Car using oil still....any ideas? (some legal advice too please)
- Thread starter rG-tom
- Start date
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Associate
The reason Jez's old 330i did not burn oil is because he is a girl and did not thrash it properly as he was selling it on!! 
It does burn oil but is totally dependant on how its driven. If i cane it to an inch of its life (i.e. 90% of the time) it will use 1L every 750 to 1k miles. If i'm doing a lot of miles on the motorways then this can be 3k miles easy.
Defo issues with yours though IF your not caning it all the time.....
It does burn oil but is totally dependant on how its driven. If i cane it to an inch of its life (i.e. 90% of the time) it will use 1L every 750 to 1k miles. If i'm doing a lot of miles on the motorways then this can be 3k miles easy.
Defo issues with yours though IF your not caning it all the time.....
The reason Jez's old 330i did not burn oil is because he is a girl and did not thrash it properly as he was selling it on!!
It does burn oil but is totally dependant on how its driven. If i cane it to an inch of its life (i.e. 90% of the time) it will use 1L every 750 to 1k miles. If i'm doing a lot of miles on the motorways then this can be 3k miles easy.
Defo issues with yours though IF your not caning it all the time.....
If i was caning it all the time there is no way i couldve managed to NEVER drop below 21mpg over a tank of fuel, despite living in the peak district and most journeys <20 miles in a 3l straight six petrol
The reason Jez's old 330i did not burn oil is because he is a girl and did not thrash it properly as he was selling it on!!
He confesed to doing over 100 in a 30 zone in an omega and nearly split an mr2 in two, i bet that 330i was fubared before you got anywhere near it
[TW]Fox;12380804 said:If you are going to second guess me do it right, he's not getting a ribbing because he's a friend of mine not because he bought a 3 series
you ribbed me about the mondeo
Associate
He confesed to doing over 100 in a 30 zone in an omega and nearly split an mr2 in two, i bet that 330i was fubared before you got anywhere near it
lol, normally i would agree, but its been the most reliable car i've had, even more than the brand new golf or my old s8.
although i did have this punto once which was reliabl.......bland yuck
Associate
Disagree, 22.9 was my caning figure when i lived out in the sticks near edinburgh. Took 12 miles to get off a b road onto a half decent a road. 20 miles to work took me 20 minutes each way. And if you knew the roads that is mighty impressive!
Soldato
I thought it was about the flimsy bodykit that eventually broke apart. And the fact that every week something else had gone wrong with it.you ribbed me about the mondeo
If you ask me, the piston rings sound a bit worn. If it was my car, I'd be putting a slightly thicker oil in it.
to work and back on what sounds like similar roads, but hillier, I average about 23.....ive only ever had one tank that was anywhere near 21mpg and that was on the manchester meet roads
Soldato
Dude you have the worst luck with cars
Associate
to work and back on what sounds like similar roads, but hillier, I average about 23.....ive only ever had one tank that was anywhere near 21mpg and that was on the manchester meet roads
Sounds similar for sure.
I do think there is defo something up though, yours would cost me about £60 a month on oil doing my low mileage at the mo, god help me if was doing what i did last year.
Soldato
It's staggering, isn't it, had old Triumph engines that use less than that!
Soldato
My 70 year old design VW engine uses less than that.It's staggering, isn't it, had old Triumph engines that use less than that!
Although thats probably the only statistic I think it could win on. Ooh no, it could be lighter too
Caporegime
The fact some engines are 'designed' to burn oil is a joke, non of our older cars ever used a drop of oil, we currently have a 98 petrol primera with 160k on the clock that doesn't use any oil between changes, yet out 2005 2.2 accord does.
The oil can only be going two places either out the exhaust or onto the floor, since you have no leaks the car must be burning it, compression test is your first move, until you do this i don't think anyone else can help you.
The oil can only be going two places either out the exhaust or onto the floor, since you have no leaks the car must be burning it, compression test is your first move, until you do this i don't think anyone else can help you.
Permabanned
The thing is a compression test won't necessarily tell you anything if the problem is with an oil control ring.
Caporegime
I've had oil usage issue before but that was due to bad turbo oil seals, this showed up on the Emissions test last MOT so i'm shocked toms hasn't given that mine would only burn 1ltr of oil every 2k not 500 miles.
Fair point on the compression test but its a valid starting point, its simply chucking out far too much oil for a leak to go un-noticed.
As a quick test you could take out the plug and check the colour.
No oil in the coolant tom>?
Fair point on the compression test but its a valid starting point, its simply chucking out far too much oil for a leak to go un-noticed.
As a quick test you could take out the plug and check the colour.
No oil in the coolant tom>?
Soldato
Had a couple of thoughts, if you purchased the car with any finance it might be worth speaking to them. They may be able to give the garage a nudge for you. Obviously the garage will have and obligation to sell vehicles with finance against them to be in a good useable condition worthy of the amount owing against them.
My mechanical skills and knowledge is very rusty however when I worked for Volvo back in the early 90's I can remember a few little tell tale signs of worn engines we used to check on P/ex's.
If possible get someone to start the car from cold with their foot on the gas a bit and stand by the exhaust. A short puff of blue smoke can mean valve stem oil seals are worn. The oil settles in the head over night and slowly runs down the stem.
The other thing is after it's been run till warm turn it off and feel round the back of the tail pipe. The carbon should easily rub of your finger but if it doesn't that can be a sign of worn rings.
The blocked breather could have been caused by crankcase pressurisation. We used to check the breather to the air filter and see if any oil was in the filter casing. However if the rings were that bad I would expect that to show up in a compression check.
As I say and am a bit out touch now but it might be helpful.
My mechanical skills and knowledge is very rusty however when I worked for Volvo back in the early 90's I can remember a few little tell tale signs of worn engines we used to check on P/ex's.
If possible get someone to start the car from cold with their foot on the gas a bit and stand by the exhaust. A short puff of blue smoke can mean valve stem oil seals are worn. The oil settles in the head over night and slowly runs down the stem.
The other thing is after it's been run till warm turn it off and feel round the back of the tail pipe. The carbon should easily rub of your finger but if it doesn't that can be a sign of worn rings.
The blocked breather could have been caused by crankcase pressurisation. We used to check the breather to the air filter and see if any oil was in the filter casing. However if the rings were that bad I would expect that to show up in a compression check.
As I say and am a bit out touch now but it might be helpful.
Associate
hay that garage is just down the road from me, just had my M3 MOT'd there... I know the owner there can not fault them very well known in the area.... It's just down the road from the race course isn't it 
Let me know who you delt with there can have a word if you want...
Let me know who you delt with there can have a word if you want...
Soldato
IME finance companies are useless in these situations, I think it's on a bank loan anyway.
I still think you should see a BMW specialist or some description, without a diagnosed fault it's quite grey I think. http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-bin/calitem.cgi?file=ADV0003-1011.txt
Another option might be to have it put on a low loader to them, ask them to look at it until they're sure what's wrong. IIRC Lopez posted details of a guy that is very reasonably.
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