Oil Consumption Concerns

S

srhutch

Legend
 East Sussex, UK
Have had tmy Z4 from new, and topped up the oil when instructed @ 7861 miles. I assumed the oil consumpton would get better over time as the engine bedded in. However have done now 10,800 miles the electronic dipstick is showing 60% of the litre I added as being used.

According to the book if the dipstick doesnt work properly it should display "Error" so have I got a problem?

What sort of oil consumption do you all have, I hhave looked in the handbook but cannot find any reference to usage but know its common for manufacturers to state 1 litre per 1,000 km/miles so am wondering if BMW will be interested.

What do you all thing?
 
It seems to vary by car. My previous Z4 3.0 had a 0.5 litre filling in 15k miles, also at about 7 - 8K miles.
 
Mine has done about 4Litres over 20,000 and that includes an oil service at 16,000, it's taken a litre since the last oil change alone :o . Luckily I had bought 8 Litres of the special Castrol Long Life off ebay !! :thumbsup:. I'm not too bothered and I do rev the nuts off it all the time :driving:
 
Not used a drop in 11 months in the Z I suspect I'll be changing it before it needs any.

X5 (same engine) takes about 0.5 ltr in 5000 miles, but that's got close to 80,000 on the clock

For BMW to be interested the rate of consumption would have to be very high. They'll just blame driver, type of run, conditions, etc.
 
A friend of mine had his engine rebuilt under warranty when it used 1 litre per 3000 miles. That was the 3.0.
 
that was the one thing I HATED about my N52 Z.

NO DIPSTICK!!!!!!!


That has to be the most stupid thing ever thought of, HOW could any car company decide not to add a fool proof method of checking oil in an engine?

If you want the electronic thing, fine, I like that idea, but have a dipstick as well in-case that thing ever goes wrong,

really really stupid BMW,
Thankfully the S54 M engine has one,
 
so from what you are all saying sounds like I just need to top it up when it asks for it, will probably mention to dealer soon though.

The other thing I noticed this morning when I pressed the button to check, was that although I had only just started the enigne from cold it gave me a answer straight away. Normally the indicator goes round and round until the engine is up to temp, so I wonder if there is a fault.
 
srhutch said:
so from what you are all saying sounds like I just need to top it up when it asks for it, will probably mention to dealer soon though.

The other thing I noticed this morning when I pressed the button to check, was that although I had only just started the enigne from cold it gave me a answer straight away. Normally the indicator goes round and round until the engine is up to temp, so I wonder if there is a fault.
Click to expand...
I doubt theres a fault,
If I remember correctly mine did the same

But again another perfect reason to put a bloody dipstick in the engine,

one quick "dip" hot or cold engine and your golden, you know whats in it, and what color it is
 
My pre-facelift 3.0 was the thirstiest car I've owned, it sounds reasonably normal to me. It'll probably always be like that from now on, I don't think it's oil consumption will ever reduce.
 
OK getting somewhere

Would appear my car has had a funny five minutes or in this case 2/3 days.

Leaving work today pressed button, level cycled thorugh as it's wasnt hot enough (not been doing this recently) and eventualy showed four bars (only one down) which is where it was a few days ago.

Popped into dealer who confirmed only way to check is to drain oil, and see how much is there, or link to computer to see if any fault codes.

Anyway will suck it and see for time being, if it error shows again soon I will book in, but after 3k the level is where I would hope it to be now.
 
You guys are lucky! The Alpina will regularily use 1l per 1000miles. This is still well within Alpina's tolerences.
 
I'm not sure why BMW would rebuild an engine that is using a litre of oil every 3K miles, they state that a litre every 1000miles is acceptable.

I'm using a litre every 7k or 8K miles.

J.
 
He complained a lot about it ... they rebuilt it in about 6 weeks or so, no oil consumption afterwards so he was happy.
 
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