Quote:
Originally Posted by swamp2
Up to 50,000 miles my car never seemed to use any oil whatsoever. However, I just got my first low oil warning and had to add an entire liter to get back to completely full. I change my oil every 7500 miles, redline the car often and get it to the track (road course) a couple times a year. Thus it is well used but absolutely not beaten on.
It seems both the E46 M3 and the E9X M3 exhibit a fairly wide range of oil consumption. Some cars use(d) none, others require a quart or liter or so per oil change, perhaps mid or late into the change cycle. This variation has been noted in both models in both brand new cars and those with some 10s of thousands of miles or so. This is fundamentally a bit troublesome to me. It just does not make complete sense that both situations can be motors with no problems nor pending problems. Well I'm certainly not an engine tribology expert. Any anecdotes or insights appreciated.
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Same thing with my STi - wide range of oil consumption on the EJ257.
Here is what I believe contributes to the variance:
-Warm-up methods
-Driving style
-Manufacturing tolerances - blocks and pistons
-Environment - temperature, etc.
-Break-in (maybe a tiny bit on this car; who knows) All these motors are run at the factory, so hard to say.
...now if your car suddenly starts eating more and more oil, then that could be indicative of a problem. UOA will certainly give you some clues if anything is up - excessive fuel in oil, coolant, etc.
I typically add 1-2 quarts between changes and I do them at the factory interval which seems to be 10-12k based on my driving style.