Engine oil ELF or OEM BMW

Original BMW 5w30 LL04. I'm sure other brands with the same specifications will be perfectly fine as well though.

I've been putting 10w-40 ELF 70 STI regular oil in my 1.6 petrol from '98 for 3 years now with no issues.

I recommend checking your oil level at 3000 miles because some vehicles burn oil. BMW and Audi especially, at 1500~2000miles I will top off.

BMW used to recommend you changing oil basically every time you blink, back when consumers paid for 100% of all maintenance. But in order to be more competitive, they began offering 3 year included free maintenance on all new vehicles.

5w40 for sure, my engine sounds happier, quieter, more sound than it did when the PO had 5w30 in it. So 5w40 is a given especially since you have a lot of Km on the clock, when it comes to the brand it really doesn't matter especially if you keep the oil change intervals reasonable.

I use Elf Oil and I change mine every 5-7k miles.

Looks to be exact same procedure as on my e46. Perhaps the easiest oil change I've ever done. In fact, I've used the same brand and spec oil too, which is an BMW LL-01.

I currently use ELF Exellium NF, Motul is good too I was tempted to get it....you can also check out ECS Tuning, they sell Lubro Molly now, I think that's gonna be my next choice and I might stick with it. I've used Amsoil for about 20K miles and liked it too. Otherwise, you can't go wrong with Castrol Syntec 5w40 either, I've used it since new all the way till 60K miles.

Now, I realized that the engine oil the mechanic put on when I got the camshaft replaced in november, is actually meant for cars. The oil is the ELF sporti TXI 10W40.

Oil consumption is a common problem. My original E92 consumed a quart of oil every 1K miles. My current car does not.