M54 330ci drinking oil

My little clubsport has been an alcoholic this last year. It goes through a litre of oil every 300 miles or so. To remedy this, so far I've done :

• Oil filter bracket gasket
• CCV valve and all hoses.
• Rocker cover gasket.

I'm waiting to see the outcome of the rocker cover gasket as I've just finished this. All 3 areas were contributing.

If it continues after this, is there anything else that could be contributing? Sump isn't leaking, and the only other culprit I can think of is doing compression tests on the cylinders to make sure they're up to scratch - mileage is 120k, so on the M54 I'd be surprised if they were on the way out.

I also did a smoke test with a Snap-on smoke machine, the air intake boots were perished so I replaced them too.

Are you using 5w30? Switching to 10w40 should help :)

I am actually! 5w30 fully synth. Someone else recommended going all the way to M spec 10W60 recently too.

No experience with 10w60 personally but switching to 10w40 on my M52 e36 made a nice difference. Nice car by the way, any pics of it?

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Originally Posted by Owen

My little clubsport has been an alcoholic this last year. It goes through a litre of oil every 300 miles or so. To remedy this, so far I've done :

• Oil filter bracket gasket
• CCV valve and all hoses.
• Rocker cover gasket.

I'm waiting to see the outcome of the rocker cover gasket as I've just finished this. All 3 areas were contributing.

If it continues after this, is there anything else that could be contributing? Sump isn't leaking, and the only other culprit I can think of is doing compression tests on the cylinders to make sure they're up to scratch - mileage is 120k, so on the M54 I'd be surprised if they were on the way out.

I also did a smoke test with a Snap-on smoke machine, the air intake boots were perished so I replaced them too.

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That is excessive even for a M54, think the guideline of 1l every 1000 miles is within acceptable limits according to BMW. You've covered the main areas so I'd get a compression test if possible.

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Originally Posted by Peter-E36

Nice car by the way, any pics of it?

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Thanks! Just a few, I need to take more TBH. Needs a full body respray, I'll take care of that when I get a week off work at some point, there isn't a panel with a small trolley dent, or that was keyed while it was with the previous owner. You can't tell up close, but if you're as bad as me you'd spot it straight away.

I do all the work on her myself, getting CarPlay into it was probably the most interesting so far. The CCV was the most challenging, pain in the bum with the limited access.

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My 530i had little oil consumption once I replaced the CCV even after 140k miles so might be worth keeping an eye on it for now and then do a compression test. Are you sure that the CCV is connected properly?

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Originally Posted by Mark

My 530i had little oil consumption once I replaced the CCV even after 140k miles so might be worth keeping an eye on it for now and then do a compression test. Are you sure that the CCV is connected properly?

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100%.

As an extra test, with the old CCV connected if I undid the oil cap the engine would run fine. With the new one, it splutters indicating the valve is working properly.

Had a look at the DISA Valve today ... and it's screwed. Could this be contributing to the oil consumption? I have to have a look in the inlet manifold for the missing plate now and see where that is.

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Watching your thread Owen as I have the same woe, but fk me I d never have guessed on that happening ! Were there any symptoms ?

I think it's been like this since I bought it - my suspicion is the previous owner heard a rattle, brought it to a mechanic who offered to repair it for 400 ish, or break the plate out and that's what they went with.

I'm going to put a camera in there over the weekend and see if there's anything inside before taking the input manifold apart needlessly.

You can get a new disa flap from I6automotive it's around £50

DISA would probably be throwing up check engine errors. I had this on my 325ci and it never really pointed directly to the DISA unit so it turned into a process of elimination. Usually it would be linked to intake / misfire errors rather than excessive oil consumption.

As per some other suggestions, have a compression test done. It's a pain in the hoop getting to the source but you're on the right track!!

Thanks guys, I'll get a compression test done on Tuesday I reckon, and will get the DISA flap repair kit, apparently it gives you a little more low down power, so that can't be a bad thing.

I did the DISA flap and replaced the VANOS seals and it was like a different car - suggest that every M54 with a few miles on the clock has this done :)

Any good source for the Vanos seals? Ordered the DISA kit from German Auto Solutions in the states, didn't want to risk a lower quality kit.

I6automotive do vanos seals as well as disa kit both great quality and based in the UK fast shipping

The disa kit from I6 actually looks identical to German solutions to be fair

In the industry I'm in, a lot of items on ebay/online stores are photos of something else and what you get is a poorly made clone. I didn't want to take the risk for a few euro.

The kit arrived today, and was CNC milled aluminium. Very impressed. Fitted in about 1.5 hours. I got the 1.2 bar expansion bottle cap from them too which will blow at lower pressure - handy with a 10 year old cooling system where the pipes might pop before the OEM 2 bar cap blows.

Can't believe how much more low range power I have with the DISA fixed now. Love it!

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Hello,

Have you noticed any change in oil consumption since the fix?

Thanks.

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Originally Posted by Owen

In the industry I'm in, a lot of items on ebay/online stores are photos of something else and what you get is a poorly made clone. I didn't want to take the risk for a few euro.

The kit arrived today, and was CNC milled aluminium. Very impressed. Fitted in about 1.5 hours. I got the 1.2 bar expansion bottle cap from them too which will blow at lower pressure - handy with a 10 year old cooling system where the pipes might pop before the OEM 2 bar cap blows.

Can't believe how much more low range power I have with the DISA fixed now. Love it!

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The oil light came on a little after, I've topped it up a litre and waiting to see the diff from the last time. Last time was a litre in 220 miles, hoping this time for a little more, but who knows. Haven't had time to do a compression test yet due to work, but I'll get around to it soon.

Thanks for that, id be curious to know how you get on.

Slightly on-topic, anyone got recommendations on where to get a 20L drum of oil?

adverts.ie has quite a few 20l drums of castrol for sale. Always worth a call to local motorfactors too.

A lot more low end power now that the DISA is done, but still going through a litre every 200 miles.

Ordered up everything to do the Vanos seals, and a new rocker cover gasket (again ...), so let's try that. If that fails, its compression test time.

That's crazy high consumption never seen it that high your talking a 25 litre drum of oil in between a service [emoji33]

vanos seals has nothing to do with oil consumption ,rocker cover should be pissing oil and oil should be dripping every second to get it low sow quick

compression test useless if engine is burning so heavy oil,it might be even too high ,of oil in cylinders

Sounds like it could be the piston rings.

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Originally Posted by Owen

A lot more low end power now that the DISA is done, but still going through a litre every 200 miles.

Ordered up everything to do the Vanos seals, and a new rocker cover gasket (again ...), so let's try that. If that fails, its compression test time.

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said I'd come back to you Owen after I did this, got the flap replacement from GAS , the online instruction is virtually foolproof - thanks for the tip on where to get it.another PM job done on an engine that needs lots of it , next step will be CCV and dipstick clean out with Valdelis.

Glad to hear it :)

I'm redoing my rocker cover gasket in the next fortnight as I've noticed a oil leak at the back where I couldn't see it before. Will do the vanos seals just for peace of mind when I'm in there.

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Originally Posted by Owen

Glad to hear it :)

I'm redoing my rocker cover gasket in the next fortnight as I've noticed a oil leak at the back where I couldn't see it before. Will do the vanos seals just for peace of mind when I'm in there.

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Is there any real point of the engine is ingesting oil?

I've no blue smoke out the back, so I don't believe it's 'ingesting' oil. My title of the thread is probably misleading.

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Originally Posted by Owen

I've no blue smoke out the back, so I don't believe it's 'ingesting' oil. My title of the thread is probably misleading.

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of course there is no blue smoke and its definitely not leaking out 1 liter of oil every 300 miles ! it can be leaking 300 grams every 1k km but not up side down !so stop dreaming that it can be leaking so much ,it should be pissing oil everywhere and dropping on the ground every minute

I had one and it did the same. Turns out the valve seals were gone but she was putting serious blue smoke out the back. Ended up selling it as I didnt want to repair it so just took it off the price.

What sort of money were you looking at for the valve stem seals to be replaced?

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Originally Posted by cathalbreen

I had one and it did the same. Turns out the valve seals were gone but she was putting serious blue smoke out the back. Ended up selling it as I didnt want to repair it so just took it off the price.

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And it's sorted. Did the rocker cover again as the back of the engine was still soaked, along with the Vanos and currently at 850 miles with no oil light on and little change on the dipstick. I also swapped to Valvoline 10/40 for older engines which may have helped. Never been so glad. Overall the engine maintenance since buying from the old owner so far has been :

• Oil housing gasket
• CCV Valve and hoses
• Vanos Rebuild
• Rocker cover gasket
• Intake boots as a smoke test showed they were perished
• Expansion Bottle and low pressure 1.2 bar CNC milled cap
• DISA rebuild
• New Thermostat housing

Of course a lot of this isn't related to the oil leak, but I was surprised at how little engine maintenance was done before I bought it.

And delighted to say there was one last oil leak, the rear crankcase seal which only became apparent when replacing the clutch - hopefully even less oil consumption now :)