Since you have owned BMW’s in the past, were the other ones broken in on synthetic oil? As far as I know, they used to use conventional oil during the break in period because synthetic is too slippery for that function. It may well be that this engine will just take a lot longer to break-in because if the synthetic oil.
But you do seem to have a lot of evidence that points to a defective turbo and that could be the cause of your oil loss. That clacking noise could be a defective turbo. A turbo is a lot like a jet engine, they make that sound when starting because the bearings are lubricated by a cushion of air, and until they get enough airflow through them, they have a lot of metal on metal noise. If you have a defective seal, it could be allowing the oil to escape from around the bearings and the noise results until fresh oil is pumped into them.
To me, your turbo/clanking theory does hold up, but not due to carbon but due to a lack of oil on the bearings, but the oil loss could also be related to the difficulty of breaking in an engine with synthetic oil.
The lemon laws won’t help him. I also wouldn’t he happy with my new car burning oil at that rate but there isn’t a manufacturer in the world that will do anything about one quart in 3000 miles. I would keep a close watch on the bank of cylinders that lead to that exhaust tip.Perhaps pull and read the plugs and do a compression test. If you can discover that one cylinder has a problem, that you can do something about.
I would not worry about the engine being one quart low out of eight, but if the engine is making noises that go away after adding one quart I would worry that the monitor is wildly inaccurate and would want the crankcase drained and measured as soon as the light comes on.
Unless you can identify a specific problem the oil consumption is within ‘normal’ bounds for all makers. The compression test is a great idea, make sure they give you the specific results. If it is a turbo problem, that should quickly worsen, tubos don’t work for long when there’s a problem…
" A turbo is a lot like a jet engine, they make that sound when starting because the bearings are lubricated by a cushion of air, and until they get enough airflow through them, they have a lot of metal on metal noise."
Air bearings in automotive turbochargers? hmmmmmmmmm…
I just can’t pin this on the turbo…30,000 rpm, any bearing problem, it’s going to scatter. These are not plain bearings. The clearance is not going to change when the oil flow begins…
Before reading all of the other posts, this is absolutely NORMAL for BMW. My son has the same thing. First quart needed at 3500 miles. Dealers and everyone agrees that BMWs use more oil and it is quite normal. Highly recommend using only the BMW oil for the $8 a quart. Needs full synthetic and BMWs do not seem to like Mobil 1. I never asked him what he paid but my son was also a little concerned with his new car but just keep an extra quart in the trunk. No dipstick, just electronic monitors. Just enjoy.
After reading the other posts, yes my Acuras, Pontiac, Buicks, Olds, etc. never used much oil but a new BMW does. While it isn’t normal for other cars (can’t speak for Mercedes), it seems quite normal for the high performance BMW and does not indicate an engine problem and has no impact on their longevity as long as you put oil in when the monitor tells you to. If one is bothered by this, one should buy a different brand I guess.
Caddyman, I did not say that turbos for cars have air bearings, but oil does make a difference on the clearances. I would not rule out the turbo, but as texasas said, if it is the turbo, it will show up soon.
A quart every 3300 miles is perfectly acceptable, especially for a motor that size. Ther is a cmmon misconception that a new motor should not burn any oil. It ain’t true.
Your cylinder walls are “honed”, a process that leaves controlled scrathches on the walls in a cross-hatch pattern. When the cylinder walls are sprayed with oil during engine operation, and the oil rings come down to wipe the excess off, these acratches allow a thin film of oil to be retained to lubricate the compression rings as they come down. That oil is then burned in the combustion process. Some engines will actually decrease oil usage as they “break in” due to wearing off of the high points of the “scratches”. Thatt too is normal.
Your engine is a big one. It has lots of cylinder surface area, and a long stroke, for this process to occur over. The more surface area, the more volume is retained in those scratches on the cylinder walls, and the longer th estroke is the more gets scooped up by the compression rings and burned in the combustion chamber.
A quart every 3300 miles is perfectly healtthy usage.
The truth is that synthetic oil and “dino” oil are chemically exactly the same stuff. The difference is that synthetic has fewer contaminants and (allegedly) more consistant molecule sizes. These two differences affect performance, at least in the lab, but do not restrict the ability of the two products to mix, or affect the ability to change from one to the other without problems. You can even buy them mixed together, called “blended”. All “blended” oil is is dino oil with some synthetic mixed in.
I saw your response, Circuitsmith, but didn’t see th statement itself.
I just sort of scan some of these threads. I thought that since others such as yourself had replied, it was worth posting in support and to add some explanation. It seems that myth sill live on eternally.
Quote from the same mountainbike: “Your cylinder walls are “honed”, a process that leaves controlled scrathches on the walls in a cross-hatch pattern. When the cylinder walls are sprayed with oil during engine operation, and the oil rings come down to wipe the excess off, these acratches allow a thin film of oil to be retained to lubricate the compression rings as they come down. That oil is then burned in the combustion process… A quart every 3300 milew is perfectly healthtthy usage.” Unquote
We have two cars that I mentioned in a previous post in this thread that did not burn oil during and after break-in. For your statement to be true, all cars should burn oil as evidenced by the dipstick reading. Not all burn oil.
Cross hatching can last a long time. We had a 1970s car with a cast iron block that had the cylinder cross hatching still visible at over 100,000 miles as seen through a spark plug hole. Ordinary dino oil was used in that car.
I submit that the OP may have been driving his car in an extra spirited manner which can induce oil usage. OP?
Wha who, it varies wildly from engine to engine. Some use hardly any oil between changes, others (especially large engines) use more. The statement is true, but the film of oil left after the wiper rings go by can be very, very slight, adding up to inconsequential amounts between oil changes.
Were the statement not true, than your cylinders would be operating metal-to-metal. The engine would seize in very short order.
Fortunately, the honing does leave long lasting “scratches”. Especially if an oil film prevents the conpression rings from tearing the surface apart.
Using a quart of oil every 3300 miles is well within industry standards. And the noise you hear at startup is likely a result of the direction fuel injection system this car has. Gas-powered cars with direct injection often exhibit a diesel-like clatter upon startup when the engine is cold.
I know that pretty much every manufacturer says that a quart of oil every 3300 miles is well with engine tolerances. With the exception of my 73 and 72 Vega…I never ever experienced that. Even my old 98 Pathfinder with over 300k miles didn’t use that much oil. When I changed the oil every 5k miles I ALWAYS check the dip-stick - and it was just below the full line. My current 4-runner has over 210k miles and it’s pretty much on full after 5k miles. Even in the 70’s when I owned a 69 Firebird…it wouldn’t burn a quart of oil between oil changes. In fact …again…it the oil level was right at the top (3k oil change intervals back then).
I too missed that remark about not being able to switch from synthetic to dyno oil. I even heard it when I was at Wallmart buying oil a few weeks ago. Two guys were buying oil and one said to the other…that you can’t go back to using dyno if you switch to using synthetic. I “Tried” to explain to them that it was bogus…but their uncle was an experienced mechanic who knew everything about cars. Oh well.
No offense meant OP . . . third time I said that. If you are someone like the rest of us here . . . car who take their car care and maintenance seriously . . . no offense, just didn’t sound like it. Having said that, nope . . . no issue with the oil use, not excessive IMO, not a lemon. Happy Motoring! Rocketman