# Consumer Reports says new BMWs burn too much oil



## [email protected] (Aug 15, 2012)

_-pic JP Euro_

Does your BMW require oil to be added between oil changes? You would think that newer vehicles wouldn't burn through oil like older models. Consumer Reports determined through a survey, that some engines from BMW, Audi and Subaru, may need as much as a quart of oil added once a month.

_'The magazine focused on survey data from 498,000 owners of 2010 to 2014 models, finding that 98 percent did not have to add oil between changes. But even if the problem happens to only 2 percent of owners, that equals 1.5 million cars from the five model years.'_

BMW's 4.8 liter V8 and 4.4 liter twin-turbo V8, were found to be some of the suspect engines, while others came from Audi and Subaru. Affected BMW models included the 5, 6 and 7 Series, as well as the X5. Consumer Reports found that standards for some BMW and Audi vehicles state, that the burning of a quart of oil every 600 to 700 miles is reasonable, while Subaru calls a quart every 1,000- 1,200 miles acceptable. CR feels this is unacceptable and I'd have to agree on that. I know from personal vehicles, my STI looses a minimal amount of oil between changes, where our Cooper S JCW can lose over a quart. Owners of newer vehicles shouldn't have to worry about carrying around an extra quart, just in case. _'The companies should be willing to step up and take responsibility for their products," said Mark Rechtin, the magazine's cars content team leader.'_

Some good news: The survey didn't find any link between the oil consumption and other engine issues. However, it did find that vehicles burning oil early on, will consume more as they get older. Maybe I'll have to pack two quarts in the future.

_Source Detroit News_


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## Gary J (Dec 18, 2013)

My X5 went 17k miles and never asked for or needed an oil change. I finally took it in for the entitled once a year change.


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## Fish23 (Apr 24, 2012)

Gary J said:


> My X5 went 17k miles and never asked for or needed an oil change. I finally took it in for the entitled once a year change.


Same for my 2011 535xi GT.


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## Autoputzer (Mar 16, 2014)

BMW has "fudged" the read-out of the oil monitoring systems to over-report the oil level. It will not "ask for" a quart of oil until it's at least two quarts low, maybe more. With seven to nine quart crank cases, this poses no threat to the engine, though. But, this "fudging" is to conceal excessive oil consumption. That's also why they don't have dipsticks anymore. Unless you change your own oil and measure what you drain out, you really don't know what the real oil consumption of a modern BMW is.

I remember some BMW's non-turbo V8's guzzling oil almost 20 years ago, especially E39 M5's. Some E46 M3's guzzled oil. Although, it's easier for an engine to hang on to 10W-60 than a 5W-20. My E46 M3 used no oil early in it's life. By the time I sold it at 115k miles, it was using one liter/4500 miles. The engine had the connecting rod bearings replaced at 20k miles and at 40k miles. That procedure requires disconnecting the piston/connecting rods from the crankshaft. That disturbs the piston rings. That caused some oil consumption until they fully re-seated.

BMW's using "low tension" piston rings to reduce friction and increase fuel economy. However, it the rings get fouled with deposits they can stick to the pistons and allow oil to get by them. The longer the oil is used, the more susceptible it is to breaking down and leaving deposits. That's why I'm going with 7.5k oil changes instead of the 10k-11k that the car "asks for." My M3 would supposedly go 13k miles on an oil change, but I did them at 6.5k miles instead.

Turbochargers offer another leak path for oil, either into the impeller housing and then into the combustion chamber of the engine, or into the turbine (exhaust propeller) and burned in the exhaust system.

My wife has driven two Honda's to over 100k miles. They both eventually needed oil added before an oil change (7.5k to 8k miles). Her 2006 Accord V6 just got it's first oil top-off at 118k miles. The oil consumption is now about one quart/6500 miles. But, that's with 5W-20 synthetic oil.

My new 535i (N55) "said" it burned 1/4 of a quart in 7500 miles (based on the automated oil level monitor). But, I was suspicious. When I changed the oil, I short filled it by one quart, ran the engine up to operating temperature, and the car "said" that I was just 1/4 of a quart low. So, my car is really using an entire quart in 7500 miles. But, that was the first full distance oil change after a break-in oil change at 2100 miles. The second oil change will hopefully show less consumption.

I worked for a courier office in a bank when I was in college in the mid 1980's. They had 20 Fords (3.8 V6's and 5.0 V8's). They all burned a quart of oil in about 2000 miles using conventional oil (more evaporation than synthetic oil). My parents has a 1985 Ford. After break-in and with synthetic oil, oil economy was around 2800 miles/quart. At 70k, I got the car and put in a quart of Slick 50 as an experiment. Oil economy shot up to about 3500 miles/quart and stayed there until I sold the car at 100k miles. (I wouldn't use Slick 50 now, though. You can spend a day on Google researching Slick 50.)

My all time champion for oil economy is my lowly 2007 Chevy Cobalt, with the optional 2.4 liter VVT engine. At 94k miles of flogging, it uses almost no oil. The crankcase capacity is four liters, and I generally go 8k miles on an oil change and use synthetic although it's not required. I've actually started only putting in 3.5 liters at an oil change (saving about $3!). I checked the dip stick last week after driving it 5k miles. The oil level hasn't moved since I change the oil.


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## macdragonfl (Aug 12, 2014)

Consumer Reports is a joke. They put stupid expectations on every manufacture that are not based in the real world. They ignored Toyota's issued with V6 Camary's still recommending a car thats engine would fail in high numbers. They also ignored and defended Toyota with the acceleration problem, and now Toyota admits they were well aware of the issue. I would no longer listen to anything this rag says or recommends.


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## Autoputzer (Mar 16, 2014)

macdragonfl said:


> Consumer Reports is a joke. They put stupid expectations on every manufacture that are not based in the real world. They ignored Toyota's issued with V6 Camary's still recommending a car thats engine would fail in high numbers. They also ignored and defended Toyota with the acceleration problem, and now Toyota admits they were well aware of the issue. I would no longer listen to anything this rag says or recommends.


I don't use their information for making my car buying decisions. Toasters... yeah, but not cars.

CR usually good about identifying faults, though. Don't expect Car and Driver or Road & Track to send out questionnaires to their subscribers about faults in their cars. CandD and R&T live and die on advertising and test cars from the manufacturers.

CR is also good about testing car products. Don't expect Car and Driver or Road & Track to test motor oil or car wax either. But, I don't expect CR to test radar detectors, either.

Most of Toyota's problems with their V6's was due to oil deposit sludging up the piston rings, causing them to stick against the pistons. VW and Chrysler had similar problems.

Toyota now requires synthetic oil in their new cars. Manufacturers of cheap cars were historically reluctant to require synthetic oil because a lot of people would refuse to buy a car that requires oil that costs $6/quart.

Here's a video showing the dreaded rings -stuck-by-sludged-up-oil (on a four-cylinder Toyota engine). The narrative is torture, but it shows the problem pretty good. I don't think I want that guy working on my engine with his screwdrivers, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ef2hYmcZzA


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## PhantomCypher (Sep 7, 2013)

My F12 2013 M6 was taking quart after quart like it was no one's business. At least every 1k a quart went in.


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## Caesonia (Mar 16, 2014)

My dad races cars and said burning a little oil is good for an engine. Nit a quart every thousand, and that;s with synthetic too. My volvo 240s always seemed to use about half a quart every 4k, and my 2010 528i will use a little less than half a quart if you go the 15k between chnages. I find it funny Subbies suffer the problem.


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## namelessman (Dec 23, 2004)

Is this just a v8 issue or it includes I6 and I4 as well? My I4 turbo has not reported oil level below max ever, but it is interesting to hear that a fudging factor maybe in effect.


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## Enalb1 (Feb 6, 2017)

*2009 X5 oil consumption*

I have 2009 X5 4.8i and within a month and a half Changing the oil I had to add quite a bit of oil again ... I read on line and seems like this is happening quite often on the BMW's . Called the dealer and they new about it but basically said nothing we can do. They wanted around $230 to check it but I got the feeling they no knew what was happening.. Anyone has any input on this??


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## Autoputzer (Mar 16, 2014)

Enalb1 said:


> I have 2009 X5 4.8i and within a month and a half Changing the oil I had to add quite a bit of oil again ... I read on line and seems like this is happening quite often on the BMW's . Called the dealer and they new about it but basically said nothing we can do. They wanted around $230 to check it but I got the feeling they no knew what was happening.. Anyone has any input on this??


Yeah, BMW V8's are known for sometimes having excessive oil consumption. That's been the case for the 20 years I've been driving BMW's, and it's one of the reasons I only drive six-cylinder BMW's.

The old S55 six-cylinder engine in the E46 M3 was also sometimes bad for this. But, mine was fine, using a liter about every 4k to 5k miles, even past the 100k mile mark.

The N55 engine in my 535i used 850 ml in 7700 miles (8,600 miles/liter) on the last oil change. I do them myself and measure the oil that I drain out.

Turbochargers can cause oil consumption, too. The V8's have two of them.

In other news, my Chevy Cobalt at 105k miles is now burning about a half-quart of oil in 8k miles. It's still the all time oil economy champ in the Putzer Fleet. Also, people see me driving it and feel sorry for me. Once, a cop bought me lunch. Really.


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## imtjm (Oct 5, 2004)

Interesting that after every oil change performed by the dealer on my 2010 335d, the add oil light came on within a month. However, I have changed my oil three times since my warranty ended and have not had to add more oil after the oil change.


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## Zeichen311 (Mar 31, 2011)

Autoputzer said:


> BMW has "fudged" the read-out of the oil monitoring systems to over-report the oil level. *It will not "ask for" a quart of oil until it's at least two quarts low, maybe more.* ... But,* this "fudging" is to conceal excessive oil consumption.* That's also why they don't have dipsticks anymore.


I'm calling :bs: on this one. The system will indeed complain when you get a quart low--however, it has a considerable tolerance above MAX before it complains that the engine is over-filled. If the crankcase was filled to just below the over-fill alarm point, the engine could easily go through two quarts before the add-oil-now alert appears.

Then there's the matter of oil coolers, which trap a fair volume of oil and cannot (on some engines) be drained during a routine oil change. When measuring drained oil, failing to account for that (unknown) retained volume gives a false estimate of oil loss. That's also why you can add less than the nominal (re-)fill volume and still come up to, or near, the MAX indication of the sensor. And the tolerance above MAX is why you can add the full, recommended amount and not trip an over-fill alarm--even though the engine *is* slightly overfilled, because you couldn't drain the oil cooler.

The lack of a dipstick is a minor annoyance, not the key instrument of some nefarious conspiratorial plot. Nobody's "fudging"--lying--to hide anything. The system simply isn't terribly precise, because it doesn't really need to be.


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## Enalb1 (Feb 6, 2017)

I forgot to mention that when i saw the date for the next oil change it said 09/18 ... surely that's not right ... this the 2nd time with this oil issue . My mechanic open it all up and put new gaskets and I don't see any leaks anywhere,but oil is burning like crazy . I did see on line that a law suit about excessive oil burning is in the works.. I love my car but it seems that my 09 X5 4.8i has had 2 pages full of recalls and there is also a open recall right now for "in line fuel pump" which according to BMW I have to wait until they say ok we ready .. for the air bag sensor recall I waited over 3 months and I did complain to BMW OF NORTH AMERICA and what do you know within 2 days it was fixed ... I don't know any more about this ... As I said I love my car but all issues that are occurring I think I am having doubts...


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## Autoputzer (Mar 16, 2014)

Zeichen311 said:


> I'm calling :bs: on this one. The system will indeed complain when you get a quart low--however, it has a considerable tolerance above MAX before it complains that the engine is over-filled. If the crankcase was filled to just below the over-fill alarm point, the engine could easily go through two quarts before the add-oil-now alert appears.
> 
> Then there's the matter of oil coolers, which trap a fair volume of oil and cannot (on some engines) be drained during a routine oil change. When measuring drained oil, failing to account for that (unknown) retained volume gives a false estimate of oil loss. That's also why you can add less than the nominal (re-)fill volume and still come up to, or near, the MAX indication of the sensor. And the tolerance above MAX is why you can add the full, recommended amount and not trip an over-fill alarm--even though the engine *is* slightly overfilled, because you couldn't drain the oil cooler.
> 
> The lack of a dipstick is a minor annoyance, not the key instrument of some nefarious conspiratorial plot. Nobody's "fudging"--lying--to hide anything. The system simply isn't terribly precise, because it doesn't really need to be.


Here's a link to an old Bimmerfest thread that contains a service bulletin SI B11 01 13 for non-hybrid N63 and N63T engines (V8's) saying to add two quarts when the LOW OIL warning comes on:

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-817666.html

My 2014 535i's owner's manual (same manual as the 550i's) says this:

"Only replenish the maximum oil amount of
1 US quart/liter if the message is displayed in
the instrument cluster or the oil level has dropped
to just at the lower mark of the dipstick."

However, that paragraph does not specifically say that the LOW OIL warning comes on when the oil level is one quart/liter below FULL. You might conclude that. But, that's not what it actually says.


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## Autoputzer (Mar 16, 2014)

imtjm said:


> Interesting that after every oil change performed by the dealer on my 2010 335d, the add oil light came on within a month. However, I have changed my oil three times since my warranty ended and have not had to add more oil after the oil change.


It sounds like they might be short-filling you by one liter/quart, yet charging you the $15 for the missing bottle of oil.

My dealer used to charge me for six liters in my E46 M3 (capacity of five liters) during an oil change. I'd let them do the scheduled oil changes during "inspections." That car had a dipstick so I could physically check the oil level. When they did the oil changes, it was about half way below MAX. When I did my own, five liters would take me right up to MAX. So, it looked like they stiffed me for about 1.5 liters. Other than those instances, the dealership was the most honest one I've ever dealt with. So, I concluded that it was a low-level, low-life grease monkey pulling his own little scam $20 at a time.


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## Gary J (Dec 18, 2013)

Yeah that $20 goes directly in his pocket. That makes sense.


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## Enalb1 (Feb 6, 2017)

Thanks everyone I will keep checking on this matter and if anything I surely will post it up....


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## Wgosma (Sep 28, 2009)

CR's expertise lies really more in the realm of toasters and similar appliances than automobiles

Sent from my iPhone using Bimmerfest mobile app


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## Autoputzer (Mar 16, 2014)

Gary J said:


> Yeah that $20 goes directly in his pocket. That makes sense.


This is the most honest dealership I've ever dealt with. The wipers went out on my E46 M3. The BMW diagnostic equipment said it was a bad module, about $400. They had to order the part from Germany, and I had their 5 Series loaner for about five days, including over a weekend. Over the weekend, the service manager put my car up on a lift to keep the contractor cleaning crew from getting anywhere near it. When the part came it, it didn't solve the problem. They manually troubleshot the car and found a bad $2 relay. They charged me one hour labor, $90. Anybody else would have charged me for that $400 module. So, yeah, shorting me on 1.5 liters of 10W-60 was out of character for this dealership.

A few months ago, the dealership charged me $82.50 to install four mail-order tires with their lever-less Corghi tire machine.

The dealership is family owned. I often see the founder in the dealership, greeting customers, etc. They seem genuinely proud of how they run their business and how they treat their customers.

I worked in a building that had tap water unsafe to drink. So, we had a water cooler with those five gallon jugs of spring water. One of my $100k/year co-workers would steal spring water, one gallon at a time. He'd bring in a gallon jug of tap water, pure it out and replace it with spring water, and take it home. Another $100k/year co-worker would sneak his household garbage into the dumpster at work to save the $25/month garbage bill at his house. So, the rogue oil changer stealing 10W-60 one liter at a time seems plausible.


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## imtjm (Oct 5, 2004)

Autoputzer said:


> It sounds like they might be short-filling you by one liter/quart, yet charging you the $15 for the missing bottle of oil.
> 
> My dealer used to charge me for six liters in my E46 M3 (capacity of five liters) during an oil change. I'd let them do the scheduled oil changes during "inspections." That car had a dipstick so I could physically check the oil level. When they did the oil changes, it was about half way below MAX. When I did my own, five liters would take me right up to MAX. So, it looked like they stiffed me for about 1.5 liters. Other than those instances, the dealership was the most honest one I've ever dealt with. So, I concluded that it was a low-level, low-life grease monkey pulling his own little scam $20 at a time.


there would have been no purpose to short-filling, since it was under maintenance warranty. 7.5L, they still charge for 8L, though.


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