cleung

Hey guys

I recently had to add half a liter of oil to the car, and I know that most say some consumption is normal but I was wondering what is considered too much. My car has approx. 50,000 km (31,000 miles) on it and I had to add half liter (half quart) after about 5000 km (3100 miles) of drving since last oil service. Is this cause for concern or am I ok still?

thanks

Palmo

I wouldn't be too worried at this stage and would monitor what happens over the next few k miles. This is something that has always made me wonder, how and why it is that some cars use considerably more oil than others. I do believe it to be related to how a cars engine is originally 'run-in' from new (although I know some will disagree with this).

Have you had the car from new? If so how did you 'run in' the engine? Having said all that, there is always the possibility that the odd car just does have an unexplained 'higher' oil consumption level - doesn't necessarily mean there is a major problem.

A few years ago myself and 3 other colleagues all got brand new company cars within a few weeks of each other - all were the same type of car (even same model & spec). The others drove them very hard from day one saying that they didn't care as they wern't there's. I on the other hand drove 'very steady' for the first 1k miles, then increased a little, but still steadyish for the next 1k miles. After that I gradually increased it and have to say that the car had some real hammer from me over the subsequent few years. However, my car was the only one that didn't really use engine oil between oil changes - maybe the odd slight top up here and there - the others drank the stuff, one was even using 1L every 500-600 miles. Mine was also the only one to pass 50k miles without needing any form of engine work, the others suffered from headgaskets, overheating, lumpy idles and so on. Sure this must have been linked to the 'running in'?

cleung

thanks for the reply, I unfortunately am not the first owner of this vehicle. But I do know that the previous owner was very conservative driving with the car, I don't even think he ever had the car on the freeway before. I talked to the dealership and they told me to monitor over the next 5000km and if I have to add another half liter then they will put me on a oil consumption survey in order to collect data for warranty purposes. In the case of warranty what would they do to solve this issue? My concern is that if they do anything major that it may make other issues appear so really if this amount of oil consumption is nothing to worry about I would prefer for the dealership not to do anything major to try to fix the problem.

pinguhk

your engine is the old engine M54 and this should not happen cos 3 of our HK e60 members has the same engine as your 530i and they have never topped up the oil.
They also push there cars.
I would get it checked out.

cleung

thanks I'll have to keep an eye on it and get the dealer to look into it.