# 335d burning oil?



## x RymeS (Aug 24, 2016)

Im new to diesels, i just bought a 335d e90 a few months back and its starting tto get significantly colder in chicago and ive begun to start to burn oil. Ive been told that due to the colder temp diesels tend to burn more oil. Any advice or help? and is this normal?
i have no oil level low or check oil indicator and my car is straight piped, with no cats and a tune(idk maybe thats whats causing the burning)


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## Flyingman (Sep 13, 2009)

x RymeS said:


> Im new to diesels, i just bought a 335d e90 a few months back and its starting tto get significantly colder in chicago and ive begun to start to burn oil. Ive been told that due to the colder temp diesels tend to burn more oil. Any advice or help? and is this normal?
> i have no oil level low or check oil indicator and my car is straight piped, with no cats and a tune(idk maybe thats whats causing the burning)


Burning oil because you are seeing blue smoke? or the level is dropping on your dipstick?

My 2010 335D uses approx. 2 quarts over a 13k mile oil change interval. About 5-6k I may get a low oil level light and add a qt. then at about 10-11k I will top it off once again with 1 qt.

I think that is pretty much expected for a diesel with over 100k miles. When it was new it maybe used 1qt or less every OCI.

My suggestion is to check the level, oil hot, on a known flat surface, top off to the max fill, not over, note the miles, then check it every 1k miles or so and see how much you are really using. The dipstick from low to high is about 1/2" or less, so very course. I minor change in level can be seen if the car is not sitting level.

Have you gotten the low oil warning yet?


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## jfxogara (Oct 26, 2012)

Yes, agree -- I might lose a quart over 6-8K miles. My car is at 78K miles.


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## NWSnowboarder (Aug 30, 2015)

Since your new to diesel and your car has been significantly modified, I would suspect the prior owner drove the car pretty hard. Sure diesels MAY burn more oil than gasoline engines, but not significantly more. You should be able to go between oil changes without needing to top up, in fact it should use less than a quart. I change my oil every 7000 miles and see no significant drop in oil.

I have owned multiple diesel vehicles including one I purchased new and drove over 400k miles and never had the oil level drop greater than 1 quart between oil changes, but that was only after the engine had 250k miles on it.


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## x RymeS (Aug 24, 2016)

The previous owner has not drivin the car hard and i put the modifications in after i purchased the car, i drove about 150 miles on the highway and also did some drifting and at the end of the day i was noticing the oil level dropping. But now the car isnt burning oil. And the i checked the oil level before i went driving and after and the oil level was decently lower than before i went driving


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## KeithS (Dec 30, 2001)

I use NO oil at all between 10K mile oil changes on our 335D with 85K miles on the car. The level at oil change time hasn't moved a detectable amount still filled from the last oil change. Any small usage is probably replaced by fuel dilution. We have had 3 BMW's in the family in recent years. None of them ever needed oil between changes. At most 1/4 of a quart was burned (or leaked). These cars have 85K, 160K and 215K miles on them. I am very careful on car break-in, but I only broke in the one with 215K miles on it.

One of these vehicles was just replaced with a factory ordered 340i GT. With no dipstick I'll have no idea of any oil consumption. The I-Drive display just says oil level is OK. Not much to go on....


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## mecodoug (Nov 30, 2007)

At 108K miles I have never had to put oil in between my changes, which occur about every 7K miles. I go through less than half a quart in that time. My car is driven harder than average but it is almost exclusively a highway cruiser.

I'd say my experience with modern diesels as far as oil consumption is the same as for gas engines.


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## x RymeS (Aug 24, 2016)

i drive my car harder than average and i run it a lot on the highway and so far I've driven the car a few hundred miles with the oil burning. i could slightly see the oil smoke and smell coming out of the exhaust but the car has not given me any warning lights or oil level. Do you guys think this could be a serious problem? Could the turbos be burning oil?


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## BB_cuda (Nov 8, 2011)

x_Rymes, You may fully well know this but several others were not aware. To properly check your oil, fully warm up car. Use the cluster way of checking the water temp is up to 85C. Park car on level surface and turn engine off. Wait 5 minutes and then check the dip stick. This is from my 335D manual. I have found the cold engine/never turned on reading to be lower than the warmed up reading.

A little more on the warmed up temp. If your car is stock, it will warm up to 88C if thermostat is working properly. My car only warms to 85-86C. If you are indeed using oil, trying to help you quantify the amount better by using consistent measure procedure.


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## x RymeS (Aug 24, 2016)

ok thank you very much, ill test it when i get home later today and give you guys feedback as soon as i check the oil.


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## sirbikes (Aug 17, 2012)

I've mentioned it in another post but after I had the emissions work done my x5d burns oil, about 1 qt every 6k miles.


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## diesel fan123 (Nov 25, 2011)

Mine has 92k miles, does not use oil, but I am an OC nut and change it @ 7500


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## x RymeS (Aug 24, 2016)

hello, i checked my oil level correctly and it has not gone down that much and the level is just at max , but when i run my car a blueish kind of smoke comes out of the exhaust along with mostly black smoke.


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## Flyingman (Sep 13, 2009)

x RymeS said:


> hello, i checked my oil level correctly and it has not gone down that much and the level is just at max , but when i run my car a blueish kind of smoke comes out of the exhaust along with mostly black smoke.


Rymes,

I have yet to see even a hint of smoke come out of my exhaust. It is clear and clean.

I have no mods, everything is stock as original.

If you are seeing some smoke then I assume you have removed some of the emission kit, DPF,EGR perhaps? I would expect one would see some amount of smoke at start up and acceleration if that were the case.

As for the oil, you need to wait and drive it some 2-3k miles to know if you are really burning much oil or not, unless it is really sucking it down like some older cars I have seen. I knew folks that added a qt of oil at about every fill up of gas!:rofl:


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## x RymeS (Aug 24, 2016)

I did a cat delete on the car and its straight piped, ive already driven about 3k miles on it since i got the car and have not changed the oil. I checked the oil level yesterday again and it was at max. Would you guys suggest a oil change?


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## jfxogara (Oct 26, 2012)

x RymeS said:


> I did a cat delete on the car and its straight piped, ive already driven about 3k miles on it since i got the car and have not changed the oil. I checked the oil level yesterday again and it was at max. Would you guys suggest a oil change?


Rymes I do not think the cat delete should affect your OCI.


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## x RymeS (Aug 24, 2016)

alright cool thank you for all the information. my oil level is fine for the time being but i will make sure to ask around again if i encounter any issues. so far no check oil level lights or anything is on so i think i should be good until my next oil change.:thumbup:


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