2001 E39 520i - Excessive oil consumption

[Dimsum]

Hi guys and girls

I am looking for a bit of advice please!

My manual E39 2.2 520se has just had its second coil replacement in 3 months... I was told by the RAC man who did the latest one that all my plugs are heavily carbonated and need replacing. This is why the coils are going.

I also told him that the engine has been using oil at the ate of 1 litre to every 600 miles or so and he said that the excesive oil consumption was causing the excess carbon deposits on the plugs...

I intend to replace the 5 remaining plugs tomorrow but my question is relating to the stupendously high oil consumption!!

I am using BMW longlife oil as recomended.... (gold bottle, 00-30W I think... expensive.. The one sold at the main dealers! will check what it is when I get home from work!)

There are no signs of oil leakage so I can assume the engine is burning it up.. the mileage is 136,000 and has been serviced regularly all its life... (Judging by the service book)

I would appreciate any thoughts!!!

Thanks guys...

James...

[sparkythecat]

I'd start by looking at the crankcase breather valve. A blockage in this can cause excessive oil consumption.

If that's OK, I'd move on to a compression test.
If you get low readings put some oil down the cylinder bore and repeat the test.
If the readings improve, you are likely to have cylinder or piston ring wear problems.
If they don't, your problem is likely to be valve gear related

Edited by sparkythecat on Tuesday 5th January 18:18