So, what is the consensus? Do I fix the car, at high expense and hope they get it right or do I get rid of it and admit I’m in over my head with a BMW?
It only takes a minute amount of oil to make a lot of smoke. If you are not seeing any oil loss in 10,000 miles, I wouldn’t worry about it, but I would check the oil level regularly. If it does get low or very dark, then I would consult with the dealer or an independent BMW mechanic about changing the oil more often.
The computer program that determines when the oil needs to be changed is based on synthetic oil that meets BMW specs. Not all synthetic oil sold in the US meets these specs. Even some famous brands have synthetics that do and some that don’t. You can’t go by brand name alone.
If you really can’t get comfortable with this, then you should get rid of the car before you loose anymore sleep. You can convince yourself that you are getting rid of it before it starts burning oil on a serious level, after all, one day it will.
Have an independent BeeMer mechanic find out WHY there is oil getting into the air-box and go from there…If a solution can not be found, unload it while it still has some value…Maybe ALL BMW’s have oil in their air-boxes…
I took this car to dealer today…of course they couldn’t verify the problem. They believe it to be a vent valve (similar to a PVC valve) but it currently checks out. The car smoked about 4 more times since I started this discussion. Seems worse under colder conditions. BMW also is watching for a bad fuel injector. I added one quart of oil two days ago, so I would assume the balky vent value is the problem. The good news is it hasn’t cost me anything but time so far because they replaced the vent valve last April and it is still covered under warranty.