X5 V8 munching oil.....

[redleicester]

Chaps, both my wife and a pal of hers have X5 V8s, both 2000MY and wifeys is just over 100k, the friends 89k. Ours has been pretty much faultless, but her friends car is beginning to eat oil - around a litre every 3-4000 miles. Now in one of my TVRs I wouldn't have found this suprising, but in the X5 it's a different story.

So question is, do they all do that, or is it something we should persuade her to get checked out? The car is no longer under BMW warranty as that became a pointless expense which would expire inside the next 12 months when she hits 100k anyway!

Thanks for any thoughts you may have.

[Egbert Nobacon]

If its not smoking ( i.e. burning oil) then you could check the oil seperator valve in the crank case breathing system.

Sudden increase in oil consumption on these is indicative of the above valve clogging up / failing or the surrounding pipework/breathers clogging up

See links

www.bmwland.co.uk/talker/viewtopic.php?t=30701

http://bimmer.roadfly.com/bmw/forums/

http://bimmer.roadfly.com/bmw/forums/

Hope this helps

Edited by Egbert Nobacon on Saturday 2nd December 16:30

Edited by Egbert Nobacon on Saturday 2nd December 16:48

[redleicester]

Some great info there Egbert, many thanks, I shall get my spanner chappie to have a look at it for her.

Now need to go back to persuading Wifey out of her and into an RS6

[blackspider]

redleicester said:

Chaps, both my wife and a pal of hers have X5 V8s, both 2000MY and wifeys is just over 100k, the friends 89k. Ours has been pretty much faultless, but her friends car is beginning to eat oil - around a litre every 3-4000 miles. Now in one of my TVRs I wouldn't have found this suprising, but in the X5 it's a different story.

So question is, do they all do that, or is it something we should persuade her to get checked out? The car is no longer under BMW warranty as that became a pointless expense which would expire inside the next 12 months when she hits 100k anyway!

Thanks for any thoughts you may have.

BMW quote 1 litre every 1500 miles as acceptable.We top loads up throughout the range BMW or MINI and have the same question.
As long as there is no visable sign of leak underneath and no plumes of blue smoke then it should be fine.
But for piece of mind it wont harm to have it quickly checked if theres any doubt.

[redleicester]

blackspider said:

redleicester said:

Chaps, both my wife and a pal of hers have X5 V8s, both 2000MY and wifeys is just over 100k, the friends 89k. Ours has been pretty much faultless, but her friends car is beginning to eat oil - around a litre every 3-4000 miles. Now in one of my TVRs I wouldn't have found this suprising, but in the X5 it's a different story.

So question is, do they all do that, or is it something we should persuade her to get checked out? The car is no longer under BMW warranty as that became a pointless expense which would expire inside the next 12 months when she hits 100k anyway!

Thanks for any thoughts you may have.

BMW quote 1 litre every 1500 miles as acceptable.We top loads up throughout the range BMW or MINI and have the same question.
As long as there is no visable sign of leak underneath and no plumes of blue smoke then it should be fine.
But for piece of mind it wont harm to have it quickly checked if theres any doubt.

A litre every 1500m? Blimey, I'd expect that from my TVRs but not from a standard mass market engine. Right ho, will bear it in mind, thanks.

[blackspider]

redleicester said:

blackspider said:

redleicester said:

Chaps, both my wife and a pal of hers have X5 V8s, both 2000MY and wifeys is just over 100k, the friends 89k. Ours has been pretty much faultless, but her friends car is beginning to eat oil - around a litre every 3-4000 miles. Now in one of my TVRs I wouldn't have found this suprising, but in the X5 it's a different story.

So question is, do they all do that, or is it something we should persuade her to get checked out? The car is no longer under BMW warranty as that became a pointless expense which would expire inside the next 12 months when she hits 100k anyway!

Thanks for any thoughts you may have.

BMW quote 1 litre every 1500 miles as acceptable.We top loads up throughout the range BMW or MINI and have the same question.
As long as there is no visable sign of leak underneath and no plumes of blue smoke then it should be fine.
But for piece of mind it wont harm to have it quickly checked if theres any doubt.

A litre every 1500m? Blimey, I'd expect that from my TVRs but not from a standard mass market engine. Right ho, will bear it in mind, thanks.

Just reading the latest figures=Maximum permissible oil consumption is 0.7 litres for every 620 miles diesel and petrol,1.5 lt for every 620 miles M power

Edited by blackspider on Monday 4th December 13:05

[redleicester]

Not sure I can translate those figures Mr Arachnid - what's the M-power reference at the end? Surely the M Division don't make the standard 4.4 V8s?

[blackspider]

That figure is for the m-power model/engine range (M3,M5,M6).
Basically for the V8 its 1 litre for every 1000 miles-that goes for all the different models and engines (1,3,5,6 series X etc)

Edited by blackspider on Monday 4th December 14:04

[redleicester]

Hokeydokey, many thanks for the clarification. My old E39 M5 didn't drink a drop! :S Oh well, as you say, I think it's wise to persuade her to get it checked over.

[ian_cab28]

I have an X5 3.0 84k probably uses about a litre every 1800 miles depending, it ahs done this since bought from bmw at 46k miles, I reported this to bmw and they did some work on the crankcase breather mechanism, I've never seen any blue smoke but oil consumption bugs the hell out of me! despite what bmw say I feel this goes back to the sensitivity of the 1st driver, if it has been thrapped from cold early on it's life then this will be set it up to be a burner, my wife's 330 auto doesn't use a drop, lady 1st owner vs ex demo x5!

[MJK 24]

ian_cab28 said:

I have an X5 3.0 84k probably uses about a litre every 1800 miles depending, it ahs done this since bought from bmw at 46k miles, I reported this to bmw and they did some work on the crankcase breather mechanism, I've never seen any blue smoke but oil consumption bugs the hell out of me! despite what bmw say I feel this goes back to the sensitivity of the 1st driver, if it has been thrapped from cold early on it's life then this will be set it up to be a burner, my wife's 330 auto doesn't use a drop, lady 1st owner vs ex demo x5!

#

Indeed - it's always down to how it was treated when new.

Two friends bought indentical Alfa's. One ragged the balls out of it from new. The other didn't. The hammered car went like stink but liked a drop of oil. The pampered car was more reluctant to rev, but didn't use oil....

[blackspider]

From factory they tend to use the oil-we see customers at 1200miles from new wanting top-ups.
The new generation engines are designed to use oil..X5 uses more because the enigines are harder working(4x4,wieght etc)

[eliot]

my 540 (4.4 v8) doesn't require any additional oil between services - It does go down slightly, but never enough to need topping up. Cars previos owner ran it up and down the motorway, put 40k in 2.5 years - ive had it 3.5 years and only do short journeys in it.