M54B30, is it healthy?

[Mr Whippy]

Just generally I seem to use about 1 litre of the 5W30 oil every 5000 miles.

Also, over the last two years I've probably topped up the coolant maybe 1l of coolant/water mix.

The car seems to run fine and give good power, I've had 0-60mph in 5.77s with an average launch, and managed to keep a new S3 at bay to 0.9 leptons the other day from 0.3 leptons... I don't feel there is anything untoward wrong with the car, just these weird things that are making me wonder if it's really early days on HGF!?


I just topped up with oil now and under the oil cap it was a bit gunky...


About 6 weeks ago it wasn't like that.

Dip stick is totally clean.


That said, over Christmas I did lots of shorter journeys, car was sat for long periods really cold before them, and for some reason my coolant filler had become loose and I noticed lots of steaming after one journey (level is fine still, just tightened it up)
It's also stored outside.


Is this normal, or the start of something?

Any easy health checks I can do apart from letting it develop (if it is something happeneing), or trying to monitor the ever changing oil level.

It's on 83k and 6.5yrs old... mixed driving, mainly short/medium journeys driven with a moderately lead foot on fun roads most of the time


Thanks for any help

Dave

Edited by Mr Whippy on Thursday 6th January 13:46

Edited by Mr Whippy on Thursday 6th January 13:48

[phelix]

What's the last time it was run for more than an hour?

You can do health checks like leakdown or compression.

[E30M3SE]

^^^

My thoughts also, lots of short journeys in cold conditions will cause condensation to form on the inside of the plastic filler cap and this will mix with oil vapour and create what you are seeing.

Your oil consumption is well within tolerance, coolant use could be down to the pressure cap.

First test I would do is a block test this will test the coolant for exhaust gases, if they are present the the HG is toast.

[Mr Whippy]

It's mainly been 5-15 min long journeys over Christmas, except for one 40min ish journey.

Generally not had much decent long use for a month except for short journeys really. Even my normal commute is only 15-20mins, and of course with the snow and ice it's not been fully exercised as usual so probably only run up to 2000rpm etc etc for many journeys.


I'll grab one of those testers.

May also just buy a new radiator cap then, just rules another element out longer term

Thanks

Dave

[Neil_Sc]

That looks pretty average to me given the few short journeys.

I tend to mainly do a 22 mile round trip to work and so don't get much build up of gunk, but it doesn't take too many short trips in cold weather especially before I get a little build up.

[4rephill]

+1 for Condensation due to short journeys and nothing to worry about.

If you can, try to take the car out on a good long drive every now and again to get the engine fully warmed up and to burn off some of the damp that's inside the engine.

I've always found with all My BMW's that when the weather gets cold the exhaust gets very steamy due to condensation in the engine. This always clears up after a good run though.

[Mr Whippy]

I'll clean it up and see how it goes then... will be interesting to try out the block tester and to have for general future use though

Gah, more snow... just not really the weather for nice long journeys out hehe

[clabcon]

Mr Whippy said:

Just generally I seem to use about 1 litre of the 5W30 oil every 5000 miles.

Also, over the last two years I've probably topped up the coolant maybe 1l of coolant/water mix.

The car seems to run fine and give good power, I've had 0-60mph in 5.77s with an average launch, and managed to keep a new S3 at bay to 0.9 leptons the other day from 0.3 leptons... I don't feel there is anything untoward wrong with the car, just these weird things that are making me wonder if it's really early days on HGF!?


I just topped up with oil now and under the oil cap it was a bit gunky...


About 6 weeks ago it wasn't like that.

Dip stick is totally clean.


That said, over Christmas I did lots of shorter journeys, car was sat for long periods really cold before them, and for some reason my coolant filler had become loose and I noticed lots of steaming after one journey (level is fine still, just tightened it up)
It's also stored outside.


Is this normal, or the start of something?

Any easy health checks I can do apart from letting it develop (if it is something happeneing), or trying to monitor the ever changing oil level.

It's on 83k and 6.5yrs old... mixed driving, mainly short/medium journeys driven with a moderately lead foot on fun roads most of the time


Thanks for any help

Dave

Edited by Mr Whippy on Thursday 6th January 13:46

Edited by Mr Whippy on Thursday 6th January 13:48

I call BS on your 5.8 second 0-60. Just not possible, unless you have the 270 bhp lump and even then that would have to be downhill!

[Mr Whippy]

clabcon said:

Mr Whippy said:

I've had 0-60mph in 5.77s with an average launch

I call BS on your 5.8 second 0-60. Just not possible, unless you have the 270 bhp lump and even then that would have to be downhill!

5.77s not 5.8s

I'll post details later.

[clabcon]

Still waiting

[4rephill]

clabcon said:

I call BS on your 5.8 second 0-60. Just not possible, unless you have the 270 bhp lump and even then that would have to be downhill!

, seems about right for a 3.0 Z4 according to all the performance figures I can find.

The older 3.0 Z3 is listed as 5.8 seconds to 0-60mph!.

[clabcon]

4rephill said:

clabcon said:

I call BS on your 5.8 second 0-60. Just not possible, unless you have the 270 bhp lump and even then that would have to be downhill!

, seems about right for a 3.0 Z4 according to all the performance figures I can find.

The older 3.0 Z3 is listed as 5.8 seconds to 0-60mph!.

Ah in a z4 5.8 does seem possible, because of its gearing and lighweight. But then again the Z4M comes in at 4.9, so that does make sense Was thinking it was too close to comfort to the e36 m3's 5.3-5.4 seconds with ~90 bhp more!