E46 using too much oil

[Thalion]

Hi all,

I've got a 2002 E46 318 (facelift) with 277 000km on the clock (yeah it's a lot ).

It's been using a lot of oil the past year, as in a 1L/month and from speaking to a mechanic it doesn't seem like there's much hope. The car's not leaking any oil nor any huge amount of smoke coming out the back either.

From the mechanic's perspective it also sounds like a lot of work to determine what could be a bunch of issues and there might not even be a cheap fix for it.

Any other advice out there?

 

[Fuzz123]

Compression test. It is cheap, simple and would tell you quite quickly if there is a ring problem or if valves are not seating properly.

Chances are high that you burning the oil through the exhaust and just dont see the smoke. Especially on those km's..

Good luck!

 

[Maljan]

In my experience the six cylinder E46 leaks oil but do not burn it when they get old. The four cylinders with Valvetronic I don't know about.

If you do 2000km a month that is still 1 litre of oil per 1000km, on the high side. The compression test sounds like a good starting place.

I would also speak to another mechanic. Sounds like that one doesn't know a BMW from a Borgward. A guy who works on BMWs would likely have seen this problem before.

Good luck. :=):