New 318 owner need a little advice

[smile4chaos]

I just bought a 95 318ti.

I just replaced the air conditioning belt, and changed the oil.

The recommended oil is a non synthetic 15/40, but when looking through the service records it has been given a 20/50 for quite a few years. I went ahead and used a 20/50, but i'm wondering if that's ok considering I live in socal. Or if I should switch to synthetic 5/30 like most bmw mechanics recommend. And when replacing the filter I had to buy one for a 96, as the original one I bought was to big. Is this normal and how can I tell the difference between an m42/m44?

I'm going to change the serpentine belt, pads and rotors next, and the headliner is saggy so i'm going to re-glue that.

And is there any advice or quirks you guys can tell me about the car I should look into? and maybe some things I should do preemptively just for the health of the car?

I would greatly appreciate any and all advice.

[jca]

Welcome! I live in hot north Texas, and I run Mobil 1 10-40 year around. My opinion is that any of the oil weights you mentioned would be fine, but I would definitely use synthetic. Unless the car came with a detail service history, the first thing I would do is to change all the fluids and filters in the car. Main thing to do to avoid major engine problems is to keep the cooling system in tip top shape by replacing some parts such as radiator, water pump and the two plastic water pipes before they fail. Overheating a ti engine will get you a blow headgasket at best or a ruined head at worst. Watch the water temp gauge and if the needle ever goes past half way, pull over asap and find out what the problem is. I have learned through bitter experience that floppy headliners can never be glued back successfully. Just take the entire headliner out of the car and start over again. It really isn't difficult. I see that you are from Long Beach. In the summer of 1968 I roughnecked offshore in Long Beach harbor. Yes, I am that old! Cheers, John

[BRADESTAR]

I have a m44 and by mistake bought a m42 k&n. The m42 has one dimension that is the same but is about 3" shorter in the other dimension than the m44.

Edit: whoops somehow read air filter. If I didn't contribute useless information I'd contribute nothing at all.

[teetime4one]

There were two oil filters used in 1995. If you have a black plastic oil filter housing cap...it's the same filter used in the 1996. If it's the metal cap...it's the early 1995 filter you'll need.
I'm guessing you found yours to be the black plastic cap.

[smile4chaos]

Yes it was the black plastic cap. And it was really hard to get off. I had to take the radiator hose off, and use a huge crescent wrench to get it off. and now im worried, as when I drove to the auto parts store to get coolant to replace what was lost. I had just put water in, in the meantime, it got a little hot. I let it cool for 30 minutes, and refilled it with coolant but it read hot on the drive home, which is about 4 minutes. I haven't started it again, as I got a ride to work, so in the morning i'm hoping nothing bad has happened.

[smile4chaos]

So I'm thinking if nothing is wrong, do an entire coolant flush, and do as suggested and just put in a new radiator just to be safe.

[BlackBMWs]

If you lost much coolant, make sure you bleed the system well as overheating is not cool with these cars. Look in the DIY section as there is a good write up there on proper bleeding.

Regards and congrats on your new TI!