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Ok, I'd be keen to hear thoughts if anyone has fact based knowledge… Have had oil analysis 2 times at appr 4-5k miles intervals, currently the car has 28k kms, or appr 17k miles on it. No oil consumption, always used BMW recommended oil, I think on Australian markets it's likely Castrol, 10W-40.
The analysis has come back both times great, except for one thing - fuel dilution. Both times 3%, which according to the oil lab is well over acceptable level, both times they recommended checking injectors. So, I've taken these results back to the dealer seeking for their resolution, the first analysis was well before warranty expiry. The dealer, apparently based on BMW Australia advice, put the results into the basket of "bad driver profile", likely due to lots of short distance driving.
Moved to a new area, this changed my driving habits significantly, ie. no short distance anymore, nearly all Highway and longer distance. This was majority of the use leading up to the second oil analysis, after which the second dealership (local here) suggested that to eliminate the lab mistake, we would take a new sample and they send it to the lab they use - I guess fair enough… Now, appr. 3-4K miles after the oil change I suggested to the dealer it might be an opportune time for this. The next bit sounds a bit surprising, so thought I would seek opinions… According to the dealer, BMW Australia had advised them that the threshold to "warn" the customer is ~7% fueldilution, and at 10% the oil would be considered as contaminated…!!! They also suggested waiting until the recommended oil change mileage, which I think would be something like +15k miles - not going to happen…
So, my suspicion is that a new analysis would come back with appr. the same 3% fuel dilution, but if the manufacturer/importer's definition of "too high fuel dilution" is 7-10%, I'm assuming the outcome would be "no result"…
So, the question I suppose is "how bad is 3% fuel dilution"? Anyone with fact based data on this - thoughts much appreciated…
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