e36 M3 oil consumption

[carreauchompeur]

Folks,

I've used approx. 2l of oil in the last 5000 miles. Does this sound right, or over the top? I've got a leaking CPV which I need to sort, but I'm not sure how much influence this has on the consumption!

Cheers

[jonnydm]

Doesn't sound at all odd to me and likely well within BMW tolerances. If I'm not mistaken depends on the engine, engine health and usage or something like that. My old 330 liked to use oil which I understand is well known - something like 1l / 1000mi and I've had to top up my M5 in the short time I've owned it. Probably more so with myself due to mainly short distances that I cover.

[carreauchompeur]

Does make sense, I'm usually doing either very short distances or hooning...

[jonnydm]

Exactly. £20 of oil a month is a small price to pay.

[VinceFox]

My e36 evo doesn't use a drop between services.

[taz devil]

Mine has 144000 and not use a drop of oil between oil changes and only does short 12 mile runs every few weeks
have herd of a lot of M engines using oil and does not seem such a big thing to use a lte every 1000 miles

[carreauchompeur]

Probably alright then, just odd how some engines don't use a drop though. I suppose mine is about half a litre every thousand miles which doesn't seem bad, weeping CPV will account for a bit.

Be interesting to see how much it uses when CPV is fixed. I guess I've just noticed it more recently as I've been doing lots of miles.

[M3EvoDan]

In the 3 years I've had mine it has never used a drop of oil or water.

[M3CS]

Not sure about the e36, but when I've called up about various e46s in the past, I've asked how much oil they use. If the answer's been anything other than 'nothing' I've made my excuses and got off the phone. A well maintained engine with full history shouldn't use oil up at a noticeable rate.

[benm3evo]

My Evo has done 87000 miles & in the 8 years I've had it it's never used any oil between services. It's a weekend car so has it's share of abuse too.
Cheers

[carreauchompeur]

Odd, hopefully the CPV will sort it out, I imagine that it may leak more when the engine's hot, and I've been doing a few longer runs recently.

Don't think there's too much wrong with the engine, now on 113k but the previous owner was using it as a long-distance commuter for most of that. Valve clearances and sparks possibly lot changed for a while until the full Insp 2 last year but no issues raised by Redish when they did it, and no appreciable oil leakage into the inlet manifold when I had it off earlier in the year.

[carreauchompeur]

Sorted, hopefully...

James@Redish kindly agreed to have a look at the car today and it seems that the CPV was, indeed, leaking badly- There was a hell of a lot of oil on the block and undertray. Nice cheap fix!

[VinceFox]

What did it cost?

[carreauchompeur]

A very kind chap on M3Cutters sent me the Viton o-ring of the correct dimensions, otherwise I'd have had to buy a new CPV which is about £35 from BMW.

Therefore, total expenditure- £25 labour and 6 quid for brake cleaner to get rid of all of the oil on the block and undertray. Magic.