Oil Tolerance????

beanie10

Hi guys, I bought a 03 316 BMW a few months back with 6 month gaurantee. About 1 month before end of guarantee the oil light came on. On inspection of dip stick the oil was barely reaching the bottom of it and there was beige gunk on the dip stick. The garage took the car in and noticed an oil leak from the cam box and changed the gasket on it. I was told to bring it back in at 600 miles so they could check the oil level but 600 miles came during the christmas break. At 700 miles the oil light came on and the same again with oil barely reaching dip stick and beige gunk on dip stick. I rang the garage and told them and they said to bring it in cause they want to see how much oil was lost Im guessing about 1 litre was lost. They said there was a tolerance for losing oil and unless it lost 1 litre in 1000km there is nothing wrong with car and they wont be fixing anything. I also notice blue smoke when car is cold. Is this oil tolerance true and what could causing it,there is no oil on ground where car was parked. Thanks in advance.

mickdw

Firstly, you shouldnt be letting the car run low like that. It will dmage engine & already seems to have done that.

Yes manufacturers always quote this figure of 1L/1000km. In my opinion it is simply a get out of jail free card for them as 1L burned over that mileage is very heavy oil useage. Some engines do burn oil but if my car was using that much, I would regard it as a serious problem. I did own an alfa. Some of these burn a fair bit. Mine used maybe 0.5L/2000 km. I thought this was a bit of a pain and that is only quarter of what you were quoted.
Blue smoke pretty much confirms a problem but the garage may have a reasonable excuse in that you are letting it run too low.

Henry Ford III

Blue smoke suggest engine wear. The gunk points towards a failing h/g.

Neither are good signs unfortunately.

Nonoperational

I owned an Alfa too and even if I drove the absolute ****e out of it the oil consumption was only ever a maximum of about 1L every 2-3000 km. That twin spark engine liked oil as much as almost any mainstream engine over the past 10 years.

For the BMW to be using 1L or so every single 700 miles regardless of how you drive it, along with the blue smoke sounds unhealthy. If you ragged it for a week and used a litre doing 700 hard miles then maybe... It could be that the engine had a hard life and has worn valve guides or piston rings or something like that. But you really have to stop leaving it run down until the light comes on. Buy some of the correct spec oil and keep it topped up. It's madness doing what your doing, you'll definitely ruin it.

How many miles are on it?

beanie10

gpf101 wrote: »

I owned an Alfa too and even if I drove the absolute ****e out of it the oil consumption was only ever a maximum of about 1L every 2-3000 km. That twin spark engine liked oil as much as almost any mainstream engine over the past 10 years.

For the BMW to be using 1L or so every single 700 miles regardless of how you drive it, along with the blue smoke sounds unhealthy. If you ragged it for a week and used a litre doing 700 hard miles then maybe... It could be that the engine had a hard life and has worn valve guides or piston rings or something like that. But you really have to stop leaving it run down until the light comes on. Buy some of the correct spec oil and keep it topped up. It's madness doing what your doing, you'll definitely ruin it.

How many miles are on it?

I noticed the blue smoke before i noticed the oil level dropping.There is 68,000 miles. The garage wanted to check how much oil was lost after 600 miles, how could they if i topped it up every day? And do you not think its inpractical to check it every day cause the rate its losing oil at thats what i would have to do. 2 weeks after getting the car the lambda sensor went which they fixed no problem then the stater motor made a noise when car was cold think the brushes are worn on it and they told me it wasnt worth the hassle fixing it! Im starting to think i bought a car,(€7500),which the garage is not interested in fixing. If the car was advertised as could lose 1 litre of oil every 1000km i dont think i would have bought it. The sales man drove this car for 2 months before it was sold so they know there was problems with it.

mickdw

You really could have caused all this though as you dont say how often you topped it up prior to this problem. Maybe it had a slow but acceptable burn rate until you let it go low and now it is burning it super fast.
Either way, this 1L/1000km thing should be put to rest. Its never an acceptable rate of oil use regardless of what the manufacturers say.

beanie10

Sorry if im not explaining this right, when i noticed the blue smoke i checked the oil level which was ok but the gunk was always there. It was about 300 miles later the light came on and the oil was topped up straight away. The oil could be at the proper level for 400 or 500 miles then when at about 700 miles the light would come on. As far as im concerned the problem was always there its just the garage tried fixing it,failed and are now spouting about tolerances.

Nissan doctor

Have you been checking your coolant level too?

beanie10

beanie10 wrote: »

then the stater motor made a noise when car was cold think the brushes are worn on it and they told me it wasnt worth the hassle fixing it! Im starting to think i bought a car,(€7500),which the garage is not interested in fixing.

1L every 600 miles is a joke, that's over a gallon of oil every 3000 miles, absolutely looney carry on. Unfortunately the garage seem like utter goons, it is hassle for them to fix the starter motor no doubt, if they class dropping it to a local auto spark and giving him €100 to fix it.

The car seems to have fairly serious engine issues, half way through the 6 month warranty, it's burning oil and has been probably since you bought it.

Not a good position to be in as they do seem like goons

beanie10

Nissan doctor wrote: »

Have you been checking your coolant level too?

There is no expansion tank just float level in radiator so i cant even see if there is bubbles coming back into coolant.

Nissan doctor

beanie10 wrote: »

There is no expansion tank just float level in radiator so i cant even see if there is bubbles coming back into coolant.

The coolant cap on the right of the rad as you look into the engine is the expansion bottle. When you open the cap the red plastic float should come about an inch above the rim of the bottle if the level is full.

Reason I ask is that these engines are very prone to cooling issues, if it has or had any then the headgaskets can fail very easily.

The burning of oil from the cylinders would not be normal for these engines despite their many faults unless it has very high mileage or its leaking from the headgasket.

I'd suggest spending a few euro having someone else do a coolant pressure test and sniff test and a proper diagnostic of the problem, then take the results to the garage you bought it from as if it runs beyond the warranty period it sounds like your going to be left with a money pit.

conor f

Sorry if im mistaken now but if there was no oil in the car when you brought it back and they then spotted the leak and repaired it they surely filled the oil (4-5 lts at a guess). And now there is no oil on dip stick after 700 miles does that not mean more than 1 liter of oil is gone or does the dip stick not go to base of sump (e.g not start reading untill a few liters of oil are in car) ?

conor f

conor f wrote: »

Sorry if im mistaken now but if there was no oil in the car when you brought it back and they then spotted the leak and repaired it they surely filled the oil (4-5 lts at a guess). And now there is no oil on dip stick after 700 miles does that not mean more than 1 liter of oil is gone or does the dip stick not go to base of sump (e.g not start reading untill a few liters of oil are in car) ?

If there was no oil in it it would have seized if he was driving it.
Max to min on a dipstick is a litre on most cars, another litre or so to the end of the stick usually

Nissan doctor

In general a dipstick only reads the final approx 1L of oil. Depending on the car.

Nissan doctor

Nissan doctor wrote: »

In general a dipstick only reads the final approx 1L of oil. Depending on the car.

The final litre ?
Surely you mean the opposite ?
Unless you mean the final litre of the correct quantity thrown in ?

Nissan doctor

RoverJames wrote: »

The final litre ?
Surely you mean the opposite ?
Unless you mean the final litre of the correct quantity thrown in ?

Yeah the final litre as you fill it...

beanie10

Nissan doctor wrote: »

The coolant cap on the right of the rad as you look into the engine is the expansion bottle. When you open the cap the red plastic float should come about an inch above the rim of the bottle if the level is full.

Reason I ask is that these engines are very prone to cooling issues, if it has or had any then the headgaskets can fail very easily.

The burning of oil from the cylinders would not be normal for these engines despite their many faults unless it has very high mileage or its leaking from the headgasket.

I'd suggest spending a few euro having someone else do a coolant pressure test and sniff test and a proper diagnostic of the problem, then take the results to the garage you bought it from as if it runs beyond the warranty period it sounds like your going to be left with a money pit.

Yeah checked never a problem with coolant level and engine never overheated since i got.