bmw oil for 325 tds

geraint13

Pro Tuner
Points
257
Location
Caerphilly, Wales
Car
Zafira 1.9 SRI
my mileage has dropped dramatically for work and im wondering if theres an oil out there thats good for short journeys >3 miles one way.

oilman, looking at you here mate lol ;)
 
I'd look at a 5w/40 synthetic for your car. You don't have to worry about low sulfated ash specs as your car is not DPF equipped. A 0w/40 would potentially be better but these can go 'out of grade' more quickly due to the higher dependence upon viscosity modifiers.
 
If you're not using the car a lot, annual changes will probably be absolutely fine

Bearing in mind that oil technology has been subject to a veritable revolution since your 325tds was made (and since it's user manual was printed) you can very safely go to 12 months or 12,000 miles using decent full synthetics.

Make sure that you use a good filter as well, cheap ones can fall apart. Hengst comes to mind as a brand.
 
We haven't had a single problem with the quality of the UFI and Mahle filters we sell.

I only cited Hengst as an example, I didn't intend to demean your products so please accept my apology.:embarrest:

What I was really trying to imply was to avoid Halfords own brand filters. These are overpriced and variable at best in quality.
 
I wasn't taking it as a dig against the Mahle and UFI ones, I was just saying that they are also worth considering, especially as most of them are about a fiver.

I've heard a few things about the Halfords ones, not very impressive.
 
My car's got one of those filters mounted at the top of the engine in a plastic 'bucket' (ie. not a spin on type) and I've been told of these (of dubious manufacture) falling to bits and sending bits of filter (complete with all the stuff it's supposed to filter out) straight round the engine.

Needless to say the engine was destroyed. So I'll stick with the better known brands.

Funnily enough it's cheaper to buy these bits directly from BMW than it is to get Halfords own brand parts. Halfords wants £33 each for the cabin filters. BMW dealer supplies the pair for £29 all in!!
 
I've got a set of 6 Denso Iridium spark-plugs waiting to go into my car at the next major inspection, which is about 30,000 miles away. These came from Opie. Very good value indeed, especially for premium plugs such as these.

They can be fitted and left alone for 60,000-70,000 miles and as such work out far cheaper than cheapo plugs which will probably need replacing every 10,000-15,000 miles.
 
A very good choice and I'm to my knowledge they are as good as iridium plugs get (some of the more expensive iridium plugs are rebadged Densos). Another thing to consider with the cost is they give a better spark than normal plugs, so hopefully a little more efficiency over 60-70k should make a good saving.

Cheers

Tim
 
A very good choice and I'm to my knowledge they are as good as iridium plugs get (some of the more expensive iridium plugs are rebadged Densos). Another thing to consider with the cost is they give a better spark than normal plugs, so hopefully a little more efficiency over 60-70k should make a good saving.

Cheers

Tim

You never know! This aging 528i of mine (circa 2001) was an emergency purchase but I'm still seeing aroung 30mpg in mixed driving and considering it's the 6spd Auto/Steptronic that's not bad. A/C is on permanently as well. It drops to around 25-26mpg in pure town use, but my town use is still in a lightly populated small provincial town.

I have seen over 39mpg on an extended motorway run, and simply kept my speed below 80mph to achieve this.

Can't complain really. - At the moment it has BMW's OEM plugs which are the four prong things - as we discussed this was more a point of fashion than one of technical merit.

It's has Castrol 0w/40 oil in it (also supplied by you) and this certainly improved the startup during the very cold part of December
 
THe four prong jobies are actually beneficial in some ways, it just means that when one electrode becomes worn then the spark will reach to another one instead, not as good as a good quality Iridium plug but not bad all the same. What's worth doing is checking your plug gaps every 6-12 months and altering them acorddingly. That way you get the best possible spark and better performance and fuel economy.
 
I was on about spark plugs,

glow plugs do get carboned up over time, I supposed a clean up wouldn't hurt once in a while, but I dare say it would be near impossible without some strong solvent.
 

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