Oil usage
 

I am the proud owner of an awesome and reliable 2004 X-5 with 198K miles on it. I have had no problems & I am very diligent about maintenence. In the last few months, I have noticed an increase in oil consumption to about a quart every 5-700 miles. Car does not run rough, no check engine warnings, no loss of power - just add oil. Any ideas or thoughts??:dunno:

You're losing a quart of oil every 500 to 700 miles? Please place your info in your sig, such as mine.

You have oil leaking somewhere.

That was what we thought also but we have done tests done to see if it is a leak under pressure and there were none. There are absolutely no visible signs of oil anywhere that we can see anywhere on the car and no oil leaks. It was just smogged and passed with flying colors and it runs like new. It is a 3.0 engine. Not sure how to place my info. on signature, new to this, haven't had any issues to address!

Ok, so you are passing SMOG and such, so you aren't burning it out. Did you check in the back of the motor by the firewall? There is a cyclonic valve and Diaphrgm back there that may be leaking, but not hitting the ground.

Great info.!!!!! I will check it out and post the results! THX!!!!

If after checking and you don't find any leaks, give the BMW Customer Care center a call. I've called them a few times to ask general questions about my car when I was away from a computer, like what type of fluid to use for this, that, and this, etc., long outside of warranty. They're always pretty helpful at silly trivia like this.

Call and give them your vehicle info, mileage, all that, and tell them you're burning a quart of oil every 500-700 miles and ask if that's within factory spec. I've read that some M engines and the N54 can burn a quart every couple thousand or so, even when brand new, and that when people bring it in they're told that it's "within spec." Just a thought, not sure what engine you have, but oil burn is fairly common across all BMW engines, and it can only get worse the more miles between rebuilds.

Yeah, I concur. But let's hope" or not hope depending on how you want to look at it" that you find a greasy belly. I've heard of the motors across all lines use a quart or so here and there. But that's after 3k or so. Not after 500! Technically, if you drove from Nj to Ca it's approx 3k miles. So doing that distance, you would need 6 quarts of oil. So between the BMW service intervals, if they were at 6k to 7k miles he would need to put approx 12 quarts in to keep the level correct.

I know my 4.4 m62 doesn't need any oil in between. Every once in a while, toward the end of the interval, I'll notice 1/2 a quart gone, but that will be after 8k miles.

Hopefully bmwna doesn't say, it's within normal limits."

I am pretty sure the 3.0 doesn't have that, at least back there.
The oil separator is under the intake near the front of the motor, difficult location to describe from memory.


And just because you passed smog does not mean you are not burning the oil. I will take your word that its not leaking, but be triple sure there is no oily wet spots.
I would replace the oil separator (or whatever its called) and plan on needing all the hoses along with it.

And just because the manufacturer of the vehicle says its ok to use x amount of oil in x miles, does not make it true. Oil use is oil use, and thats bad. Means it is being burnt and going out the exhaust and that will cause other issues.


But, now that I think about it, how long since the last oil change, what it at a new place, or with a new oil?
Once the oil gets old, it starts to break down easier, and will burn in an engine that would normally not use oil. Different quality (or brands) of oils loose their ability to hold up to the abuse and will burn off sooner than others.

It could be that your rings are going. Have you done a compression/leak down test?

The 3.0s do burn oil, but it sounds like something is up. One band aid solution would be to step up to a slightly thicker blend like 10-40 or 10-50.

Check the plugs, black gunk means you're burning the stuff.

Assuming there's a lot of highway driving, then yeah that much oil burn is worrisome. For stop-and-go, around-town, short hops, I'd be more inclined to say its normal considering the mileage.

My M54 has burned at least a quart before the next service, since it had 60k on it. Again, "within spec." I had the shop reprogram the SI to 7500 instead of 10k, still burns it, almost like it knows it's due. The Valvetronic engines seem to be heavier consumers than the "old" motors, just from what I've read.