M3 E46 Motor Oil??

Might be a silly question or not but this afternoon checked my oil and it had got down to the min level on the dipstick.

Due to it being late on a sat afternoon and bmw not being open for oil i popped to halfords for some oil to top up and as i beileve the recommended oil is 10W 60 Castrol. But Halfords had on there booklet with recommended oils by manufacturers that you could use either 10W 60 or 15W 50 fully synthetic and as they had no 10W 60 i bought a 1 ltr bottle of 15W 50.

Its 15W 50 MOBIL 1 Motorsport Formula Fully Synthetic Motor Oil, i've only put in around 800 ml of oil to take it half between the limits. But I was just wondering if i've done a bad thing in doing this or wether it is ok? Im due a service 2 inspection in 6000 miles so they'll change the oil then to BMW spec oil.

Any info back is much appreciated, Also where does everyone get their oil from on here BMW?

Stick with the 10w 60 stuff by Castrol, it was designed for the M engines as BMW had some engine failures in the earlier years, I think around 2001.  I also think it is a revised engine in the post MY03 models.

They gave lifetime warranties on the engines in the US becuase of it seriously effecting aftermarket values, but not anywhere else of course 

I bought my oil from BMW.

Daz

Cheers for the advice and info!

I had look at that Mobil 1 data and it meets the required API etc specs that BMW set down in the M3 Owners Manual.

But I dare say a job this week might be a full oil change for peace of mind!

I am now the proud owner of an E46 M3. Fantastic!

I buy my oil from Opie. They sell two versions of the Castrol 10W 60. One of them is specifically for the M3. Its the dearer one of course!

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/c-662-10w-60.aspx

My M3 doesn't seem to be using any oil between services. I will be changing the oil and filter mid-way between the standard services.