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Serious Oil Consumption Issue *HELP!*

5K views 37 replies 12 participants last post by  jfoj 
#1 · (Edited)
Serious Oil Consumption Issue *RESOLVED 3/29/13*

Bought a 2002 325i about 4 months ago. I drive approximately 400 miles to and from work on a weekly basis. Around the 350 mile mark, my low oil light comes on and I have to add 2 quarts of oil. :(

So basically, I'm burning through 2 quarts of oil every 350-400 miles. There is no oil puddling anywhere underneath the car when parked in my garage.

However, if I start the car in the morning (40 degrees F to 50 degrees F) and let it warm up for 10 minutes prior to driving it, I will notice a spot of oil at the tail pipe on the ground approx. 3"-4" in diameter.

With this much oil consumption, could this be more than just a possible Oil Separator or CCV issue?
 
#2 ·
Bought a 2002 325i about 4 months ago. I drive approximately 400 miles to and from work on a weekly basis. Around the 350 mile mark, my low oil light comes on and I have to add 2 quarts of oil. :(

So basically, I'm burning through 2 quarts of oil every 350-400 miles. There is no oil puddling anywhere underneath the car when parked in my garage.

However, if I start the car in the morning (40 degrees F to 50 degrees F) and let it warm up for 10 minutes prior to driving it, I will notice a spot of oil at the tail pipe on the ground approx. 3"-4" in diameter.

With this much oil consumption, could this be more than just a possible Oil Separator or CCV issue?
Your oil is collecting in the undertray and blowing on the freeway as you drive. That's why you don't notice it dripping.

Replace the oil filter housing gasket and valve cover gasket for starters. Your oil filter housing gasket is definitely completely failed.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Thanks for the quick reply, Mango. My OFHG has absolutely no signs of oil anywhere near it. Motor is clean. The same can be said about my valve cover gasket.

I will check closer this weekend and take your advice. However, what could be causing the oil to be coming out of my exhaust when I warm the car up in the mornings?

Thanks again for the reply. :)
 
#5 ·
Are you sure about that? If those gaskets haven't been touched by now at this mileage and age then I would say there's a 95% they're both leaking. when you say oil in the exhaust, do you mean smoke? if so, what color is the smoke?

Oh and "warming up your car in the mornings" is just about one of the worst things you can do to your car. People think they're babying their car when in fact they're doing the exact opposite. it's also relatively destructive to the environment.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Are you sure about that? If those gaskets haven't been touched by now at this mileage and age then I would say there's a 95% they're both leaking. when you say oil in the exhaust, do you mean smoke? if so, what color is the smoke?
The vehicle has 115k miles on it and I see no oil anywhere on the engine, but I will take an even closer look this weekend. The oil is seen on the ground, right below the tailpipe. I don't see any smoke at all and the car runs fine. No idling issues or anything to make me think it wasn't. Any ideas?

Oh and "warming up your car in the mornings" is just about one of the worst things you can do to your car. People think they're babying their car when in fact they're doing the exact opposite. it's also relatively destructive to the environment.
I was doing it mostly to get the cabin warmed up so it's not so damn cold in the morning when I sit down to drive to work, lol. I was born and raised in Florida, so these 40 degree mornings are still something I haven't gotten used to here in Tennessee.
 
#10 ·
This happened gradually, or suddenly? That is pretty severe oil loss...generally, that is a CCV issue. If something is clogged or not draining properly, all of the oil is pulled from the valve cover into the intake by the vacuum (ahem, absolute pressure lower than atmospheric to make the forum happy) of the engine.

Afaik, oil only gets into the combustion chamber via the CCV system, piston rings, or valve stem seals. No external engine oil leak is going to come out the exhaust, and 2qts in 350 miles is going to fill the belly pan and leave a huge puddle sooner rather than later. You're burning, not leaking.

After moving to NoVA...TN winter is nothing, and I'm sure this is only the tip of the iceberg. I hear the weather there is nice right now, be glad it isn't 50 like it is here!
 
#12 ·
I will check more into it this weekend when I have time to look at it more thoroughly. Another BMW owner friend of mine said that he's not seeing any oil on the engine and thinks it's the CCV, but is concerned because 2 quarts in so few miles is pretty substantial.

I'm pricing all the hoses and the CCV, etc. now. Looks like I'll probably start with that and hope that it fixes the issue. If not, the car is gone and I'll buy something else.

Is it common to see this kind of oil loss with a CCV problem? So much oil has me concerned about the Cats. :(
 
#14 ·
theres nothing at the back of the car that can leak engine oil unless its running down the exhaust pipes. whens the last time you had the engine stripped of its parts? you can't really see leaks unless everything is stripped down. and if everything was stripped down, you would have replaced the parts that cause this leak in the first place.

this leads me to believe you haven't thorougly checked your engine for wetness down below where you can't see.
 
#15 ·
I'm certain that the oil is coming out of the exhaust.

I had the oil pan gasket replaced 2 weeks after I bought the car and I got under there to see it personally. 2 weeks later, I took it back so that we could get another look under there and everything was dry.

However, the oil he used was Castrol Edge 5W30. Once the oil consumption started about a month ago (which was much lower than it is now), I started putting 0W30 Edge (European Blend) and it got worse. 2 weeks ago, I put 10W30 in there and it's been using the same amount. This week, I went back to 5W30.

Maybe it's me switching oils, but I doubt it.

I just want a fix and I will start with the CCV and a fresh oil change. If this doesn't fix the problem, I'll move on to another vehicle and ditch this one.
 
#16 ·
Burning 2 qt/400 miles has nothing to do with the type of oil you use.

You need to trace the oil that is coming from the exhaust area. I would think you would smell the hot oil on the exhaust if it was running all the way down the headers and to the tailpipe. You also need to determine if that is actually engine oil, or another problem in itself. If you have no leaks, then you are burning that oil. I'd do my CCV and hope that fixes it, otherwise you need new rings. You want this to be a leak, but like lcoleman said, there would be massive amounts of oil spilling out everywhere if this was just a leak.
 
#17 ·
The oil is coming out of the tailpipe, it's not running down it. There's no leaks on the ground when the car isn't running. None at all. It's only when I start the car and let it idle do I see the oil on the ground at the tailpipe exit.

If the rings are gone in this car, after only 115k miles, this will more than likely be the first and last BMW I own. :(
 
#22 ·
oil coming out of the exhaust pipe? that is extremely odd. no way that can happen unless the block had a huge crack in it. i'm sure if that were the case, there'd be bigger problems than oil on the ground. also it would burn before even going 2 inches
 
#23 ·
COuld be cylinder head gasket......I had a Chevy Blazer do that to me once. Couldn't keep oil in it, went right out the exhaust while the motor was running and never leaked a drop on the ground....Lots of GM V6's did that in the 80's.....check to see if there's any coolant in whatever oil you have left. You don't want to ruin crankshaft bearings.
 
#31 ·
I'd also like to point out that I have no Check Engine Soon lights or anything coming up. I did have an Evap Sensor tripping the Check Engine Soon when I first bought the car, but it went away about 2 or 3 days after driving the car home. If the Check Engine Soon light isn't coming on, would this be a good indicator that it's NOT the CCV?

For the life of me I can't accept the fact that a BMW has this much oil consumption after only 115k miles. Either way, this is probably the most frustrating ordeal I've dealt with in a very long time based on the premise that I bought the car to be given to my daughter this year for her 16th birthday. Very frustrating indeed.
 
#33 ·
I'll get the CCV replaced with the cold weather package too. All hoses, etc. included.

It will probably be a week before I can get it in to get it done (no time to work on it myself), but I will update this thread if I see improvement or a fix by replacing the CCV, etc.

Thank you all for your responses. This is an amazing community.
 
#36 · (Edited)
*RESOLVED*

Okay, I know I'm necro'ing my own thread, and I apologize, but I wanted to give an update on my problem with oil consumption with my 02' 325i BMW.

Shortly after I made my final post here some time ago, I noticed that there was a valve cover leak, so I changed the valve cover gasket. The leak stopped. However, if I started the car in the morning and let it idle for 5 to 10 minutes (to warm up the car so I wouldn't be so cold driving on my way to work) there would still be a black puddle under the exhaust exit in the back (on the ground). The car was still consuming about 2 quarts every 300 to 500 miles.

About 2 days went by, and the valve cover was leaking again. I knew, at that point, that this was a crank case pressure issue. Mainly because I had gone through 2 valve cover gaskets and an oil pan gasket. It HAD to be crank case pressure causing gaskets to go at their weakest point(s).

I bought a Cold Weather Climate CCV kit (Oil Separator and all hoses) from PelicanParts and another valve cover gasket kit complete with all new grommets. I also bought a new O-Ring for the dipstick tube.

Installing the CCV and hoses wasn't too bad (about 2-3 hours). I had to get a new gasket for my throttle body as it was much easier to get to the CCV by removing the throttle body. I put it all back together and cleaned the motor and the pan really good. I just want to point out that there was yellow goo all inside the CCV and hoses. Yep, that's bad!

Needless to say, I am no longer consuming oil. I've driven more than 1000 miles and not a drop has been lost. No smell, no oil spots, no more black peppering on the back of the car. Nothing.

In the beginning I did the blow test for the CCV, the oil cap test ... you name it, I did it. None of the tests made me think it was the CCV, yet that's what the problem was all along. The reason I didn't see any oil puddling under the motor was because it was leaking out while I was driving, catching in the pan, and blowing out. When I took the pan off, you could see the streaking and could see where it blew all under the car. I'm not sure why I was getting black coming out of the pipes, but it's gone now!

PROBLEM SOLVED!

Thank you all for your help! Now onto the next issue! (TRANSMISSION SHIFT ISSUE) :(
 
#38 ·
Suggest you read the 3rd link below in my signature.

You also need to make sure you remove the dipstick tube from the engine and clean out the double wall oil drain from the CCV as well.

Make sure your engine temps are also good.

You want to make sure the car is in good shape before you hand it over to your daughter to drive.

Good luck.
 
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