318is Oil Consumption

Guest · Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 9:02 am

Whats the oil consumption normally like on the m42 engine ?

Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:03 am

Mine seems to lose a little bit over a month.
If you're losing a lot then it'll either be leaking out somewhere or it'll be burnt due to valve stem seals or ring wear.
Oil is quite cheap, so if the engine runs well I'd just keep pouring more in.

Guest · Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:05 am

i stuck a litre in this morning, i changed hthe oil 2 months ago....
doesnt seem to be any apparent leaks, and theres no visible smoke on startup either - weird
yeah engines running fine - no noticible lack of power

Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 12:02 pm

you should never pour 1l of fresh oil in, instead do a oil change.
Because its a high compression engine at high revs a healthy engine will use up oil, have a look at your GB bellhousing is the rear crank seal leaking?

Andrew

Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 12:11 pm

Surely it is not that uncommon to top up the oil in between full oil change intervals? Why do you think it is so bad?

N

Guest · Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 12:12 pm

well its MOT time next week (fingers crossed) , so itll be up on a 4 post next week , so i can get a good look - theres no oil on the drive that i can see,
ill be changing the oil next week more than likely anyway (i change oil every 2 months or so) - im going to give it a good service while im off work (took two weeks off work JUST for the MOT heh!)

Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 12:44 pm

errr, i've run 318iS now for 3 1/2 years. Never topped the oil up between services........

On my new engine the last oil was in there for approx 10 months (Silkolene Pro S Fully synth) did approx 4k miles, no drop in levels.

Previous to that on my old engine i used to run apporx 8-10 miles between oil changes... never had to top that up either!

Guess i've been lucky then!

Guest · Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 1:25 pm

yeah im not used to a car not using this much oil either!

Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 1:29 pm

1 litre in couple of months is exessive,never used anything like that on any engine ive worked on,probably burning it

does it give a blue puff after long idling periods i.e from lights ?or when revved hard all the time ?check-after idling indicates valve stem/seals ,or all the time is indicative of bore /piston/ring wear

Guest · Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 1:35 pm

thats the only reason i asked, - theres no indication of any oil burning - no puffs of smoke first thing in the morning, - engine still feels good - so ive no idea where its going - the engine does get some exercise ;p tho.

Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 2:24 pm

If its getting allot of exercise then i would like to think the oil is doing its job and the engine is performing like it should.

Andrew

Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 2:26 pm

E30Mark wrote:Previous to that on my old engine i used to run apporx 8-10 miles between oil changes... never had to top that up either!

every 8-10 miles.. bet that was expensive to run..

Post Wed Sep 21, 2005 2:46 pm

Jhonno wrote:
E30Mark wrote:Previous to that on my old engine i used to run apporx 8-10 miles between oil changes... never had to top that up either!
every 8-10 miles.. bet that was expensive to run..

you know what i mean!

I blame the cat for walking over the keyboard and distracting me.....

I drive mine fairly sedately... i don't tend to cane it, i especially don't need to go through another engine