How much oil consumption is normal and what have you guys seen on your cars

[WhiteNissan300zx]

I have a 2021 3.0, first time I ever got an oil warning was at 13.5k miles and that was after I drove 3500 miles and was on 0-20 and was a quart low. I changed to 5w-30 liquimoly at 14000 miles and drove 1300 miles and burned about 1/4 of a quart I’m still almost at full just slightly lower than max. Is this pretty normal consumption? I’m believing it should be since it’s a turbo car but wanted to know if this is something bad or not.

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[lucky phil]

Nothing wrong with a figure of 1 quart every 5200 miles.

Phil

 

[Teleguy11]

I have a 2021 3.0, first time I ever got an oil warning was at 13.5k miles and that was after I drove 3500 miles and was on 0-20 and was a quart low. I changed to 5w-30 liquimoly at 14000 miles and drove 1300 miles and burned about 1/4 of a quart I’m still almost at full just slightly lower than max. Is this pretty normal consumption? I’m believing it should be since it’s a turbo car but wanted to know if this is something bad or not.

I just did a complete oil and filter change after 3k miles over a 12 month period. I have 8600 miles and this was the 3rd oil change.
I drained 5.5 liters but replaced with 6.5 liters as is spec.
Dam I miss dipsticks.

 

[kaj]

I only have about 4k miles on mine, but most have been track-day mileage, so I'm leaning on the car pretty hard. I haven't had any signs of oil consumption. 2021 3.0 with 0w20 oil.

 

[Patar]

9k on the car, 4k since the last oil change. Zero loss (just checked). Just curious, did you do the "easy there" break-in, or did you drive it like you stole it?

 

[alan7467]

 

[Supra_UK_]

I have a '23 MT, owned from factory new.
1800 miles on the clock, according to the electronic oil sensor reading which I check after every drive, zero consumption issues.

I did an oil change at 1200 after break in. Hopefully it holds up.

 

[lucky phil]

I just did a complete oil and filter change after 3k miles over a 12 month period. I have 8600 miles and this was the 3rd oil change.
I drained 5.5 liters but replaced with 6.5 liters as is spec.
Dam I miss dipsticks.

Yea stupidest idea ever. Everything I've worked on over the last 48 years from superbikes to commercial jet engines has always had some way of doing a physical check of the oil level. If we suspected consumption issues on a jet engine what the gauge said was irrelevant it was a physical check that determines any problem and if the physical check disagreed with the cockpit consumption indication then we had an oil quantity indication issue. That's the long proven smart way of doing things. This is what you get when you have "slide rule" engineers as we used to call them doing the designing. You know, Uni grads that have never held a wrench in their hand. The smarter ones I worked with in aviation knew they had this limitation and used to come to my office and run things by me to get the practical perspective before implementing stuff. Not all were like this unfortunately. BMW WTF were you thinking leaving out the dipstick?

Phil

 

[JoshuaQ]

I have a 2021 3.0, first time I ever got an oil warning was at 13.5k miles and that was after I drove 3500 miles and was on 0-20 and was a quart low. I changed to 5w-30 liquimoly at 14000 miles and drove 1300 miles and burned about 1/4 of a quart I’m still almost at full just slightly lower than max. Is this pretty normal consumption? I’m believing it should be since it’s a turbo car but wanted to know if this is something bad or not.

I've had it 3-4x in mine, lol. Initially I had it in Redding, CA where it's 105 often, and running it hard. I blame me. It happens less with better oil, but the BMW manuals actually note that oil consumption is expected or not necessarily a bad thing. I think it mentions it's not abnormal to add some oil every 1200 miles. Since reading that, and considering how I drive it, idgaf so far, lol. I just throw oil in it and carry on. No issues so far in 2 years and like 8k miles.

None so far on this oil change (new oil type) and I felt it may be slightly under (Need to check still) the fill level. We'll see I guess.

 

[Kroberter]

I had a 2021 that gave me an oil warning every 1k miles. I had it lemon lawed and toyota bought it back from me. My 2023 hasn’t shown any movement on the digital dipstick in 7k miles. I’ve done track days and drive it pretty hard so anyone who says a little consumption is “normal” is on copium.

 

[Evolution]

My 21, which was broken in at the track at 500 miles on the odo is doing just fine. Just turned over 10k miles (hundreds on track) and no consumption.

 

[lucky phil]

My 21, which was broken in at the track at 500 miles on the odo is doing just fine. Just turned over 10k miles (hundreds on track) and no consumption.

Yep. The worst thing you can do to a new engine is either baby it or flog it. The only thing that really needs to be "run in" is the piston rings, everything else is wearing out from day 1. The rings need combustion pressure to bed in which means "load". Load comes from making the engine "work" and it doesn't "work" babying it around the suburbs like a Nanna driving it to work and back. The two worst things you can do to a new engine is drone along a freeway at low load for extended periods or sit it idling in traffic driving it to work and back when it's new. By 200klm 95% of the ring break in is done and if it's going to burn oil then it's already too late to do anything about it. There is an element of truth to "break em in hard and they go hard".
Why do manufacturers have such conservative "running in" limits? Is it for engine longevity and performance or to cover their arses and minimise damage and cost to them in the event of a quality/build issue from production? I'll let you all think that through.

Phil

 

[Evolution]

Yep. The worst thing you can do to a new engine is either baby it or flog it. The only thing that really needs to be "run in" is the piston rings, everything else is wearing out from day 1. The rings need combustion pressure to bed in which means "load". Load comes from making the engine "work" and it doesn't "work" babying it around the suburbs like a Nanna driving it to work and back. The two worst things you can do to a new engine is drone along a freeway at low load for extended periods or sit it idling in traffic driving it to work and back when it's new. By 200klm 95% of the ring break in is done and if it's going to burn oil then it's already too late to do anything about it. There is an element of truth to "break em in hard and they go hard".
Why do manufacturers have such conservative "running in" limits? Is it for engine longevity and performance or to cover their arses and minimise damage and cost to them in the event of a quality/build issue from production? I'll let you all think that through.

Phil

Seeing that I have been building race engines everyday for the past 18 years, I completely agree with you. I break them in on the dyno with a couple full throttle pulls.

 

[FuzzyRev]

It's more important to not thermally shock the load bearing surfaces at the beginning than anything else. Let things get to operating temperature before you have your fun.

 

[lucky phil]

It's more important to not thermally shock the load bearing surfaces at the beginning than anything else. Let things get to operating temperature before you have your fun.

That is true and you should let the oil temp come up before leaning on it at any time. During break in it's also the reason you don't hold a consistent load but ramp the load up and down. But you should also start it and just drive it conservatively until the oils up to temp and not idle the engine to get it warm. It is amazing the punishment an engine will take though with regards to this. My friend worked in a major manufacturers test cell here running Cal and stress tests on engines all day everyday. One of those tests was to cool the cell down to -40 deg C or something approaching that then start the cold engine and ramp it up to max RPM within 20 seconds at WOT and hold it there for 20 min or so then repeat some pre determined amount of times then strip and inspect it. They used to call it the "delivery guy test". They all used to do ok without failures or issues.
When the new owner of my RS picked it up he started it and said I'll idle it till it's warm, I always do this and it annoys my partner but I warm them up, what do you think? I said your partners right, it's annoying, just start it and drive it conservatively until it's up to temp all you're doing is annoying her and wearing it out. Saved a relationship there maybe, lol.

Phil

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