Posted by David B on June 29, 2001 at 01:15:54:
In Reply to: E12 Test Results - Not Good - Need Advice (long) posted by Bob N. on June 28, 2001 at 15:28:01:
Do a leak-down test to confirm a piston or ring fault. I have never seen a BMW engine with low compression readings across all cylinders. Frank asked about valve adjustment and this is the first thing I would suspect as a probable cause of low readings. The bottom end generally wears out the bottom of the cylinder bore and starts to use lots of oil. Still, I have seen 350,000 miles on a 528i engine, burning a quart every 300, and not had any running problems other than the need for lots of spark plugs. First sign of an engine with low compression is that they will not start cold but once started run fine the rest of the day.