Guess I have been lucky......driven BMW FOR OVER 15 years now, E30, E36, E39 and now the E60 545i and would guess have driven them collectively around 500K kms, with the E39 reaching 350K without any oil leaks.

Suppose I have to keep touching wood............LOL

 

Oh KyleB isn't going to believe you.

I have owned 8 BMWs over the past 44 years and accumulated over 1,500,,000 kms on 3 2202's, an E12, 3 E30's and my present E60 (2005 545) with 250K kms.

All have leaked a small amount of oil, more like sweating, usually at oil pan or valve covers.

Its probably a Canadian thing.

BTW, I have always touched wood on my BMW's, since I purchased a Nardi wood shift knob on my first 2002 and kept transferring the knob to the subsequent BMW's. So maybe it was that that brought me luck.

Salut, Bob P.

Salut,

 

I have had no car, whether German, American, Japanese, Korean that have not leaked oil. I used to own a shop and every single car brought there for service had an oil leak somewhere along it's life span. Any oil accumulating in the splash guard under the engine & transmission and not making it onto the ground does not qualify as not leaking.

 

Agreed. Somehow BMWs and other German cars have been labelled as major oil leakers, when their records shows that they don't leak any more than other brands under the same driving and performance conditions.

Salut, Bob P.

 

I have another car (07 Accord) that has about 160K on the odometer and I have not had one oil leak yet. Not one gasket changed yet. But on the other hand my 05 530i with 130K has had a lot of gaskets changed since 60K. I baby all my cars the same and drive them the same. So your statement is not 100% true unless you are really talking about lifetime. No gasket in the world can hold up a lifetime. I think the problem here is premature leaks not weather the car will ever have a leak in its lifetime.

Their are a lot of variables that contribute to a car leaking. Number one is the owner it self (regular maintenance). With BMW/Mercedes/Audi these are German engineered vehicles that are made to be put on the autobahn (unlimited speed in rural areas mostly). Here in the states we have no such thing which is another major contributing factor to why we have so many leaks. If they engineered the US spec vehicles with gaskets that work here in the US (interstate going only 75 mph) then we would not have as many problems with leaks. US drivers do not generate enough heat long enough to keep our gaskets expanded. If you ever noticed if your car sits for a week you will have leaks you never had but those leaks can be eliminated by just getting on the interstate for a joy ride. I have lived in Germany a third of my life (I'm 34) and have seen the difference. Not saying that no ones car in Germany leaks but there is a difference. Being able to drive 180Kmh legally versus driving 75mph legally makes a big difference.

Just my insight on cars. I could be wrong

 

All I know is that gaskets will fail. MB even tried to engineer two mating surfaces with out a gasket on the 280E/CE (W123) with no luck. It still leaked at some point. I should refrain from using "always" and "never" in a sentence, as a single occurrence proves the statement wrong, however the statement was made to illustrate the idea "gaskets do fail" in whatever application it is used.

 

I find this entertaining how people defend German car engineering. I have read about "natural rubber" on this forum. The reality is there is no excuse for poor engineering. BMW/Mercedes/Audi design cars to be sold outside of German market. German market is very small and average German knows very well about reliability problems associated with German made cars. The reason for this is simple, they are designed to fail. How many million bushings, seals, steering racks, crappy plastics do you need to manufacture to realize your design is garbage? Lifetime fluids, 15k oil changes only make things worse. Design to last 4 years. This + the way many people drive their bmws makes them very unreliable.
Instead of protecting them, spread the word out about reliability problems and hope others don't buy them. They may change something then. For now they will continue intentionally design for poor reliability to make more money.