[E90_Elite]

Hi everyone, newby here.

I have owned an E90 330D 2005 for half a year now and have been loving it so far. I plan to get it remapped and maybe even a downpipe but i am not sure about that last one yet since i don't want to leave black clouds every time i step on the gas (but from what i understand, the m57's do not tend to smoke a lot if you use proper diesel...)

anyway, before I want to add power, I first want to make sure everything is okay with the car and there is one thing i have noticed and that is that my car always seems to be on low oil. There are no visible leaks on the car from the top or bottom.

Everytime i fill the engine with oil I fill it to the top mark on the dipstick, but within a week it will be down to the low mark and than it will stay there. if anything would be leaking on my engine such as turbo, I would guess it would leak to empty, but the oil level stays about the same when it gets to the low mark.

When I first got the car i changed oil and filter 5W30 but since I saw that it went low everytime i went to 5W40 after my last oil change a few weeks ago but it seems to be worse with 5W40...

Has anyone else had this problem or would anyone know what this might be...?

[335dlci]

Vcg

[MooLard]

Have a really good look around the engine in daylight plus with a torch and let us know if you see any oil. VCG - is the valve cover gasket, they are known to go over time and it causes oil loss as well as performance issues. I don't personally think it's that.
My car used a little bit of oil, would top up half a litre every 9k miles (my approx oil change interval) and I found fitting an oil catch can stopped the oil loss. The can doesn't seem to fill up with oil but the much longer breather route stopped oil getting out of the engine and recirculated.

[E90_Elite]

I just checked again around the engine and all I see is just some "sweat" around some hose connections, nothing that would really indicate a liter of oil gone within a week... If my engine was burning the oil i think i would have seen it by now because it really never smokes.. I think i am going to take of the airbox, intake and all other plastic bits tomorrow to have a real good look. Might do the vcg anyway as it probably has never been done by the previous owners. Will keep you posted...

[E90_Elite]

So, checked the engine from top to bottom. As far as i can see and feel, without removing the intake manifold, the vcg is bone dry apart from the vacuum pump o ring. That is gunked up but its not the main reason of my oil disappaering. Bottom of the engine is literally bonedry. The side of the egine under the intake manifold is covered in some sweat but nothing like a major leak, its just 270k km of sweat. Turbo side is bonedry aswell. I really do not have any idea of where my oil goes appart from out the engine i guess. So might have to look into an oil catch can, do you have any good recommendations?

[Boyd122]

Originally Posted by E90_Elite

So, checked the engine from top to bottom. As far as i can see and feel, without removing the intake manifold, the vcg is bone dry apart from the vacuum pump o ring. That is gunked up but its not the main reason of my oil disappaering. Bottom of the engine is literally bonedry. The side of the egine under the intake manifold is covered in some sweat but nothing like a major leak, its just 270k km of sweat. Turbo side is bonedry aswell. I really do not have any idea of where my oil goes appart from out the engine i guess. So might have to look into an oil catch can, do you have any good recommendations?

I'm not so sure of how similar the m57/n57 is to the US but my 09 335d has a issue prior to my turbos going bad where the Valve cover gasket (VCG) went bad and would leak oil out the exhaust due to the inner seal strip of the VCG that sits inside the valve cover. I would get crazy whitesh blue smoke as well but I believe that be my injectors which were replaced at the same time. On another note I did lose oil every three days or so, so I kept a 5 gallon container of 5w40 t6 in the trunk until I had all the parts to fix it.

[E90_Elite]

Originally Posted by Boyd122

I'm not so sure of how similar the m57/n57 is to the US but my 09 335d has a issue prior to my turbos going bad where the Valve cover gasket (VCG) went bad and would leak oil out the exhaust due to the inner seal strip of the VCG that sits inside the valve cover. I would get crazy whitesh blue smoke as well but I believe that be my injectors which were replaced at the same time. On another note I did lose oil every three days or so, so I kept a 5 gallon container of 5w40 t6 in the trunk until I had all the parts to fix it.

Yeah i still plan on doing my VCG just to be sure. Even though i don not get any smoke. Also going to fit the vortex crankcase as the 330d does not come with one, hope this fixes my issues. I am also carying oil in the trunk, just to be sure.