Oil consumption per 1000 miles

[KNS]

My current daily is a 325i, it has been extremely reliable (I have done all the maintenance on it since day one) and it consumes virtually zero oil between changes. I'm seriously considering a BRZ for next year as a new daily driver.

On the BMW forums there are countless threads about how much oil their engines consume. I did a quick search and found hardly anything here about oil consumption. I think I have been fortunate with my 325i as I followed the break-in to the letter and go easy when the engine is cold.

So... from what I'm seeing is anybody here having any unusual oil consumption? What is typical amount of oil added (if any) between changes?

Thanks.

[extrashaky]

I'm at 22.5K miles now and have been changing the oil every 7500 miles. I have not had to add any oil between changes.

I did have to add blinker fluid though.

[bcj]

Checked my oil level last week. Still at the top mark. 26k.
I've been collecting oil and stands to change it out shortly.

[strat61caster]

32k miles, I believe I am seeing some consumption but that could be typical variation due to temperature and randomness but I do not have to top off over the typical service interval of 7.5k miles if I fill it near the top mark.

[kberkel]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

I'm at 22.5K miles now and have been changing the oil every 7500 miles. I have not had to add any oil between changes.

I did have to add blinker fluid though.

.

I have LED tails so no blinker fluid required.

[DocWalt]

I used about 1/3rd of a quart on my first oil change to bring it up to the full mark at ~3.5k. Lots of high RPM use on back roads, so it likely pushed a bit through the PCV and I'm not sure it was ever topped up in he first place because I didn't check it when I bought the car.

As long as we're not at a quart every 3000 miles I'm not going to complain

[Itzed]

Originally Posted by DocWalt

As long as we're not at a quart every 3000 miles I'm not going to complain

So far so good, but I've only got 1200 miles on it. 😄. My previous Subie 2.5 boxer in my Legacy used a quart every 3K from the day it was new through now, 190K later. It never changed, and the engine has been superb and still pulls like new. The plugs have always looked great. I personally don't think consuming that amount of oil is a problem or a big deal at all.

[N1rve]

Im at almost 10,000 miles. Had one oil change at 5k. No oil has been added on a regular basis. Coolant has been topped off multiple times though.

[BRZnut]

14,000 miles..changed oil at 4K/ 8K/ 12K...no oil loss between changes (since I drive only ~8K/year, have been changing oil every 7.5 month and not by miles driven)

[Ganthrithor]

In my last period between changes (~5k mi), I added about 1.1 quarts of oil (but could have added more-- I only topped it off to halfway between the low and full markers because I was going to have the oil changed within a week anyway). I followed the break-in procedures, but do drive the car hard fairly often. It took ~2,200mi for the car to go from the full marker to the low marker following my second-to-last oil change (I haven't had enough miles on the current fill to get useful information).

I was surprised at how much oil my car burns, but the engine appears to be healthy based on used oil analyses. Boxers do tend to burn more oil than conventional engines, so I guess between that and spending plenty of time above 5000 rpm, it's not that strange.

[JesseE]

I run a innovate supercharger system, with no oil catch can... even with full synthetic oil changes never have lost a drop of oil. (use 0w20 amsoil)

[Fastbrew]

I have an AVO turbo/catch can. I use Eneos sustina 0w20. My level hardly moves. I get a little bit in the catch can but it is a very tiny amount.

[speargunsandracecars]

I use Millers Oils Nanodrive 0w20. Before that, I used Motul 300V 0w20. Never had an issue with oil consumption. I have a Radium catch can, and I get about a tablespoon's worth of oil every oil change(~7000 miles). I also get my oil analyzed by Blackstone Labs. Despite my high RPM autocrossing and mountain road driving, my oil health and engine is in top notch condition. I'll try changing my oil at 9000 miles next time.

[ROGER-86]

I have been carefully tracking my oil consumption on my 2017 86 Automatic by observing how many quarts of Mobil-1 I have gone through topping up over the last 2.5 years and 27K mi. My car uses exactly 1 qt every 12,400 miles.

As an aside: coolant consumption is 3.7oz every 7,500mi service interval.

I was super careful during the break-in period to watch RPM's and vary constantly, and a few strong pulls (torque'y, but not high RPM) to "seat the rings" if that really does happen. The car gets serviced per book at the dealer as it's new.

I drive it only for fun on a 90 mile route mostly on hiway-1 (Calif coast) to my fav hill climb from San Gregorio to Woodside CA. I do the 10 miles in the hills at 4,500-7K RPM quite hard, very fun. The oil temp gets to about 234 deg at it's peak when I reach the peak of the mountain. The water hits 212 at most (ambient air temperature of about 85).

Scenic driving flat along the coast the oil is 196 deg and water is 190.

I also blend my stupid 91 Calif gas in Woodside with 100 oct race gas (the 76 sells it there!) to get 93 oct and watch the ignition timing to confirm it advances properly to get the most power. I use BlueDriver to monitor.

Another aside... Starting in 2017 forward, Subaru stupidly programmed the car to let the battery discharge during acceleration and stops, doing most of the charging while decelerating only. I discovered this when I parked to listen to the radio for an hour and the car would barely crank. They said it's for "economy" B.S.! This will ruin batteries faster. You can force the car to "normal charge" at 14.2V by turning on the running lights (I drive with them all the time now). Also, if you turn the fan on it will hold at 13.3V. But drive normally and watch the voltage drop from an initial 14.4 at start to around 12.1 in just a few minutes. More on this later as I'm working up a big expose.

I'm an Engineer, I like to measure things.