Burning 1 qt oil every 3000 mi. Within "spec"?

RenaissanceMan · #1 02-23-2018, 01:18 PM

Paying attention to my oil consumption lately; I have read up here that a lot of these 3.0s are a little oil-thirsty. I'm just curious if anyone else has similar results. X5 is up to 156000 miles now, so I don't expect it to be super tight...

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PropellerHead · #2 02-23-2018, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RenaissanceMan

Paying attention to my oil consumption lately; I have read up here that a lot of these 3.0s are a little oil-thirsty. I'm just curious if anyone else has similar results. X5 is up to 156000 miles now, so I don't expect it to be super tight...

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Yup. Same motor in my '02 E46. It's at ~115k now and we're at least a qt/3k miles.

lo_jack · #3 02-23-2018, 05:05 PM

Conventional wisdom is the reason for this is the CCV system and possibly the low tension rings on the pistons. Either way, a few people here and on e46fanatics have seen reduced consumption by modifying the stock CCV system. There are a few threads here about that.

motordavid · #4 02-23-2018, 05:26 PM

Imo, a qt in 3,000 miles, on a 12 yr old E53 should receive a good/lucky engine award.

GL, mD

RenaissanceMan · #5 02-23-2018, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by motordavid

Imo, a qt in 3,000 miles, on a 12 yr old E53 should receive a good/lucky engine award.

GL, mD

Ha, great! Thanks for the feedback, y'all.

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Fifty150hs · #6 02-23-2018, 09:12 PM

I use a qt every 1000 to 2000 miles. Not sure why the variability. I have 210000 miles on the clock. When my CCV crapped out my consumption went to 1 qt every 400 miles. After I replaced it, it went back to "normal". Given that, don't see how the CCV replacement "fix" would cause oil usage to decrease to zero. Unless, the original CCV design was defective. Considering I've owned this X since new and it didn't use any oil or next to none when new to newer I question the defective design argument. If it works new, then it isn't a design defect (other than the problems of short use in super cold weather - that is a design defect). Where I live we don't get super cold winters. The failure I had with my CCV was the collapse of the drain back hose. The hoses get old and brittle over time. Oil that was separated from crankcase gasses wasn't able to drain back, would fill up the CCV and then get sucked into the engine and burn off. Thus the really high oil consumption. Replaced the CCV and all hoses and problem solved.

I think those that replace the CCV with the PCV "fix" are simply experiencing the results they would have if they replaced their broken CCV system with a new one.

RenaissanceMan · #7 02-23-2018, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fifty150hs

I use a qt every 1000 to 2000 miles. Not sure why the variability. I have 210000 miles on the clock. When my CCV crapped out my consumption went to 1 qt every 400 miles. After I replaced it, it went back to "normal". Given that, don't see how the CCV replacement "fix" would cause oil usage to decrease to zero. Unless, the original CCV design was defective. Considering I've owned this X since new and it didn't use any oil or next to none when new to newer I question the defective design argument. If it works new, then it isn't a design defect (other than the problems of short use in super cold weather - that is a design defect). Where I live we don't get super cold winters. The failure I had with my CCV was the collapse of the drain back hose. The hoses get old and brittle over time. Oil that was separated from crankcase gasses wasn't able to drain back, would fill up the CCV and then get sucked into the engine and burn off. Thus the really high oil consumption. Replaced the CCV and all hoses and problem solved.

I think those that replace the CCV with the PCV "fix" are simply experiencing the results they would have if they replaced their broken CCV system with a new one.

Thanks for your reply. Yeah, I actually replaced my CCV recently, and although I noticed a slight decrease in oil consumption, it wasn't anything massively significant. But it did help somewhat.