e46 325i - high oil consumption!?

I know nothing of the BMW engine, but maybe use a slightly thicker oil 5w40. (works for some cars)

Try changing the crankcase breather valve and hoses.

Nope. Car was a little smoky, burning some up. But as they say in all good Detective movies. "we found nothing"

My 330i is the same drinks oil, I have replaced the ccv valve etc
My car has goose'd valve stem oil seals, apparently common as the seals are made from poor material just like the vanos seals the crap coolant hosses the brittle thermostat, blowing rads etc etc, but either way I have decided no more money is being spent On mine not even another tyre, lovely looking car but tbh it's been a total pile of poo, hope you have more luck with yours they can't all be piles of complete falling apartness like my car has turned out to be can they ? And to think I managed 286,000 miles out of my e36 m3 without half the horrors this car has caused me with not even half the mileage
Still I havnt been burnt with cars much up untill now so just have to put it down to experience and hopefully find another touring that isn't as much of a total pile of st
Ps any reasonable offers accepted

I think my car has a combination of both I can't be botherd to even do a compression test on it at work
The nearest I get to that is if I havnt used it for more than 3 days, and I have to take the plugs out at home to clean them off they are literally dripping with oil and will barely start and run on 3 cylinders oh it's been a joy lol

Losing ,or using oil perhaps is the better phrase, not leaking in my case; other than a small residue as found during MOT. It was mostly burning it. were it simply leaking like a broken pipe then yes there would be evidence on say a drive.

I'd go with the crankcase breather first. It was a fairly common problem on the E46 320i (2.2 6 cyl) and caused huge oil consumption. The modified part cost around 100 quid and was a 4 hour job to change but can be done DIY easily enough.

This is my solution www.mlodydark.com

My E46 with 190k miles had the same issue, 5qts of oil every 5K miles. Changed the oil and added 300 MLS of CERATEC by Liqui Moly. After 1K miles no evidence of consumption! Oil is changed every 5k miles (5w 30) Mobil1 Full Synthetic.

I would do both - ceratec (more than one bottle - one bottle is for 5L of oil - 6% of the volume to be precise) as well as 5w40 synthetic oil. I have been using 5w40 LL01 (either Total Quartz 9000 or Shell Helix Ultra) on both my 525i and 728i for more than 11/12 years now - very low oil consumption and stellar mileage on both. Ceratec has not only reduced oil (and petrol!) consumption but also made it way smoother, rev happier and quieter than before. I am probably imagining it but the engine seems to be pulling better than before. It takes a few hundred miles for Ceratec to bed in and it can be added with every oil change - irrespective of what it apparently lasting up to 50K km.