Oil Consumption

newbold1

newbold1

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In the 4 weeks that I have owned my new 2005 330Ci I have already put 4,000 miles on it. This is because I have made two round trips from Nashville, TN to central Florida. Anyway, I figured that I might be running low on oil at this point, checked it, and sure enough I needed to add some. No big deal except that my car was able to take two quarts in order to get back into the normal "full" range. Should I be concerned by that? Seems like a lot of oil for 4,000 miles. I was worried that maybe I ran the oil down too much. But... the low oil indicator never did come on so I guess I was fine. The car seems to be running fine. I'm just not accustomed to adding 2 quarts to a 6 cylinder engine.

What do you think? I know in the future I am going to check this more often. Otherwise, I have been careful to break the car in gently (ie: not allowing the revs to get too high, no gunning it).
 
bmwrocks

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newbold1 said:
In the 4 weeks that I have owned my new 2005 330Ci I have already put 4,000 miles on it. This is because I have made two round trips from Nashville, TN to central Florida. Anyway, I figured that I might be running low on oil at this point, checked it, and sure enough I needed to add some. No big deal except that my car was able to take two quarts in order to get back into the normal "full" range. Should I be concerned by that? Seems like a lot of oil for 4,000 miles. I was worried that maybe I ran the oil down too much. But... the low oil indicator never did come on so I guess I was fine. The car seems to be running fine. I'm just not accustomed to adding 2 quarts to a 6 cylinder engine.

What do you think? I know in the future I am going to check this more often. Otherwise, I have been careful to break the car in gently (ie: not allowing the revs to get too high, no gunning it).
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It is my understanding that some high compression engines can use oil. And some have said that our engines can do this. In fact I have read on here that some consider it normal for a new one of our engines to use some oil, which should go away after a time(???). They are high compresion after all. However you will hear differing opinions on the oil use thing. Mine has not used a drop since day one. My X5 however uses a quart now and again.

I think 2 quarts in 4K miles is ridiculous. No way should your engine use that much IMO. Did you check it when you took delivery? Maybe it was 2 quarts low then.....
 
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jaime-330

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Mine used some at the begining and the oil level warning pop up (yellow) and I had the dealer check it and it did not happened again after that, what I wouldn't recomend is to add any unless the low oil indicator pops up. You may end up having more oil that the engine needs and in that case it could be more harmful to your engine.
 
andreyiv

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jaime-330 said:
Mine used some at the begining and the oil level warning pop up (yellow) and I had the dealer check it and it did not happened again after that, what I wouldn't recomend is to add any unless the low oil indicator pops up. You may end up having more oil that the engine needs and in that case it could be more harmful to your engine.
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Are you kidding me? The yellow indicator is there for times when oil is extremely low and should be immideately added. If a person does not know how to add oil to an engine then I suppose your statement is correct but anyone who can add a little and then check should never rely on that little warning light.
 
J

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Kirby said:
You needed two quarts and didn't have the yellow light? I thought the low oil indicator came on at 1 quart low? Or am I wrong?
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Right !! that is why I found it odd to add 2 qrts when the oil indicator was not even on. and that is also why I said that it could be more harmful if you end up adding more than you need [idea] btw if it pops on yellow you may be missing as much as 1 qt and if it is red then you know that the your oil have reached an extremely low level or there may be some other mal-function such as oil pump failure etc.
 
aNoodle

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My understadning is that the 3.0 engines are loosing 1 quart or so of oil at the break-in phase. This is not unusual. I think if you do a search of the forum, you'll see similar accounts.

As far as exceeding the dipstick maximum...perhaps there's some leeway there...if the factory fill was around the center to the lower marking, then adding an extra half to 3/4 quarts might have just brought it up to the high mark? So really he's only lost about a quart or so?
 
///M SPEED

///M SPEED

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BMW's are known for burning some oil. This is not uncommon and the degree's at which they burn the oil can vary. My ///M burns some from time-to-time. I have been down 2 quarts before then it will not burn any for a while. Then every-so-often it will be 1 quart down and then fine for a while. I talked to the dealer about this, because like you I was concerned and they stated this is not uncommon.....

I would fill it and keep an eye on it. When you take it in for your 1200 mile service explain what happened and voice your concern. I would also make sure they add your comments to the documentation for later written proof if ever needed...

My opinion is that this is normal and you need not worry about it. I would however, keep an eye on it just in case...
 
newbold1

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Good point was made... I never did check the oil level when I took delivery of the car. I just assumed it was full. When I added one quart the oil reading on the dip stick was just barely on the bottom portion. The dip stick has a section at the bottom, a gap, a middle section, another gap, and then the upper section. After adding the second quart I now show about oil on the upper part of the dip stick about as thick as two stacked nickels.

Is that okay? I hope I didn't over fill it. I drove about 50 miles today and everything seems normal.

My owners manual says that if the oil light comes on then you need to fill up the oil within the next 30 miles or else you are likely to do damage to the engine. So I assume you would have to be seriously low at that point.
 
Kirby

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This oil warning light issue rang a bell is the dark, musty recesses of my brain. I checked ALLDATA.com and BINGO. There is a campaign for:

110703 MAR 04 Campaign - Engine Low Oil Level Warning

Don't know the details. This only shows up for 2003 model year, not 2004 or 2005. But who knows? I would go to the dealer, tell them the story about 2 quarts and no light, and mention this campaign. Maybe it still isn't solved?
 
bmwrocks

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newbold1 said:
Good point was made... I never did check the oil level when I took delivery of the car. I just assumed it was full. When I added one quart the oil reading on the dip stick was just barely on the bottom portion. The dip stick has a section at the bottom, a gap, a middle section, another gap, and then the upper section. After adding the second quart I now show about oil on the upper part of the dip stick about as thick as two stacked nickels.

Is that okay? I hope I didn't over fill it. I drove about 50 miles today and everything seems normal.

My owners manual says that if the oil light comes on then you need to fill up the oil within the next 30 miles or else you are likely to do damage to the engine. So I assume you would have to be seriously low at that point.
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The oil should be filled to the range between the two gaps. It sounds as if you overfilled it a bit. I don't know what the consequences are though. I know if you severely overfill a crankcase, I have heard it can cause the oil to "foam" which can seriously damage your engine.
 
aNoodle

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Yeah, the reading should be in-between the two knotches, not above or below.

If you're significantly over the top notch, I would consider draining a little oil. (Being over by a couple nickles width doens't seem like a big deal, I guess, but who knows.) If you're concerned about it being exactly right, then you could pop the drain plug and hold it in place to just let a little oil out. Or...just replace the oil filter (there's probably a couple nickles worth of oil in there)?
 
newbold1

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I guess I am alright. It has been a while now and the car seems to be just fine. I have driven quite a bit since 6/27. Probably another 400-500 miles. The oil level hasn't changed a bit. I guess maybe it was a bit on the low side when I took delivery of the car. Anyway, since I was only slightly over the high mark I have to assume that I will be fine. I would be very surprised if there was no room for error built into this as I am sure that it could easily happen and there would be quite a number of people out there accidentally wrecking their engines. I guess I will need to be more careful about this in the future. Adding one quart, I was still reading on the low part of the dipstick. So... I figured I needed quite a bit more to get it right and added the second quart. Maybe half a quart would have been more like it.
 
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