Z4M owners please read?

[Beedub]

both me and my friend own Z4ms mines the newer of the two with 8k miles on 07 plate, his is 06 with 16k, but hes experiencing a serious oil drinking problem, mine doesnt hardly use any, i did say it will vary engine to engine and usage as his is used quite hard whereas mine has less abuse but still gets a good thrashing now and then, so anyway enought bleeting on, what type of consumption are you guys experiencing per 1000 miles and whats your current milage, at least i'll be able to gauage how normal this is. has anybody else got this issue?

byron

[R1_NUR]

Mine has not used any oil between servicing in 12000 miles.

[shunt]

Ditto, not a drop just had 11k oil service done.

[topboss]

I picked mine up with 400 miles on the clock. It's now just shy of 6K. It has used no oil since it's "run-in" service at 1200 miles.

Car is driven in a "spirited" manner when ever possible, with a 10 mile commute of stop start traffic each work day.

This is the same as my previous E46 M3 Cab and CSL.

[Rich_Alpina]

No drinking porblem here either....

I use mine as daily drive to work which is a round trip of about 20 miles each day. However, between friday and sunday it's driven quite hard - checked the oil about 3 weeks ago and all seemed fine. Had the car from new and i've so far done 16k in 11 months.

[KENZ]

My previous M3 was the same..hardly used a drop..Although I have heard that some are thirsty than others. I think it depends how it was run in??

[Winton]

Strangely enough, my 12000 mile service is coming up so I checked my oil level just the other day. it hasn't used a drop and my driving is a mix of town and motorway mainly.

[paoloh]

Not a drop in 10k miles

[Cheburator mk2]

25k miles driven very hard - regular 160mph runs on the Autobahn and 250+ laps of the Ring. Has not used a drop of oil since I picked it up from BMW with 3k on the clock...

[Gnostic Ascent]

Last week I was starting to feel guilty because in a year and a bit of use I hadn't looked at the oil level. Big sigh of relief after inspection as it hadn't used a drop.

[john_p]

Not a drop in a year (~6k miles)

[flying scotsman]

21000 miles now and not a drop. I asked the mechanic at Vines Redhill and he reported that the S54 engine dosen't tend to drink a drop between services.

[GTWayne.]

Zero consumption here I am afraid, sorry.

[Beedub]

whoops, this thread has been forward to mi mate, hes going got his car booked in tomorrow for a check up, i will post his findings!!

[Niffty951]

45k miles on my car. Doesn't seem to use any oil but oil does get dirty v.quickly (black after 250miles) BMW could be using poor quality oil.

I used to use Mobil 1 in my cars which looks lovely and cleear for a good 2000miles after each change.

Slightly off topic but does anyone else have a problem with the build quality of our cars? Superb engineering, superb engine but mine does seem a bit cheeply made (compared with Audi's etc) more interior bits have worn/broken than my 24year old 944! BMW are replacing them under warranty but I'm not impressed with the part quality. The BMW is only 18months old. Oh and just to wind me up my cd changer has just failed! Grrr

All is forgiven when the roads are clear at 1am and I'm taking the scenic route home though!

[Andrew D]

Niffty951 said:

45k miles on my car. Doesn't seem to use any oil but oil does get dirty v.quickly (black after 250miles) BMW could be using poor quality oil.

I recall reading that the oils they use (or at least the Longlife-01 oils) contain detergents which suspend combustion products rather than dropping them in the sump, hence the rapid darkening of the oil.

[Nur Links]

Hardly any oil consumption. Have mine for 20k miles, bought used with 3k from dealer.

BTW, no long life oils should be used since the recommended oil is Castrol 10W60 RS or its successor Castrol 10W60 Edge. Both are racing oils which I have used for the last 8 years in racing cars with excellent results.

[Jason_W]

Niffty951 said:

45k miles on my car. Doesn't seem to use any oil but oil does get dirty v.quickly (black after 250miles) BMW could be using poor quality oil.

I used to use Mobil 1 in my cars which looks lovely and cleear for a good 2000miles after each change.

Slightly off topic but does anyone else have a problem with the build quality of our cars? Superb engineering, superb engine but mine does seem a bit cheaply made (compared with Audi's etc) more interior bits have worn/broken than my 24year old 944! BMW are replacing them under warranty but I'm not impressed with the part quality. The BMW is only 18months old. Oh and just to wind me up my cd changer has just failed! Grrr

All is forgiven when the roads are clear at 1am and I'm taking the scenic route home though!

Yep. You couldn't claim they're particularly well put together with the interior plastics (door handles, cup holder area, lights) being particularly flimsy and if you put the seats forward you begin to see why American cars don't sell that well worldwide - cheap being the operative word.

The Spartanburg product reminds me of the vehicles that were lashed together in the early days of saffer production, unfortunately Hank and his Redneck mates must have been on the early piss when mine was built - definitely a Friday car.

However, when it is on the road its fantastic but I wouldn't want to own one when they come out of warranty. Not using too much oil though.

[joust]

Not a drop of oil.

Nothing wrong/loose/broken with the interior either. Compared to my new model 2007 X5 4.8i I can't really see/feel much difference between the plastics/build between the two cars in the stuff you can see - dash and major components seem to be made out of identical stuff. Once you look at the "hidden" stuff it gets cheap, but so does the X5 - I think it's called "cost engineering"

J

[carl_w]

joust said:

Nothing wrong/loose/broken with the interior either. Compared to my new model 2007 X5 4.8i I can't really see/feel much difference between the plastics/build between the two cars in the stuff you can see

That's because the X5 is built in Spartanburg too! Although my wife's German-built E46 seems to have developed as many squeaks and rattles as my Z4MC.