e46 help please

[pukar]

my mate has an e46 that is burning/using a lot of oil up. it is an 03 330ci sport. there is no oil on the driveway, and occas a bit of smoke from the engine bay on starting.....any ideas?

[e30den]

Crankcase breather valve may need changing
hth

[mcbonio]

Every e46 I've ever owned has had plastic paneling underneath the car which usually catches oil drops. The sump has a little door on the plastic paneling to access the sump nut. You'd have to open it from below and have a look to see if its collected any oil.

If there is smoke in engine bay, then you could have a leaking rocker cover gasket which could be dripping oil onto the exhaust manifold. I've never seen a leaking rocker cover gasket leak that much to worry about the oil level.

30 seconds under the bonnet should verify either of these possibilities.

[e30topless]

it's normal for the 330 to use oil

[pukar]

thanks for the help guys, i will pass that on!

[capri_rob]

it's normal for the 330 to use oil

apparently 0.5 - 1l of oil per 1000 miles consumption isnt unusual for these engines

[dowot]

about 1 litre for 800 miles in mine........... no leaks/ smoke and a new ccv.

[shadrack]

i had one also 1ltr oil per 1000 miles so was costing fortune in oil, so switched to some £12 per 5ltr same grade and it stopped using it!

[Mitchellman]

Yes have owned 3 of these though usually high milers use th oil. My current 330ci uses hardly any. N fact it has not moved for the 3000 miles I have had the car.