Engine Oil, DCT Fluid, Rear Diff?

[Stoobey]

Hello Everyone,

I recently purchased a 2015 M3 with 19k miles. Ive done a lot of research on this forum and I seen some post on this subject, but I don't think they really answered my questions on this particular subject.

I am one to always purchase the premium engine oil, transmission fluid, and rear diff oil.

From my previous two vehicles I've always used Redline for all three applications. Redline also seemed to be favored on the forums for my previous two vehicles.

To my surprise from what I've searched not too many people use redline on this forum. This is also perfectly fine as well. I'm open to hear whats best for my car and hear opinions.

I have about 1 year on my factory warranty and I would prefer to not void it. However I would also prefer to put premium oil, DCT fluid, and rear diff oil in my car without voiding the warranty. I also bought a 3rd party extended warranty and according to my BMW dealer if I ever have any major problems they wouldn't really be able to see too much.

Engine Oil:
I live in Arizona where its very hot during the summer. It looks like the majority of people say as long as the oil is LL-01 then your good to go. On redlines website the 5w-30 says its LL-01. Would this oil void my warranty?
https://www.redlineoil.com/5w30-motor-oil

DCT Fluid:
Is this DCT fluid from redline safe to put in my car? Will this void my warranty?
https://www.redlineoil.com/dctf-dual...smission-fluid

Rear Diff:
Is this rear diff oil safe to put in my car? Will this void my warranty?
https://www.redlineoil.com/75w140-gl-5-gear-oil

I'm also open to other premium products and opinions of those products for this car. It's my first one and I love it. I also want what's best for it too.

Thank you

[gatorfast]

Not sure what you mean by "premium" fluids but nonetheless:

Engine oil - the red line oil you posted about is NOT LL-01 certified. It is "recommended" by red line for use in LL-01 applications but it is not actually approved. I believe they do make a 5w40 though which carries the LL-01 approval. Anyway, I would personally choose Castrol 0w40 or Pennzoil 5w40, both LL-01 approved, over any red line oil. BMW branded oem oil (made by Pennzoil/Shell) is quality stuff as well.

DCT fluid - why do you want to change this? It is not as simple of a process as a manual transmission fluid change. Also, your car only has 19k miles on it which is nothing. I would leave it alone if I were you. But if you absolutely insist on changing it then I would stick with OEM fluid.

Diff fluid - again, why do you want to change this at only 19k miles? I would wait until 50k miles. But again if you insist on it, I would stick with OEM fluid.

[Stoobey]

Originally Posted by gatorfast

Not sure what you mean by "premium" fluids but nonetheless:

Engine oil - the red line oil you posted about is NOT LL-01 certified. It is "recommended" by red line for use in LL-01 applications but it is not actually approved. I believe they do make a 5w40 though which carries the LL-01 approval. Anyway, I would personally choose Castrol 0w40 or Pennzoil 5w40, both LL-01 approved, over any red line oil. BMW branded oem oil (made by Pennzoil/Shell) is quality stuff as well.

DCT fluid - why do you want to change this? It is not as simple of a process as a manual transmission fluid change. Also, your car only has 19k miles on it which is nothing. I would leave it alone if I were you. But if you absolutely insist on changing it then I would stick with OEM fluid.

Diff fluid - again, why do you want to change this at only 19k miles? I would wait until 50k miles. But again if you insist on it, I would stick with OEM fluid.

From my understanding Amsoil, Redline, and Royal Purple were the Premium oils, transmission fluid, and rear diff products to purchase. These products were always favored on the other forums I joined. That would be a Lexus ISF forum and a Volvo forum before that.

I've read a bunch of talks about the subject here on this forum and everyone seems to like BMW OEM products. Who makes BMW's engine oil? Transmission fluid? Rear diff oil? I've gotten mixed answers. Ive herd it was castrol and then they switched to Pennzoil. I called my BMW dealer and they tell me that BMW has made its own formulation for all three applications. So I'm also slightly confused on what to believe and whats actually inside of my vehicle.

With my previous two vehicles I ran Redline and to be honest it was great. I'd give it an 8/10. I've read a lot of mixed issues with Royal purple. I was leaning towards switching to Amsoil. From all the research I've done it seems to be the best out there. However is it the best for my M3?

Some other guy from another thread posted he runs all these. I was considering doing the same thing.

Motor Oil: https://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-produ...il/?code=EFOQT
DCT Fluid: https://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-produ...id/?code=DCTQT
Diff Fuild: https://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-produ...40/?code=SVOQT

I remember seeing you Gatorfast answering most of the questions from the previous threads I read. I appreciate your input and help with my questions.

Thank you.

[andrei.m4]

Next week I will change too engine oil and dct oil, for the engine I prefer original bmw M longlife oil 0w40, I think is shell production and for dct I will use motul dctf. Is my third oil change to engine and I change it at every 10k km, at every drain oil looks great, color is almost as new, never darked.

[Stoobey]

Originally Posted by andrei.m4

Next week I will change too engine oil and dct oil, for the engine I prefer original bmw M longlife oil 0w40, I think is shell production and for dct I will use motul dctf. Is my third oil change to engine and I change it at every 10k km, at every drain oil looks great, color is almost as new, never darked.

Motul was the other product I need to do some research on. Did you do the DCT fluid change yourself? Or did you have a shop do it?

Would it be possible to get a parts list for the engine oil, DCT, Rear Diff? From anyone willing would be great.

I think showing up to a shop with all the parts for the switch is the best way to do the switch.

When I did this with my Volvo years ago and it was a 6sp manual. I switched all redline products the biggest thing I noticed was when I let off the throttle in gear the car coasted much farther. Even out of gear in neutral it coasted farther. This didn't necessary create more horsepower, but what did do was create less friction. So getting on the throttle the response was the same. The car was actually faster.

I'm hoping to accomplish a similar outcome by switching to Amsoil or Redline or possibly Motul.

Can an engine oil be LL-04 and be approved?

[andrei.m4]

My m4 manual say ll 01, i will change at my friend garage but I will use a program called ista d to add fluid at dct.

[gatorfast]

No LL04 oil is not the correct spec for us in the states. LL01 or LL01FE only.

[Stoobey]

Originally Posted by gatorfast

No LL04 oil is not the correct spec for us in the states. LL01 or LL01FE only.

Does the DCT fluid have some sort of spec it needs to meet? Does the Rear diff oil also have some sort of spec it also needs to meet?

Thanks for your help.

[gatorfast]

Originally Posted by Stoobey

Does the DCT fluid have some sort of spec it needs to meet? Does the Rear diff oil also have some sort of spec it also needs to meet?

Thanks for your help.

I would highly recommend sticking with oem for DCT and diff fluid. And again, if it were my car I would not be looking to touch the DCT fluid until I'm approaching the 100k mile area and was looking to keep the car another 100k miles. Your car is low mileage and the fluid change is not as simple as it is for a 6mt where you just loosen a drain bolt and empty it out.

For some empirical evidence, I have yet to read about any issues reported with the DCT related to bad/worn fluid or that the transmission performed any better/differently for those that had replaced the fluid. You changing the fluid will not result in any improved performance, only in scratching your mental itch.

[bobbyh907]

Gatorfast is giving good advice. The DCT is a pretty fine tuned transmission and people have been running it for a very long time using the OEM oil and I've only seen one instance of an actual transmission failure. I would stick with the oem oil for the DCT. Afaik there isn't any other oils that are "approved" for use in the transmission. Royal purple is garbage oil in anything besides drag cars that get oil changes every time they're ran and rebuilt every few passes down the strip. RP breaks down super fast.

[allinon72]

I used to be in to running better fluids when I had domestics, because those manufacturers just throw whatever in the engine and call it good (brown water 5w-20 in everything for economy reasons). With BMW, especially an M car, a little more thought and engineering was put in the fluids. That and warranty reasons seem to be why most run OEM and focus their efforts elsewhere.

[Stoobey]

Originally Posted by gatorfast

I would highly recommend sticking with oem for DCT and diff fluid. And again, if it were my car I would not be looking to touch the DCT fluid until I'm approaching the 100k mile area and was looking to keep the car another 100k miles. Your car is low mileage and the fluid change is not as simple as it is for a 6mt where you just loosen a drain bolt and empty it out.

For some empirical evidence, I have yet to read about any issues reported with the DCT related to bad/worn fluid or that the transmission performed any better/differently for those that had replaced the fluid. You changing the fluid will not result in any improved performance, only in scratching your mental itch.

The service rep at my BMW dealer was a young guy who has the M3 e92 "The V8" with a supercharger on it. I asked him the same questions I've asked on here. He said he has yet to see a single high mileage M3 come in with any catastrophic failures or issues because of BMW's OEM engine oil, DCT Fluid, and Rear diff fluid. He said the OEM stuff is actually very good quality or he would have advised me to switch.

He basically has said what everyone here has been saying about it. Which seems to be the greatest consensus for the car and whats best for it.

Thanks for all the help and responses

[Stoobey]

Originally Posted by gatorfast

I would highly recommend sticking with oem for DCT and diff fluid. And again, if it were my car I would not be looking to touch the DCT fluid until I'm approaching the 100k mile area and was looking to keep the car another 100k miles. Your car is low mileage and the fluid change is not as simple as it is for a 6mt where you just loosen a drain bolt and empty it out.

For some empirical evidence, I have yet to read about any issues reported with the DCT related to bad/worn fluid or that the transmission performed any better/differently for those that had replaced the fluid. You changing the fluid will not result in any improved performance, only in scratching your mental itch.

Would this motor oil void my warranty? It says its BMW LL-01

https://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-produ...il/?code=EFOQT

[bobbyh907]

"Engineered to meet specifications" does not mean *approved*.

[gatorfast]

^agreed. It's tricky wording.

However, the LL01 spec is disappearing now since no current bmw offerings require this spec anymore. M1 0w40 dropped the spec a few years back and recently the Castrol 0w40 no longer carries the LL01 designation either (though there are still some older batch bottles out there with the approval on it). It's becoming much harder to find this approval since it's outdated.

That said, any of these euro oils designed for LL01 (or that meet similar specs like MB, Porsche, etc) are likely absolutely fine to use. Will you run into warranty issues if your engine fails, bmw tests your oils and discovers it's not LL01 or LL01FE approved? I suppose it's possible but I honestly don't think that has happened ever. I have been using Castrol 0w40 for years and the most recent bottle I bought no longer has the LL01 approval on it. I'll still use it though since, as far as I know, nothing has changed with the formulation.

[andrei.m4]

I just changed dct oil, just a drain and refill, i changed just 4.4 liters, car have 115.000km. Oil color was a little dark but not black. I used motul multi dctf. I just change preventive, I was affraid about viscozity at high temp at old oil. I think in maximum 50k km I will change again oil with all filters.

[hellokitty]

I used Redline 5W-30 in my N54 and S55 and it was fine. However I would not recommend it as other LL-01 oils perform just as well or better. Blackstone themselves confirmed that oil spec doesn’t matter as much as using the right viscosity. Obviously change your oil twice as often using the 10k oci standard (every 5k) and you’ll be fine.