E36 M3 Oil consumption has gotten BAD!! (Now with pics!!)

I have A 98 M3. When I got it I soon found out it was burning oil when the valves started ticking. I did a little research and found out is very common for an E36 to burn oil. Previously I never noticed the burning oil. There was no smell to indicate it and it burned off at a fairly low rate. Recently I have begun to smell oil when the car comes to a halt at lights and when I get home and open the hood a plume of burning oil smell comes out. I'm concerned that this is worse than your typical oil consumption. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced these problems and if they have found a solution. I have changed oils around and one possible solution I think could work is changing from the 10w-40 to the BMW recommended 5w-30.

Thanks

What have you done to correct the problem?
Did you check valve cover gasket for leaks?
Did you check the cyclone separator to see if it is plugged?
Have you pulled the throttle body and checked for oil in the manifold?

I don't know who you have been talking to but generally M3 do not burn oil
I own two on with 278K miles and one with 81K miles and neither burn oil or leak oil.

You have some work to do regarding investigating the questions I posed.
All of the items I mentioned will contribute to oil loss.
All of them are not that hard to correct.
Also you need to not wait too long because you can kill your cats.

We've checked the block and head gasket. There's a whole forum on the oil consumption issue on bimmerforums. But how do check the cylicone and throttle bodies?

Cyclone separator is the plastic line off the front of the valve cover that goes under the intake manifold. It sits there. But before you do that check for oil in your manifold which I highly suspect. You have one throttle body and it bolts to the intake manifold using 4 13 mm bolts. You will need to remove the intake boot from the MAP or you can remove the boot from ASC which is attached to the throttle body.
Regardless of which approach you take the ASC needs to come off to get to the throttle body. The ASC has a bracket that uses the same throttle body bolts so remember which go where because two are longer. Once you get the throttle body off you can see inside the intake manifold and I bet you will see oil laying in the bottom. I would guess if that is true than you have a plugged cyclone separator.
If so replace the separator and expect to be working in close quarters. Also replace all the hoses except the plastic hose from the valve cover to the separator. It fits into the manifold and also has a line to the dip stick. The hose to the dip stick will be brittle and broken.

If you need to replace the separator do yourself a favor and remove the intake, boot and alt hose as well as remove the brace from the block to the intake manifold. If you don't remove that brace life will be tough. If you do you can get the separator in there.

Standing by to hear what you discover. By the way the separators are fairly cheap like 50 bucks.

Alright thanks a lot I appreciate the help. I've got the bentley manual and BMW dealer software so I think it'll be easy. I'm off to my local track to watch a race tommorow but I'll start when I get home. I'll post updates and hopefully pics.

Thanks again.

Alright, i'm not going to the race so I went ahead and started the investigation. Sure enough you were right. As you'll see i got the throttle body off and there was a build up of oil sitting on the little orange gasket thing that runs into the manifold. I took a ton of pics and you'll see the process so hopefully others with this problem can get a DIY.


Start off with everything attached.


Next Get The Air-box off.


I think these are the vacuum hoses for the brake booster. I took them out and sealed them but in retrospect I think that wasn't the best idea. If anyone knows, will I have to re-bleed the brake lines?


First part of the intake boot removed, and as you can see color coded the hoses with duct tape.


Unscrewed ASC I think? whatever it is, it's off.


Unscrewed the two bolts holding on the angled part of the throttle body.


Black gasket thing between the two pieces.


Disconnected this as well. Again, not sure what it is.


Last bracket that connects the throttle to the manifold. 4 screws all is labeled and stored safely in an unused cooler.


Best part, upon removing the throttle I immediately saw and smelled what was unmistakably oil in the manifold.

Thanks to fun2drive for the info all that's left to do is replace the cyclone separator and no more oil consumption. If any of the pics are mis-labeled let me know and I will fix them, I'm only 17 so i'm not that educated on cars.

Hey, these pics are great man! Keep 'em coming, did you ever finish the project?

I'm glad you solved the problem. Think of how much money you saved and te satisfaction of doing the work yourself. Congrats on getting this done...

Originally Posted by Killjoy

Hey, these pics are great man! Keep 'em coming, did you ever finish the project?

I haven't finished yet b/c I'm waiting on the oil separator but I did a DIY on this forum. It's much better.