Oil consumption and smoking

Hi Tref - I have thought about that but for the moment I want BMW to investigate it at least. It is an AUC for another 5 months and would rather have it fixed if possible. The car had only covered 10,500 miles in its first 3 years before I owned it and wonder if it is connected to infrequent use somehow.

Adam - I only fill up with Optimax ( I forget the new name!). Even at a litre every 2,000 miles or every 6/7 months I am noticing the outlay. If I remember correctly the technical bulletin said the maximum for an M// engine is 1ltr every 1,000km :o
 
peartreeproductions said:
Hi Tref - I have thought about that but for the moment I want BMW to investigate it at least. It is an AUC for another 5 months and would rather have it fixed if possible. The car had only covered 10,500 miles in its first 3 years before I owned it and wonder if it is connected to infrequent use somehow.

Adam - I only fill up with Optimax ( I forget the new name!). Even at a litre every 2,000 miles or every 6/7 months I am noticing the outlay. If I remember correctly the technical bulletin said the maximum for an M// engine is 1ltr every 1,000km :o
Click to expand...

peartree with your infrequent use have you had no trouble with hydraulic lifter noise?

If I were you and you plan to keep the car for a while I would extend the warranty when it runs out, I'm extending mine as the head has been replaced due to the hydraulic lifters (known problem on N52 engine) and only doing 6k a year want to cover myself.
 
Hi srhutch, i have listened to the noise on youtube before (i think following one of your posts) and havent heard anything that noisy i dont think.

The dealer told me that the master mechanic took my car out and that the pinking noise i had heard was some mints in the door pocket. Made me think i was an idiot for a while, until i removed the mints and surprise surprise the noise is still there!

They have the car for two days at the end of this week and hopefully they can solve it.

In the meantime i will probably have to endure the 116 diesel courtesy car - very slow.
 
Just a quick update. The car was in the garage last week and they couldn't find anything again. They dipped the level of the oil but it hadnt used anything and to be fair it had only done the smoking on startup on two occassions in about 1,000 miles.

The dealer is persisting but is mindful of the warranty company not paying them any money until they find anything to proceed with. They asked me to wait until it had done 600 miles and then take it back. I will have done that in about a week and will be taking it back soon. In that week it has smoked 3 times heavily on start up and the oil level indicator has fallen 1 mark.

Car now on about 19,000 miles. I am keeping a log of the problems by day, amount of time the car was left, ambient temperature etc. and if I run out of joy with the dealer will be approaching BMW uk with the details.

Interestingly i mentioned this to a friend who said that his BMW had exactly the same problem. Turned out to be his timing chain had skipped a notch. Different engine though so not sure how relevant that would be?
 
peartreeproductions said:
the master mechanic took my car out and that the pinking noise i had heard was some mints in the door pocket. Made me think i was an idiot for a while, until i removed the mints and surprise surprise the noise is still there!
Click to expand...

What kind of master mechanic is this person? Mints in the door pocket?

If that is the best they can come up with, I'd be looking elsewhere :o :P

As for pinking/pinging/detonation, the only way this should happen is if the knock sensors are not working right.

Alternatively, a leaky exhaust manifold gasket can make very similar sounding noises.

As for the blue smoke on start, very likely worn oil valve stem seal/s as mentioned earlier. They must be very worn to be burning off that much oil though, which would also leave you to ponder how worn the other parts of the engine might be. Worth doing a compression test on the engine!?


Few areas to check there anyway, before a 'master mechanic' starts considering mints in door pockets :)

Dave
 
Haha - funnilly enough I doubted myself as is my normal way. I have heard pinking in enough older cars to know what is sounds like. Perhaps in the door pocket there is also a red arrow that appears when the smoking starts!

If i run out of joy i will probably pay my regular mechanic to run a compression test which will either put my mind at rest or give me some ammunition. Hopefully wont cost a fortune either.
 
A quick update for those that might be having the same problem, i also notice there are a few posts about pinking on the front page.

The car has been into the dealers for about 3 weeks in total over the last few months now. I have to say they have been trying very hard to find the problem but have needed a nudge or two. They finally spotted the smoking and felt it was unburnt fuel so this week they tested the injectors. 3 were out of spec, presumably spray pattern, and leaking so they have been replaced. In my simplistic mind this would account for the smoking on start up depending on angle of parking and pressure left in the fuel system.

Very early impressions are that it seem crisper acceleration from low revs. Still pinking but a lot less. Only time will tell on the smoking when starting up.

As for the oil consumption i am learning to live with that. Plenty of other forum users seem to be experiencing a litre consumption every 2-3k miles. Cant imagine how replacing the injectors will have changed that and i think it is just a 'characteristic' of the engine.
 
Just read the post, I had a similar problem with my old 330CI coupe, I was doing a lot of miles per week ( 1000K) and had to put a litre of oil in a week, every thursday morning pulling into the carpark in the office the oil warning light would come on without fail . The problem was down to the oil separator valve located on the right hand side of the engine. Its a common fault on the 3 litre engines that these little valves fracture in freezing temps. This results in oil being blown into the manifold on start up and high revs. My local independant BMW garage changed mine and all was well again, its was about £80 for the part and £40 for the labour.

My problem was that my 330 CI was left outside all the time and the bout of cold weather we had last year froze the condensation in the valve causing it to fail. I'll be keeping the Z4 in the warmth from now :thumbsup:

HTH


Dan
 
Sounds like you car is running normally and oil consuption within specification. If smoke is excessive and continues once the car has been running for some time then it could be worn valve seals. A compression test on each cylinder may reveal an issue. Excessive smoking will be obvious (just follow an old diesel car.....) but a 'puff' on starting should be of no concern and as you say it only happens from cold. Every car I have owned has 'smoked' slightly on startup from cold - could be a mixture of steam and smoke but clears once the vehicle reaches normal operating temperature.
 
My 2.5Si is an 07 facelift model, had it since May, saw a similar thing when I first picked it up and if its left unused for a week or 2. but didn't think much of this as car's generally do this. Havent seen any problems with oil consumption and if the car is used on consecutive days I don't see any smoke, my motorbike does the same occasionally on start up for the same reason. I never rev the X4 hard till its fully warm but then its used properly right up 6K rpm, I don't tend to do short journeys either as once I'm out in it I don't want to come home.

Not a solution I know, but my experience. :thumbsup:
 
Not the 1st time I've heard that BMW's are designed to be driven hard.I've heard of many BMW bike owners who've been told to ride their bikes harder else they'll never " seal up". On the GS1150, it was common knowledge that they took 20,000 miles to seal up and stop using oil. Mine was just that, used oil like a bastard until 20k , then nothing......gave it plenty of stick from day one, but still took 20,000 miles to stop using oil.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom