the thing stalls ..then I'd say you've got a functional pathway to the intake.
