[rustyminded]

Hi. I have 328i and i use 5w30 5.2 quarts (5 liters ) but last time i put 5.8 quarts ( 5.5 liters) but after only 880 miles the car used up little oil and it keeps going. my mileage is 56k miles

should i be worried the engine is degrading or that's normal

[floydarogers]

Unless you're using more than a quart every 1200 miles or so, it's entirely normal.

[lens]

Originally Posted by floydarogers

Unless you're using more than a quart every 1200 miles or so, it's entirely normal.

I wouldn't say it's normal that the car should be losing oil at all.

I've ran my car 7500-10k miles between oil changes and it hasn't used a drop of oil, stayed at max the whole time.

[BimmerF32_430i]

Originally Posted by chaungo

I wouldn't say it's normal that the car should be losing oil at all.

I've ran my car 7500-10k miles between oil changes and it hasn't used a drop of oil, stayed at max the whole time.

Same here. I've only done two oil changes since I've had the car but no noticeable oil consumption. Stays on max

[lens]

Originally Posted by chaudhrysn

Same here. I've only done two oil changes since I've had the car but no noticeable oil consumption. Stays on max

Yup, I'm almost at 50k miles and absolutely no oil consumption since I've had the car.

[rustyminded]

ok look guys the oil that stays for 15k miles only lasts 5k.. it has nothing to do with engine it's the temperature and the dirt, sand ect. plus i use the car very hard. I'll fill up quart and check if it persists then I'm in Problem

[floydarogers]

Originally Posted by chaungo

I wouldn't say it's normal that the car should be losing oil at all.

I've ran my car 7500-10k miles between oil changes and it hasn't used a drop of oil, stayed at max the whole time.

Sorry, but all internal combustion engines use oil. That's an incontrovertible fact. However, conditions exist (in IC engines) that will cause people to believe their engine is not using oil. For instance, water vapor (that later condenses) is introduced into the crankcase as a result of combustion slipping past the rings. That water (and other impurities, often gasoline, that slip into the crankcase) takes the place of lost oil and makes it APPEAR that no oil was lost.

[rustyminded]

Originally Posted by floydarogers

Sorry, but all internal combustion engines use oil. That's an incontrovertible fact. However, conditions exist (in IC engines) that will cause people to believe their engine is not using oil. For instance, water vapor (that later condenses) is introduced into the crankcase as a result of combustion slipping past the rings. That water (and other impurities, often gasoline, that slip into the crankcase) takes the place of lost oil and makes it APPEAR that no oil was lost.

more often how do they use the car. i drive it daily and always go 100 mph min. we have no speed limits

[BimmerF32_430i]

Originally Posted by rustyminded

more often how do they use the car. i drive it daily and always go 100 mph min. we have no speed limits

I daily my car too. I drive below 3K rpm until engine is warm and then drive how I want. I push it hard sometimes but nothing crazy.

[Polo08816]

Originally Posted by rustyminded

Hi. I have 328i and i use 5w30 5.2 quarts (5 liters ) but last time i put 5.8 quarts ( 5.5 liters) but after only 880 miles the car used up little oil and it keeps going. my mileage is 56k miles

should i be worried the engine is degrading or that's normal

This might be because your engine has substantial dirty oil build up.

I usually fix these problems by draining the oil and then filling up with 7 quarts of Gojo. The pumice really does a great job on cleaning out all the internals of the engine. It will even hone your cylinder walls for far less than a shop would charge. If you don't have Gojo available, I recommend using a pinch of sand with Dawn dishwashing detergent.

Since I always like to work from small to big, I would follow this procedure with putting some medium sized rocks in the crankcase. It will help stir up your engine oil like a protein shake to give your engine a healthy throaty roar.

[rustyminded]

Originally Posted by Polo08816

This might be because your engine has substantial dirty oil build up.

I usually fix these problems by draining the oil and then filling up with 7 quarts of Gojo. The pumice really does a great job on cleaning out all the internals of the engine. It will even hone your cylinder walls for far less than a shop would charge. If you don't have Gojo available, I recommend using a pinch of sand with Dawn dishwashing detergent.

Since I always like to work from small to big, I would follow this procedure with putting some medium sized rocks in the crankcase. It will help stir up your engine oil like a protein shake to give your engine a healthy throaty roar.

wow you had time to write all that.. I guess you can help me with scrubbing the engine from the inside, good luck with your wide imagination

[jbrskissummitcolo]

Originally Posted by rustyminded

Hi. I have 328i and i use 5w30 5.2 quarts (5 liters ) but last time i put 5.8 quarts ( 5.5 liters) but after only 880 miles the car used up little oil and it keeps going. my mileage is 56k miles

should i be worried the engine is degrading or that's normal

The engine is degrading and that's normal.

Some cars use oil more than others, pretty much every one will use some oil. Usually they can go the distance between oil changes without loosing enough to be a problem.
Some percentage of cars will use noticeably more oil than others (I would guess between 2% and 10% of some fairly new well kept cars will have higher consumption)

Nobody wants a car that uses enough oil that you have to add it between oil changes - but even with German quality and fine engineering you might find that they (German cars) will have more issues than domestic and Asian makes for oil consumption.
The Audi and BMWs are worst among the European makes.
Subaru is also somewhat notorious for making cars that use a lot of oil.
Honda had issues with a couple engine designs.

If you get one that uses a lot of oil you will discover that the mfg probably doesn't consider it a problem unless it is more than 1 quart per 1,000 miles.

The allowable consumption varies from mfg to mfg and engine type.

Most engines can be expected to use more oil as it racks up the miles.
Some start off using a noticeable amount

My 435 has used a quart every 4,000 miles or so since it was new.
(making it super annoying that the oil level sensing system keeps crapping out).

If your car has suddenly started using noticeably more oil there is a chance that something has changed and or is broken. Most people don't actually know how much oil their car used between changes and then are surprised when they start getting a low oil level warning (or worse a low pressure warning) prior to the time that they usually change the oil. Chances are the car wasn't quite using enough oil to be a problem and now it is using that little bit more the alarms start to go off.

Compounding the perceived problem is the interval. It seems that the mfg have started increasing oil change intervals. So the issue is more noticeable and problematic when the engine burns 3/4 quart every 5K miles on a 10K service interval than it was with a 5K interval.

For some reason VW said my new 2008 car needed 5K oil change intervals, that I dutifully paid for up until I got to 40K miles when I bought a new 2010 VW with included maintenance. I'm not sure why VW decided that the oil change interval for those two identical engines should be extended to 10K miles but the new interval of 10K was the new normal for factory maintained cars.

I am figuring that the VW dealers were sad when they couldn't expect to get $60 from me every 5K instead of some lower reimbursement from VW every 10K.
I'm not suggesting that the 10K was too long or the 5K was too short, there are way to many variables to make a blanket statement about what interval is okay. Some offroad motorcycles recommend an oil change every 15 hours - that's like every 500 to 1,000 miles. A N55 engine holds 10 times as much oil as Honda CRF250 - so maybe we can generalize that you can probably go a bit more than 1,000 miles per quart of oil that the engine holds. After all Porsche was recommending 15,000 oil changes in the mid 1990s for engines that had an oil capacity of 14Qt.

Monitor your oil consumption and decide if it bothers you - if it does then your best bet is to get rid of the car and buy a different one. There is a chance that it will have less oil consumption - or you can stick with the devil you know.

I haven't heard about the gojo solution before but I'll bet it does wonders on sludge.