Getting through oil...

Steedie

Steedie

Steedie

Man of Honour
Joined
29 Jun 2004
Posts
21,638
Location
Oxfordshire
Hey guys,

When I first got my car, it had done 60k miles and in the 8k miles from then until getting it's first service, I swear it didn't use any oil. I'd check every other week and the dipstick wouldn't move at all. After that, again it was good, not using anything that caused a visible change in the dipstick levels

Now to 75k miles and because of how good it was, I checked the oil less often (stupid I know), and I couldn't tell you the time I checked it before this happened (it had had another service at BMW since then), but the warning light came on for the oil level. Checked the levels and it was just above minimum. Straight away I went and got 1l of the right oil which took it to the max and away I went. Went back to checking every other week or so and it was fine, didn't seem to be moving

Now at 81k miles, driving home on Friday I noticed the warning light came on again. Got home after getting some oil and noticed it was again down to the minimum on the dipstick,

Now since the 75k warning light, the only difference is I'm regularly commuting now, doing 45 miles a day, while as before I was using it for maybe a 5 mile round trip (lazy I know :()

So would my regular dual carriageway trips and higher mileage be causing a sudden change in the way the car uses oil? Or is it just the age/mileage on the car that means it just drinks a bit more? Or should I be worried and get ready to be bent over? It's had 3 services and MOTs at BMW and I know they wouldn't really be looking for it, but they haven't mentioned anything like an oil leak

I'm not worried if I have to put £20 of oil in it every 5-6k miles, but if it's not normal and could potentially throw up a big bill shortly, I'll bring my next service forward a couple of months and get them to look at it

Cheers
 
Oh I know, I'm not complaining, it's a tiny cost to have to put up with

Only reason I mentioned it is as I said, the first 15-16k miles, it used nothing, I didn't have to top up at all, so just wondering why it might have started using more
 
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Sounds like amazingly good oil consumption from a BMW, I wish mine used a litre in half that mileage!

The engine's getting older, things get worn, when you're at a litre every thousand miles then i'd probably worry.
 
Ok cheers guys :)

@LeMson no leak, certainly not anything picked up during any service or MOT. And during the weekend the car isn't used so i'd have surely noticed a nice little mess on my drive come Monday by now surely? I'll get them to check at the next service
 
More likely to notice a leak if you were doing lots of shorter trips so it got hot and then cold a lot more. Over the weekend the oil will just sit in the sump and won't leak out anywhere.
 
I like to round up :p

It was 17.99 for 1L of Castrol Edge, and yeah it was probably too expensive. But it was the nearest shop that sold it that I could get too, as I didn't want to drive my car with the warning light on and it on minimum.

My fault for not checking recently the oil level
 
As you now know that it uses oil get some in a larger container. ECP had edge in 4L bottles for £26.99 or so last time i looked. They also had Mobil 1 5L bottles for £35.

Edit, just checked, £26.59 for 4L of castrol edge at the moment.
 
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LOL £26 for 4L and I paid near enough £20 for 1...If I checked my receipt, it probably reads "Bite the pillow, I'm going in dry"

I'll do that then :) cheers mate
 
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