Posted by Ron Bass on September 27, 1998 at 19:22:35:
I posted this on the bulletin board a couple of days ago but don't see it posted. I'm trying again.
Another question for the collective wisdom of the Digest's members. I've had the '76 530i for about 12 months. The car has 104K original miles on it. The head was replaced at 28K. The owner from whom I purchased the car said that it was using about 1 qt. of oil every 1500 miles or so. I was surprised to find that it was burning a qt. every 450 - 500 miles. After sitting all winter, the oil consumption went down to 1 qt./1500 miles. Over the summer, it's slowly increased to 1 qt./900 miles, and it's now back to 1 qt./450-500 miles. Has anybody experienced this type of erratic oil consumption? At first, I thought that it might be valve guides/seals. However, a friend thinks that it might be a crankcase breather problem. Has anybody had experience with this type of problem with the crankcase ventilation system? If yes, what should I be looking to fix or replace? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
BTW - the car doesn't seem to be burning oil, e.g., no blue smoke when going downhill or when at full throttle. I know what bad valve seals look like - my '76 2002 leaves a cloud of blue smoke whenever I downshift or go downhill!
Thanks, Ron Bass.