Oil Change how-to for the E9X M3. I’ve heard some wild prices for this oil change, mine was relatively cheap. Yes, there’s a lot of oil required, but I have a discount with my sponsor, and anyway it is cheaper than OEM even if I paid full price. After comparing specs, I decided to go with Red Line 5w50. Solid oil, good protection. The 10w60 OEM oil is on the lighter side as far as 10w60’s go, and regular 10w60 is way too thick. 5w50 is a solid choice. Plan on doing a UOA afterwards to see how it does on some autocross usage.

Requires:

• Jack/stands/ramp
• 6mm hex head tools (drain plugs on the sump)
• Drain pan
• 10 quarts of oil (Red Line 5w50), 9.3 quarts used
• Oil Filter (Wix 57997)
• 36mm socket
• Flathead/thin tool

Get the front end of the car up – I used ramps, but jacks work also. The car was low enough that I had to drive it up some wood planks for going up the ramps:

Open hood. The oil filter and oil fill are to the left of the motor, on the passenger’s side:

I like to loosen these before draining, I think it relieves pressure on some cars for better drainage:

Place some paper towers around the oil filter housing and slowly release to drain:

There’s a lot of oil located here, so I use paper towels to soak up the excess:

This car has two drain plugs located under it, which I have never seen before. As far as I can tell, the order of draining doesn’t matter as long as you do both – one inside the circular opening, one behind the jacking point:

Use a 6mm hex head to loosen and drain both plugs. If you were just driving this oil will be very hot, take care not to get burned.

The drain plugs are reusable if they are in good shape, which mine were. The oil filter I purchased included 2 crush washers for both drain plugs and two rubber o-rings, one for the top portion of the oil filter housing and one for the housing threads. The o-ring at the top is tricky, will probably required a flathead to get it off. The bottom o-ring is much easier. Swap both, remove the oil filter & add the new one, and reinstall.

Replace the used copper crush washers and reinstall the drain plugs. I believe factory specs are all around 30nm, I just do hand-tight. No need to go overly tight on any of these parts. Add 9.3 quarts via the oil fill. Unfortunately, no dipstick here so I just add 9 and measure out exactly 0.3 with a measuring cup. I’m sure 9.5 would be fine or a rough guess, but I try not to overfill for crankcase pressure reasons.

Close it all up and the car should be all set after that. Drive the car around a little and check the electronic dipstick to make sure the car is happy! After doing exactly above, I raced the next day with zero issue.