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Sedans BMW 3-Series BMW 3-Series Maintenance and Repair
4446 messages, Last post on Nov 29, 2009 at 12:04 PM
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Feb 07, 2008 9:28 am) I checked under the hood this morning, and everything is clean and the dipstick is reading "full". I'll drop it off tomorrow and ask them to do a leakdown test (and pray that it's nothing serious).... just to be clear-- the leakdown test is to check and see if oil is leaking into the cylinders? If it is, how bad could the problem be (ie, is it fixable at a reasonable cost or am I looking at a very expensive situation)?
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Replying to: sunilb (Feb 07, 2008 2:34 pm) My rule of thumb is that if you carefully monitor oil consumption over the course of a few months and it comes out to 1,500 miles or more per quart, then forget about it, it's just normal wear and tear. A little oil burning is okay. But if it starts to drop regularly, from 1500 to 1250 to 1000, then you have to jump on it and figure out what's wrong. Maybe this was just confusion on reading the stick? Happens to all of us.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Feb 08, 2008 9:19 am) i guess that's good news, but the only thing the mechanic could figure is maybe it's due to colder weather. anyhow, we are going to try a thicker oil (Mobil 1 0-40) and keep monitoring it.
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Replying to: sunilb (Feb 08, 2008 11:57 am) Regards, OW
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Replying to: circlew (Feb 08, 2008 12:13 pm) i'll switch to the heavier oil and then if it's still an issue, go look for a second opinion.
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Replying to: sunilb (Feb 08, 2008 3:17 pm) I don't think that the switch to 0W-40 will make a bit of difference. There are only so many places the oil can go, and the mechanic has failed to find the culprit. His suggestion that 0W-40 is the answer tells me he doesn't have a shred of a clue. |
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Replying to: roadburner (Feb 08, 2008 3:52 pm) This is what is lacking, nearly always, when I want my vehicle fixed. I can f*** (let's say foul) it up myself for free. If I pay the man, I expect him (or her) to know more than I do & to fix the thing more quickly. For this, I pay them. Well. . . I have any number of things that aren't right on my daily driver (and in my house) that I'd dearly love to let a competent (that's C O M P E T E N T) technician deal with. My car is rare (that's in, they discontinued it), so not many technicians will have ever seen one before. My bad. I won't do it again. The fact remains that a competent mechanic is worth his/her weight in gold. A $793 repair diagnosed (yeah, right) by the Nissan dealership becomes an $87 fix at the (trusted) shop. Works for me. If I end up with a BMW, it won't be before I determine which independent shops nearby are deemed worthy. Since BMW has been around awhile, such databases actually exist. YMMV. |
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Replying to: roadburner (Feb 08, 2008 3:52 pm) for better or worse, I did a lot of searching on other forums and only found the following possible culprits for excessive oil consumption: valve cover gasket, valve seals, and oil separator. I also found that some people (with higher mileage cars) have switched to this heavier oil and it has slowed the consumption. So, based on this and the suggestion for the leak-down test, I asked my mechanic to do this test and check all of these things as well as anything else he could think of. When he came back with nothing, I asked him to go with the heavier oil. I figure at the least, it may work (it may not... but, you know what they say about what you read on the internet!). I'll keep you informed. (for the record, I'm at 85,020 miles and dipstick is reading at the full mark).
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Replying to: sunilb (Feb 08, 2008 11:31 pm) This cranky (no pun intended) oil separator is a known BMW issue. |
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I drive a 2007 328xi and recently noticed a buzzing or whirring sound similar to that of a small electric motor coming from the passenger side rear quarter. It is only audible outside the car and after the ignition has been turned off. It lasts for about 2 or 3 minutes. Does anyone have any idea as to what this may be? IDOC
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