N52 Engine Oil Consumption

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sharpyboy

Member
 Cornwall
Hi Guys after 4 months of zed ownership my car a 2006 facelift 2.5i with 90,300 miles on the clock with the N52 engine, beeped at me yesterday and briefly showed a yellow oil warning light and the digital dipstick says I need to add a lire of oil, this later cleared and on checking the oil level it was no longer saying add oil. Is this because its just on the limit and not on level ground or could it be a fault, I have covered about 2.5k miles in 4 months so would that be normal oil consumption levels or an indication of a problem? There doesn't appear to be any leaks and no blue smoke from the exhaust.

Anybody any experience with this engine? :thumbsup:
 
Hi, my high mileage (142k) 3.0si, which I believe is also a N52 needs a litre top up every 10k ish, if it comes back then top it up, keep an eye on the level every time you drive it.
 
The n52 can go through a litre in a thousand miles according to bmw, some burn it at that rate & some use hardly any, I think the ccv causes a lot of these oil burning problems by making the engine ingest oil vapour when it stops working properly.
Rob
 
Question is, you've had the car 4 months, but when have you checked the oil?

You can check as you are driving along so it's easy to do at anytime. IF the indicator is now showing full, which it should be with 1 litre added yo will have a benchmark the next time you have to top up.
 
sharpyboy said:
Hi Guys after 4 months of zed ownership my car a 2006 facelift 2.5i with 90,300 miles on the clock with the N52 engine, beeped at me yesterday and briefly showed a yellow oil warning light and the digital dipstick says I need to add a lire of oil, this later cleared and on checking the oil level it was no longer saying add oil. Is this because its just on the limit and not on level ground or could it be a fault, I have covered about 2.5k miles in 4 months so would that be normal oil consumption levels or an indication of a problem? There doesn't appear to be any leaks and no blue smoke from the exhaust.

Anybody any experience with this engine? :thumbsup:
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I don't have the N52 lump. (Mines the superior M54 :poke: ) But for what it's worth contact 'Bowser134' He's a BMW technician. While relocating my roof motor the conversation of Z's burning oil came up. He recommended that if mine ever started burning oil to switch to 5w40 oil I for oil consumption. He may recommend this or indeed another oil for your engine so PM him and I'm sure he'll be glad to offer some feedback.
 
Ive used 5w40 for many years too now. Using 5w40 instead of 5w30 will help as the engines getting older but in all honesty ive had loads of bmw's some burn oil others just dont. The handbook says around 1 litre for every 1000-1500 miles and will be more frequent if you drive the car harder. Most the time these z4 are not used as a daily by there owners which is the cause of many bad oil consumptions. Short trips in a car with big 6 cylinder is not good eventually the CCV as "Smartbear" mentioned gets all blocked up from only doing short trips. Condensation in oil builds up like a slugde blocking the vital parts leading to bad oil consumption. Sometimes the piston seals can go hard to which is another cause. So many engines are ruined due to bad maintainence and running them dry beacuse of bad owners. You say you had a new car 4 months and are only now checking your oil. This is alarming id hate to be the next owner of your car you should be checking your oil every 2 weeks to be safe. Dont rely on some stupid elecrtronic sensor to tell you to top your oil up. If your lights on the dash most likely engine pressure is low too which isnt good. You should get in the habbit of topping it up before it gets to the minium point really. This is a fail safe for those not so maintianence minded look yourself. Your coolant may need checking to make sure there all topped up too regular top ups and you will be fine. ive run these old bmw's engines for last 12yrs with minimal expense which is why i dont buy newer cars. Thet really are relaible good engined cars easy to look after if you dont just abuse them by not doing basic owners maintianence

Asda has castrol on offer at £29 down form £40 so grab some well worth it
 
srhutch said:
goldbcfc said:
Dont rely on some stupid elecrtronic sensor to tell you to top your oil up.
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It's the only way on a N52 engine'd car as there is no dipstick.
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yes its very stupid to say the least not having a manual dipstick bmw and their silly over engineering of things again. I was more on about the yellow oil pre warning light when you oil is so low it comes on correct? if its every red then too late oil pressure wil be low and not good on th engine. Obviously if you get used to pressing the gauge buton regular you can see how full or empty oil is on the bars measured on screen. I never let any of my bmw's run to low hate seeing any lights on dash prefer to keep it topped up as i drive hard
 
goldbcfc said:
[post]1362719[/post] You say you had a new car 4 months and are only now checking your oil. This is alarming id hate to be the next owner of your car you should be checking your oil every 2 weeks to be safe. Dont rely on some stupid elecrtronic sensor to tell you to top your oil up. I
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I never said I have had the car 4 months and never checked the oil level, I have been checking regularly for the last 2 months since I learned from this forum after a post that I have a "digital dipstick" I wanted to know if 1 litre for 2500 miles was normal or excessive. With a digital dipstick you have to rely on your sensor there is simply no other way to tell your oil level or amount to top up by. If the manual says 1500 miles per litre of oil I'm happy mine is ok. With the oil level sensor there must be a point where it's ok then the next step is add 1 litre of oil I just wondered if this is affected by things like the car not being on level road etc, anyway thanks for your input.
 
I've had my 3.0si since June 2015 and never had to top up the oil. It had its full inspection II service back in June this year.
 
Yeah the low mileage may help, the older ones suffer piston seal wear its not expensive part but costly in labour. CCV is always another for bad oil consumption
 
sharpyboy said:
goldbcfc said:
[post]1362719[/post] You say you had a new car 4 months and are only now checking your oil. This is alarming id hate to be the next owner of your car you should be checking your oil every 2 weeks to be safe. Dont rely on some stupid elecrtronic sensor to tell you to top your oil up. I
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I never said I have had the car 4 months and never checked the oil level, I have been checking regularly for the last 2 months since I learned from this forum after a post that I have a "digital dipstick" I wanted to know if 1 litre for 2500 miles was normal or excessive. With a digital dipstick you have to rely on your sensor there is simply no other way to tell your oil level or amount to top up by. If the manual says 1500 miles per litre of oil I'm happy mine is ok. With the oil level sensor there must be a point where it's ok then the next step is add 1 litre of oil I just wondered if this is affected by things like the car not being on level road etc, anyway thanks for your input.
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Hi, you can see the level going down on the digital dipstick before the add 1 litre warning light illuminates :thumbsup:
Rob
 
yeah thats what i was saying theres liittle bars telling you the level. If the lights coming on yellow constantly thats running the engine low on oil which isnt good idea.
 
goldbcfc said:
yeah thats what i was saying theres liittle bars telling you the level. If the lights coming on yellow constantly thats running the engine low on oil which isnt good idea.
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how much do you put in, does 1 bar mean 500ml or 250ml? because too much oil is as bad as not enough. I drove the car this afternoon and the oil was ok but the bar is over to the left so I guess it will need a litre soon should I wait or should I guess how much to put in?
 
Id give the dash board dipstick a day to stabilize, mine took a while to settle down after topping up, id add 500ml oil at the halfway point on the gauge-if its not exact, that small amount wont hurt the engine on top of 6.5 litres :thumbsup:
That's what I did over 3 years with no issues.
Rob
 
Smartbear said:
Id give the dash board dipstick a day to stabilize, mine took a while to settle down after topping up, id add 500ml oil at the halfway point on the gauge-if its not exact, that small amount wont hurt the engine on top of 6.5 litres :thumbsup:
That's what I did over 3 years with no issues.
Rob
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Thanks Smartbear I will do that in the morning and give it a run and check it then, I just wish it had a normal dipstick i'm an analogue man in a digital world that's my problem :thumbsup:
 
1 litre is usaully from min to max mark on a dipstick. Going over by 1/4 litre wont hurt but putting2 litre i when its needs 1 litre would. As Smartbear mentiioned just stick to 1/4 to 1/2 litre top ups once it drops past 2 or 3 bars. Id rather run mine to max levle than min as these engines like to be revved hard to really get them to pull.
 
Mines good as gold, Do 2000miles a month at the moment and dont use a drop. The wifes M54 has this issue and replacing the CCV sorted it. :thumbsup:
 
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