95' e36 cluster

[swainbryan]

Hello I'm a new owner of a 318ti 95' bmw, I have put about a 1000 miles on her so far, and I need some help understanding what the culster tells me. It had 4 green bars yesterday and when I turned the engine over today I had 3 green bars below the odometer. The car did not come with the owners manual, so I have no clue of what it all means. If someone has a manual that I can download or one that they want to sale hit me up. I have the m42 engine. any help will be much obliged.
Bryan

[spidertri]

That is the oil service indicator. When all the green bars go away you are supposed to change your oil. There is a way to reset the lights using a paper clip.

http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=8095

[swainbryan]

thanks man, you really are a life saver. what oil do you use for your car. I wan to try the 0w40 mobil 1 but I don't want to fudge the engine. also heard 0w30 is good.

[Xenocide]

lots of people on here run 0w oils. As soon as I tried it when I had my 4 cylinder, my engine pissed oil out of every orifice. I had to do both the gaskets up top and the oil filter housing.

Stick to a 5w30 or thicker. Hell I run 15w50 in my 6cyl.

[tiFreak]

I run 10/40 Mobil 1 synthetic

[mgbman69]

I've been running normal dino oil in my Ti. I use 10w 30 and change it every 2500-3000 miles so the dino oil is still very light in color and seems to work well.

After all, if the engine starts burning oil or having problems I can justify and M52 swap :-)

[swainbryan]

thanks everybody, I'm gonna try a 5w30 syn oil, see how the gasket hold up being it has 207,000 miles on the engine. Got to say even with the miles this car can really hold its own. even @ 100+ she purrs like a kitten.