Engine Oil
 

2005 X5 3.0 L. Around 60,000 miles.

'Check Engine Oil Level' keeps popping up and I have to top off the engine oil every 1200 miles or so.. is this normal? If not, what should I look for and fix?

No, not normal, thats burning too much oil. Check towards the rear of the motor and check to see any slinging oil back there. Might be the oil separator or hoses that are shot.

So, look underneath the car towards the rear side of the motor?

You could look under but chances are, its already a mess down there and will be hard to trace the leak. Just look up top, towards the firewall.

Mine 2004 is doing the same thing. BMW said my piston rings are shot and it's slipping in there. I get black smoke when I start it that is all. No oil separator on mine. Rings costs 4500 what should I do

Don't know about the X5, but my daughter's 04 325i with 104,000 miles suddenly started using more oil than than usual, and then one day, it started spewing black smoke when she started it up. Turned out to be a bad crankcase ventilation valve (CVV), which I replaced myself, along with all the attendant hoses, for a total of about $100. Completely fixed the smoking, and I bet the oil consumption will drop to nil as well. Not sure if the X5's have a similar issue, but it's worth doing a search. Good luck.

I looked it up and that cvv is the oil separator that mine does not have.... I love the BMW but worried I bought a money pit

What makes you think your X 'doesn't have one'?

BMW said I don't have one on my model. It's a 2004 x5 4.4 with 86 k miles. Love it but they also said I have low compression in one cylinder only putting out 80 instead of 110 which BMW says is acceptable. I find this hard to believe. They want to change my head gasket and new rings at 6,000.00. It has not started once a week and if it sits it will start. I have a brand new battery and 2 places says my charging system is good. Can it be the fuel pump? It cranks over and clicks but not enough to turn the engine over

Yikes! You have a fog of problems that you somehow need to sift through. A few comments:

1) It has to have some sort of crankcase ventilation valve - otherwise, the roads of America would be strewn with BMW X5 engines that have launched their dipsticks through their hoods. Find someone who understands these engines, and have them look at it.

2) A complete engine rebuild at 86K miles, which is what the dealer is recommending, unless the engine has been terribly abused or neglected, is nuts. Again, find a trustworthy independent BMW mechanic and have them look at it.

3) Those compression numbers are weird. I've never done a compression test on my X5, but on my Porsche 968, if they drop below 170, something is wrong. The ideal gas law applies to an X5 engine the same way it applies to my Porsche's engine, so something sounds goofy about those numbers, at least to me.

4) The fact that it doesn't start if you let it sit for a few days indicates you have a parasitic current leak. This is a whole separate issue from your engine problems. I just went through a long period of troubleshooting a similar problem with my X5, and I came up with a solution. I can help you with this problem, but to be honest, it pales in comparison to what you've got going with your engine at the moment. But to keep it from continuing to die, I'd recommend that you start with the fuse block in the right rear luggage compartment, pull the fuses one by one, and place the leads of an ammeter across the connectors of each fuse after you've pulled it. Anything over about 30 mA is too much current flow. When you've found the one that is drawing a large amount of current (I'm guessing you have something north of 200 mA), check what the fuse goes to, and if you can, remove it when you're not driving the car. If you don't find the offending fuse in this fuse box, do the same exercise in the fuse block behind the panel inside the glove box. There are a lot more fuses there, so this is more of a pain, and you have to remove, or at least unhinge, the glove box door to gain access to the fuses. Good luck!