2011 X5 5.0 - 2 qrt of Oil @ 9.5K - Normal or Excessive?

On my 2011 X5 5.0 - I have used 2 qrt of Oil @ 9.5K so far - Is this Normal or Excessive? I know BMWs burn some oil internally, but it seems to be more than I expected......

I recently had to add 1 quart at 3000 miles. Check your engine oil level frequently


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How do you guys know how much oil was lost w/o a dipstick?

hahahaha.... You can check the oil level using your Idrive. Choose "Vehicle Info" then Vehicle Status" Page 253 of your owners manual.

did they put that in free of charge or did you just do it yourself?

They do it free of charge.

Actually it depends on the dealer some do it as a courtesy some charge for the oil and this is speaking from experience

I've only put 1K miles on the car, and each time I check for oil under vehicle status, it shows "OK" w/o any other info. Didn't know that it tells you exactly how much oil needs to be added.

Originally Posted by MRV99

hahahaha.... You can check the oil level using your Idrive. Choose "Vehicle Info" then Vehicle Status" Page 253 of your owners manual.

There is a Sub menu for oil level which displays a green bar selecting the oil level in the engine. If it is a full green bar from the bottom to the top then your good.

This type of oil consumption seems to be "normal" for these engines. Mine requested a quart at 4500 miles which I added. Now at 9,000 miles it is asking for another quart. Since the i-drive is not recommending the "free" oil change till 17,000 miles, I guess that they are figuring that the engine will have burned sufficient oil by then that it will have changed itself. I have to believe that if BMW didn't offer this free maintenance for 4 years as a selling feature, their recommendation would be to change the oil after the break in period, and therafter at 4,000 miles. There is no doubt that the additives in the lubricating oil can last for 17,000 or 20,000 miles, however, do we really want the combustion by-products and wear products circling throughout the engine? Then again, my X5 50i whines like a golf cart which is probably due to bad (misaligned?) gears in an engine oil pump, possibly dumping metal particles into the oil. I guess that if I wasn't so cheap I would just pay for extra oil changes. The conclusions from these Forums seem to suggest that it is a bad oil pump. However, my daily torture is having to listen to that whine and wondering if I can trust the clowns at my Dealership to fix something as challenging as this without screwing up something else. After 4 months they have still been incapable of ordering and installing the rear panels for my trailer hitch, and have told me on several occasions that the whine is "normal". So what are the chances of them successfully replacing an engine oil pump?

Originally Posted by x5ian

On my 2011 X5 5.0 - I have used 2 qrt of Oil @ 9.5K so far - Is this Normal or Excessive? I know BMWs burn some oil internally, but it seems to be more than I expected......

Don't worry about it. I've had 3 merc's and 2 bmw's, and each use oil early in their lives. It may be caused by the low weight of the oil or a host of other things - all perfectly normal in your case.

Now if you see plumes of black/gray smoke coming out of the tailpipe or smell burnt oil, that would be a cause for concern.

Not particularly excessive.

BMW has a 'action limit' of somewhere around 1 Liter per 1000km, or roughly a quart per 600 miles. You're at 4500 miles per quart.

(My M5 and 996TT both run a quart per 1500 or so, depending on driving.)

I paid for an Oil Change at 1500 Miles. Which I believe everyone should do. Then I needed to add a quart at 4500 Miles. Dealer says this is normal. They added a quart while I waited at no charge. By the way, this was not at the Selling Dealer.

The X5 will tell you when you are a quart low. You don't have to check the oil level with iDrive if you don't want to. I check it though. I added my first quart at about 9,000 miles.

Chuck

Normal for turbo engines to use up more oil than NA engines.

which brand/type oil do you use to top off?

I got my oil from BMW.

Chuck

I was just at the dealer and now BMW has relaxed it's oil consumption on the 4.4 TT from a QT/1500 to Qt/750-950 miles. At that rate BMW oil changes will be a thing of the past because you will be adding a new QT 1k and essentially replacing all the oil by burning it.

My dealer has some people stop in on the first of month to top off. There is a dedicated oil top off area were 3 cases of oil sitting behind the desk where you pull up to when you need oil.

Originally Posted by paspar2

which brand/type oil do you use to top off?

i believe bmw recommends Castrol. 10w30 or 5w30 depending on the season.

I have 5.6k miles and adding my 2nd quart. Even when I add a quart my gage is not full only half.

Originally Posted by x5ian

On my 2011 X5 5.0 - I have used 2 qrt of Oil @ 9.5K so far - Is this Normal or Excessive? I know BMWs burn some oil internally, but it seems to be more than I expected......

I don't know if I'd call it normal, but it's not unusual for a BMW, particularly the first 10K. Remember, if we were still at 5,000 mile oil changes, you'd never have to add oil with your current consumption rate.

That said, my 35d uses only about half a quart in 10K, which I attribute to meticulous break-in during the first 1K, and others attribute to luck.

I wouldn't worry about a quart every 5K...

P.S. As an aside, it is interesting to note that with a quart of oil every 5k, by the time you hit a 15K oil change, 3 of the 8 quarts of oil in the engine will have been replaced with fresh oil. And anyone burning 2 quarts every 5K will have replaced 6 out of the original 8 quarts of oil with fresh oil. Maybe higher oil consumption is part of BMW's plan to extend the oil change interval...

I have an 2011 3.5 with 11,000 miles

Hasn't used a drop of oil according to iDrive......

Ok

I have a question on oil level reading

On a 2011, does the oil level read full until you are a quart low or does it show a gradual drop in oil use?

Originally Posted by Penguin

P.S. As an aside, it is interesting to note that with a quart of oil every 5k, by the time you hit a 15K oil change, 3 of the 8 quarts of oil in the engine will have been replaced with fresh oil. And anyone burning 2 quarts every 5K will have replaced 6 out of the original 8 quarts of oil with fresh oil. Maybe higher oil consumption is part of BMW's plan to extend the oil change interval...

With the P car it is a quart every 600-800 miles.. so I don't actually every need to change the oil...

Plan!

A


PS Kidding.

Originally Posted by g997

On a 2011, does the oil level read full until you are a quart low or does it show a gradual drop in oil use?

It shows the gradual changes.

Chuck