Engine oil IDEMITSU or OEM BMW

5W-40 is my preferred viscosity for the N52. If you are only topping off, virtually any API SL or newer oil will work just fine. If you are doing a full change though you should source a 5W-40 that meets BMW’s LL-01 specification.

As long as it’s a LL-01, you can put that in. I’m currently running that on my N52.

10w60 is the only oil you should put in these. If nothing else, you can usually find it at BMW automobile dealerships as that is what they put in the M3/4 series (or at least used to). Not cheap, but a lot less expensive than engine rebuilds.

A lot of people are essentially saying "don't beat on it until that gauge reads warm," which is incorrect. BMW, in the G series, switched to showing *coolant* temperature on the speedo and not oil temperature. That is NOT the oil temperature gauge, and oil takes a lot longer to heat up than coolant. When that gauge shows operating temperature, give the car another 10 minutes or so to get the *oil* up to temp.

Just drive it. With these 0w20 oil is circulated immediately. My G20 330e does a cold start when accelerating the highway. The RPM limit is protecting your engine so even with a kickdown it won't go above 4k RPM and will shift very early.

i drive a g21 330D xdrive, I've been researching warm up procedures and people recommend letting the oil circulate for 30+ seconds then cruising in eco pro as the torque band is toned down and it changes gears as early as possible.

This is normal. Wait till it gets below 1k rpm. Modern engines do not need a lot of time to idle after cold start, the ECU handles it. Although, for a few kilometres, do not push very hard. The engine oil (0w-20 idemitsu) is thin, and needs time to lubricate well.

Depend on the oil grade that is in the engine.

In proper units that’s -15°C which is very close to the limit of a 10W- oil. I would let such car warm for 5 minutes easily.

If your car is running a 5w or 0w it will be fine to start driving in less than a minute. Which is just the time you need to remove the snow and ice from the windows, how convenient :P

So if you review the virgin oil analysis database, it includes idemitsu 0w-20 and 5w-30 and for both, the TBN is rather weak in comparison to other more readily available blends, also, the viscosity at 9.5 cSt for a 30w, some 20w come close to that. Does any of that matter? Not a whole lot, but it shows that there's nothing special about the oil. Generally speaking, higher TBN is better.

10k miles later, went to do my usual 1k mile quart of oil, looks like chocolate milk.