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IC3

IC3

IC3

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Cristian said:
The conclusion I took from there was that Fuchs is one of the best value fully synthetic trusted ones with Millers if you want o spend some extra money. Has been my go to ever since for all my cars and those of friends (obviosuly with the correct compliance - C3 and LL04, etc). I was using Fuchs on the 330D when it wasn't using a drop in between changes.
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What exact oil did you use? Would you mind checking? There's so many varaiations even with the correct spec, its hard to wrap my head around it.

The last 2 changes, I have used this - Millers Oils Trident Professional C3 5w-30 Fully Synthetic , this is also when the oil consumption started. I don't want to jump into conclusions, but... Before I used Shell Helix Ultra ECT C3 5w-30.
 

Dangerous Dave

Dangerous Dave

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Is there a reason you are not using BMW oil ? It's cheap when buying in bulk and you know you are getting the oil that was designed for the engine. I've ran a few 6 cylinder diesels to 100k ish and none of them burnt any oil between long life servicing.
 
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Cristian

Cristian

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IC3 said:
What exact oil did you use? Would you mind checking? There's so many varaiations even with the correct spec, its hard to wrap my head around it.

The last 2 changes, I have used this - Millers Oils Trident Professional C3 5w-30 Fully Synthetic , this is also when the oil consumption started. I don't want to jump into conclusions, but... Before I used Shell Helix Ultra ECT C3 5w-30.
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Back in the day it was called "Fuchs TITAN GT1 PRO FLEX XTL 5W-30", I guess now it would be "Fuchs TITAN GT1 PRO C-3 XTL 5W-30 Fully Synthetic Engine Oil". I would very much doubt that the Millers caused it (even though it's the cheap stuff, you should use the fancy Millers Oils EE Performance C3 5w-30 Fully Synthetic Engine Oil). There's also a risk of counterfeits from ebay... especially on the popular brands (Castrol for example). My "go to" source is always Opie oils - they're frendly and approachable on the phone and will happily give you a recommendation as well on what's suitable. I've called them a few times over the years, once they even recommended stuff that they didn't have for my e46 gearbox and pretty much said "we don't stock this but you should buy X as it's the best for this gearbox". That earned my trust.


There's no reason to use BMW oil (BMW clearly don't make it). It's decent but usually they choose a bulk supplier for economic reasons and then massively inflate the price.
 
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MrRockliffe

MrRockliffe

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Housey said:
To be clear, I did not ignore the warning light, twice its been in for diagnosis and both times come out with clean bill of health. It was in last week, light came on again and this time they located the above.
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Did you take it in the first time while it was under warranty?


BMW do stipulate to take their cars in as soon as you have an issue, when in warranty, to avoid bigger bills in the future. If they didn’t rectify while under warranty, I would push them to do so now.
 

MrRockliffe

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Looking at a 330e and in the health check for the car, it’s throwing up error code 21f1f6


This seems to relate to HV battery issues post crash. It isn’t being flagged up as having been in an accident.


Car seems well priced for the spec. This is through a (non BMW) dealer.



Gut is saying avoid, but wondering if anybody has any insight.
 

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

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Cristian said:
massively inflate the price
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You say this but the single time I've ever needed to top up a BMW diesel they charged a fixed fee of £20 to do it for me, including 1 litre of oil. This was only about £5 more than Asda were charging for the same oil. It seems to be a standard price across all dealers.
 
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tamzzy

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MrRockliffe said:
Looking at a 330e and in the health check for the car, it’s throwing up error code 21f1f6
This seems to relate to HV battery issues post crash. It isn’t being flagged up as having been in an accident.
Car seems well priced for the spec. This is through a (non BMW) dealer.
Gut is saying avoid, but wondering if anybody has any insight.
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as @Diagro how much he's spent on his 440i :p
 

Diagro

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tamzzy said:
as @Diagro how much he's spent on his 440i :p
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Not much


.....


22k car
1k telematics
1.8k mppsk
0.5k paint
0.2k splitter
1.2k tyres and a couple spares
0.6k new Injectors (newer versions)
0.3k Spark plugs
0.1k oil service

That's in the first year.

This year (may onwards)
0.5k Ghost, dashcams and S5 tracker
0.25k brake fluid change
2k LSD (potentially... if I get the enhanced bonus I'm expecting)

To be totally honest... this isn't that bad... I expect to keep this for 5 years more, so....
 

Diagro

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MrRockliffe said:
Looking at a 330e and in the health check for the car, it’s throwing up error code 21f1f6


This seems to relate to HV battery issues post crash. It isn’t being flagged up as having been in an accident.


Car seems well priced for the spec. This is through a (non BMW) dealer.



Gut is saying avoid, but wondering if anybody has any insight.
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Avoid it.
 

tamzzy

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MrRockliffe said:
This seems to relate to HV battery issues post crash. It isn’t being flagged up as having been in an accident.
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"Understanding the cost to replace the battery in your BMW 330e, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), is essential. The average cost for this service ranges between £3,000 to £5,000. This cost encompasses not just the battery price but also the specialized labour required for installation."

yeah. avoid like the plague
 

Cristian

Cristian

Cristian

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Dangerous Dave said:
How much are you paying for the other oils ? You can get 20L of oil from my local BMW dealer for £90 or a smidge over £100 if you want it delivered.
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This is actually pretty good, no argument there! I would ask how practical is it for the average person to be storing 20L containers around though, not to mention that is essentially 3 oil changes and by the time you get to the third one it might be a tad old.
The reason why it's expensive is that they don't do the practical 5L bottles that everyone else does. Fuchs comes in at £10 per 1L and £40 per 5L, and dare I repeat myself, is a better oil. As the BMW only comes in 1L bottles (at around £13 per L?) it ends up being a bit pricier for the typical 7L oil change.
[TW]Fox said:
You say this but the single time I've ever needed to top up a BMW diesel they charged a fixed fee of £20 to do it for me, including 1 litre of oil. This was only about £5 more than Asda were charging for the same oil. It seems to be a standard price across all dealers.
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Which in the grand scheme of things isn't a lot, but you are paying £20 for "up to 1L of oil" when even a bottle of the better Fuchs is £10.
 

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

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Cristian said:
Which in the grand scheme of things isn't a lot, but you are paying £20 for "up to 1L of oil" when even a bottle of the better Fuchs is £10.
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£20 includes the time spent taking the car into the workshop, measuring the oil level, topping it up and bringing the car back round. Which I appreciate is not a difficult job and one I could easily do myself, but it's included in the cost and isn't free to do. My point was just to highlight that isn't really as overpriced as you say.

I'm not sure on what basis the other oil is better?
 
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