Burning oil....how to stop

[lateracer]

I think these motors are more likely to leak oil than burn it. There's a lot of places oil can escape other than the head gasket. Oil pan, cam seal, rocker plugs and valve cover are some usual suspects.

First order of business should be a compression test. Leak down test with a valve adjustment and replacement of the rocker plugs and valve cover gasket is much better if you've got the time.

If the leak down checks out (air loss is acceptable range and rings are OK), then I would do a pan gasket change. Not a matter of if you will need a new pan gasket, but when, so it won't be wasted effort if that's not the main source of your leak. Bentley and Pelican have DIYs, but the one here is the best IMHO
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=115957

After that, you'll have made a lot of progress toward eliminating possible leak sources and if you do wind up changing the head gasket, both of these jobs won't have to be disturbed/redone.

[CabbE30]

Thread bump, help please.

So I have the same problem as the OP but I dont think I have oil in my coolant. It doesnt look like there's oil mixed in (there is some rust in the coolant because the PO didnt watch the fluids but it wasnt abused & it used to be an auto.) but it is still disappearing without any leaks. Maybe im wrong and there is oil in the coolant. Im going to flush it this weekend. What should I look for? My car is a 91 325i with 106k miles.

Edit: I also noticed oil on my transmission, maybe i have a leak and its just running down and collecting on the trans?

[jlevie]

The first thing to do is to get the car up in the air and look for oil on the sides and bottom of the engine and the bottom of the transmission. If any of those areas are wet it is a safe bet that there's an oil leak.

In the absence of leaks, excessive oil use (more than 1qt/1000mi) can be caused by worn rings or bad valve seals.

[siazul]

Ok guys I got my car up and cleaned the bottom of the engine which was covered with a thick layer of oil/dirt.

Used some Purple Power and a water hose.

I really wish I had taken before pictures just so you guys could see the difference.

After cleaning:

[xwill112x]

now leave car somewhere for a while then move it, if oil drips are on surface beneath the car, you can safetly say its an oil leak.

[siazul]

I took those pictures on Sunday, the following are from this afternoon. This morning there was a small leak but Im not sure if this is engine oil?

Also one of the pictures below shows a black spot of oil?? that my exhaust was shooting out for a small period of time after I started the car.

Pictures









Oil??



Seems to be coming from the black hose





Also this hose that leads to the steering rack seemed to be covered in oil



On another note, this afternoon after driving about 1 mile, car made a loud pop noise, like a single very loud back fire but kept running fine as far as I could tell.

[siazul]

thoughts?

[lennon]

looks like at the least your power steering hoses are leaking. thats one of my thoughts

[bataangpinoy]

if its motor oil, it could be leaking form the front cam seal

[IsoGrifo]

half a quart every 600 miles? that's nothin! My 65 ford leaks 1 quart about every 100 miles! lol

[lateracer]

if its motor oil, it could be leaking form the front cam seal

Based on the pictures that show the front of your motor, I'm betting on the cam seal too. Common fail point that leaks a lot of oil when it does go.

[Dolmangar]

Nice, at least the good news is that as long as the oil isn't mixing into the coolant the temporary solution is to watch the oil level and make sure to add more in.

Now that you've got it cleaned up, sooner or later with that amount of oil loss you'll find the spot. It looks like you've got an oil pressure sending unit, inline with the warning switch. I'd look at that to make sure that it's sealed tight. Also depending on the year you may have oil coming from the oil cooler bypass valve (Oil Control Valve). This is built into the oil filter housing and allows the oil to go to the cooler when the temp gets up. They have an O-ring that fails on older engines. Mine was leaking a constant stream of drips that you could sit and count. Easy, cheap fix, but it looks like others are also saying that it's the front cam seal as well.

half a quart every 600 miles? that's nothin! My 65 ford leaks 1 quart about every 100 miles! lol