The low oil warning came on last night and alerted me to add a quart of oil.
The oil cap says "CASTROL" is the recommended oil but I couldn't find it locally.
Instead I had to use a quart of Mobil One synthetic oil.

Anyone ever use Mobil One on their cars? Is Castrol really much better?

 

There's a lot of debate about what synthetics are best to use. Castrol manufactures BMW's synthethic, so it's the natural aftermarket recommendation. I don't have the list of currently approved oils, so I can't confirm Mobil 1's inclusion. It's generally well thought of, though.

 

Should be fine. We have customers come in all the time that bring their own oil. Being Mobil 1 synthetic.

 

Today on my wife's E60 530i, the warning came on in iDrive that it was a quart low and to add oil. She was close to a BMW dealer, so she stopped in and when they checked the dipstick it was dry! She needed 2 quarts of oil after 5,600 miles of normal driving in about 4 months of driving! The service advisor said that it was okay to consume a couple of quarts in 5,600 miles. But if the car says that an oil change is not due until 10,000 miles or more, that means that we will be adding 4 quarts of oil between oil changes. That just doesn't seem normal to me.

At the dealer they added 2 quarts of Castrol Synthetic 5W-30.

Anybody else consuming this much oil? Say a quart every 2,500 miles?

 

same thing happened to me 2 days ago - i have a 520 - i don't torture the car or anything - hardly push it beyond 3500 rpm - topped up at last service less than 2 months ago - got an idrive fault message to top up - dealer said it was nearly dry

they are now checking to see if there's a leak in the system.... they really seemed shocked.

 

I've also noticed a lot of oil consumption. I've added at least 4 quarts over the last 6 months (about 15K miles) Just had my Inspection 1 and I've noticed not as much oil being consumed since. I did mention it to the dealership and of course they did not find anything.

 

My experience with cars needing oil to be added between changes is based on how they were driven during the break in period. Long drives at a constant speed left me with a couple of Volvos that used more oil than your wife's 530. The Volvos never burned oil, the exhaust was always gray inside the pipe, but the oil got away. One of those cars had 130,000 miles on it when sold and easily passed an engine compression test.

 

My car currently has 5300 miles on it and I've only needed to add 1 quart of oil since I've had it ( 4 months now ). I checked the oil level before I added the quart and it still had plenty of oil in it.

 

At 6650, I have not added any oil. From the looks of the dip stick, I won't need to add any before the scheduled change comes up in another 8000 miles.

 

That is an interesting theory and would be fun to test with two identical cars. Unfortunately, I can barely afford one! If adding a little oil is the only issue I have with the car, I'll be perfectly happy. My 2004 Volvo S60 R consumes about a quart every 1,500 to 2,000 miles. Maybe it is just cars that I buy!