nikko64

Hello again. My 2011 550i seems to be requiring a quart of oil every 4-5,000 miles. I have taken it in and they state there is no leak. The advisor said that bmw acknowledges that the cars may lose a quart at those intervals without leaking. Ive only had the car 9 months (CPO) and have had to add 3 quarts over the last 10k miles or so. Have you heard this before? With these cars, we can't see any oil drop due to the pans etc. Any help would be appreciated

StasGS4

Your valve stem seals are likely gone. It is an expensive repair. How many miles on the car?

tonyb635

Maybe drop the lower covers and have a look, you might see some oil soaking on them. They are easy to remove.

KyleB

Are you taking the car to Bert Smith? Have Ferman take a look at it. At 5 years old you shouldn't be losing that much oil. BMWs tolerance for oil consumption has always been fairly high.

johnbennett103

My 05 545 probably has a lot more miles (110k) than your 550i, but after I had all my engine seals replaced, it still eats oil, about a qt every other month. It could be stem seals starting to go, but I don't have any smoking going on. Some engines are known to burn a little oil, for example Ford, but this is my first bimmer that consumes this much oil. There are no visible leaks or drips, so no big deal really. If my stem seals fail, I will replace them myself.

Eddie P

Piston rings. Seen this before. Very common in Audi's, less so in BMWs. Probably never run the engine in properly to get them seated well. More here:
Break In Secrets--How To Break In New Motorcycle and Car Engines For More Power
If it's not caned a bit during run-in, the piston rings never seal properly, so the result is oil consumption.
Part of the problem is modern synthetic oils which are too runny.
Always run my new engines in by giving them the beans. Never had an oil consumption issue in over 30 years.