Is my car chugging oil?

N

Nocturnal

Member
Hello,

My 2004 z4 3.0i is at 80,000 miles. I've had the car since Jan of last year. I've put about 11k miles on the car myself. Recently my car has started to throw the yellow oil light when I turn off the car. I top it up, etc. But eventually the light comes back. Well... today I checked the dip stick and made sure to stretch my arm so gravity does not move the fluid across the stick. I was surprised because it seemed suuuuper low, it was like 1/4th on the lower hash mark. If I understand the drip stick correctly, that's pretty low? It's supposed to be at the very top end of that middle notch.

I topped it up recently, so I'm wondering if my car is chugging oil. When I start it though, I don't see any blue smoke or smell anything terrible.

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.
 
When checking the oil after the engine is warm do it within a couple of minutes, I found that if it is left longer more oil runs out of the oil filter housing and give a false high reading. After a recent oil change it seemed too high and I wondered if the mechanic had put too much oil in but I was told by those that know on here to check the level a few minutes after stopping. :thumbsup:
 
It certainly sounds like its using oil, however, a litre every 1000 miles is still an acceptable number, apparently.

You could try a thicker oil, doubt you ever see cold weather in california so a 10w-40 would be fine.
 
MikeyH said:
When checking the oil after the engine is warm do it within a couple of minutes, I found that if it is left longer more oil runs out of the oil filter housing and give a false high reading. After a recent oil change it seemed too high and I wondered if the mechanic had put too much oil in but I was told by those that know on here to check the level a few minutes after stopping. :thumbsup:
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Yeah, I checked it when the car was warm. Probably 5-10 minutes after turning off the engine.
brillomaster said:
It certainly sounds like its using oil, however, a litre every 1000 miles is still an acceptable number, apparently.

You could try a thicker oil, doubt you ever see cold weather in california so a 10w-40 would be fine.
Click to expand...
This could be interesting, I think I'm doing 5W-30?
Rockhopper said:
Its quite sensitive to being parked on a very level surface as well.
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Thanks, I'm pretty leveled in my garage.
 
It made quite a difference with mine, 5 mins too much, a couple of mins just right. This is after the oil change. Assuming the mechanic put in the correct amount.:unsure:
 
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