[lancetb]

Yesterday I received the following error message on display (2024 530i with ~6800 miles on it):

Engine oil at minimum level: Add 1 liter(s) of oil as soon as possible. Check engine oil level afterward. See Owner’s Manual for more information.

Since it was late Saturday, the dealership was closed, so I went to the nearest oil change place (Express Oil Change) and they didn’t have the kind of oil their system listed for my car, but told me they’d put the oil in if I would go down the street and get some from O’Reilly’s. Express said type of oil for car was “Valvoline European Vehicle Full Synthetic SAE 0W-20.” Closest O’Reilly’s had was “Valvoline SynPower Full Synthetic Motor Oil 0W-20,” but clerk said it would work. Took oil back to Express, they added a quart and then checked to make sure level was full.

Four questions. Apparently oil that comes in BMW is made by BMW and is 0W-12, so will putting quart of the Valvoline 0W-20 harm the engine, or effect the warranty? Also, will putting the Valvoline non-European full synthetic oil harm anything? I took about a 500 mile trip last week, before the warning came on, but oil would have been low, will that harm anything? Finally, why would a brand new BMW lose 1 quart of oil in just 6 mos?

[KeelTiii]

First I’d try to figure out why the oil was at minimum level in new engine. I am not sure about mixing different viscosities. I’m sure someone else who knows more than I do here will weigh in on that. Take it to the dealership for further diagnostics as soon as you can.

[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by lancetb

Yesterday I received the following error message on display (2024 530i with ~6800 miles on it):

Engine oil at minimum level: Add 1 liter(s) of oil as soon as possible. Check engine oil level afterward. See Owner’s Manual for more information.

Since it was late Saturday, the dealership was closed, so I went to the nearest oil change place (Express Oil Change) and they didn’t have the kind of oil their system listed for my car, but told me they’d put the oil in if I would go down the street and get some from O’Reilly’s. Express said type of oil for car was “Valvoline European Vehicle Full Synthetic SAE 0W-20.” Closest O’Reilly’s had was “Valvoline SynPower Full Synthetic Motor Oil 0W-20,” but clerk said it would work. Took oil back to Express, they added a quart and then checked to make sure level was full.

Four questions. Apparently oil that comes in BMW is made by BMW and is 0W-12, so will putting quart of the Valvoline 0W-20 harm the engine, or effect the warranty? Also, will putting the Valvoline non-European full synthetic oil harm anything? I took about a 500 mile trip last week, before the warning came on, but oil would have been low, will that harm anything? Finally, why would a brand new BMW lose 1 quart of oil in just 6 mos?

I did do some searching and found a Reddit thread where a user was complaining that the BMW dealership had put the wrong oil in his vehicle. The BMW Service manager responded and in part of the conversation he noted: If we did indeed put 0W20 in your vehicle instead of 0W12, and it was not a parts invoicing mistake, I want to reassure you that this will not damage your vehicle.

Granted, 0W-20 is a higher viscosity than 0W-12, but I think (from what I've read recently) this is a newer switch? Others say 0W-20 was the recommendation.

This being said, it's unlikely that this isn't going to require a dealership visit very soon for evaluation. I would recommend you mention to the Service Department that you added 0W-20 as it was all that was available, and perhaps they'll do a complete change after the diagnostic.

[dubb13]

I don't know that raises some concerns I have a 530i I check my oil at least once a month and mine has not moved it's sitting right at Max and that's the way it's been since I bought the car I though I only have 3400 miles on it and I don't drive the car hard I just feel like the oil depleted a quart is that normal? Has anyone else experience any oil consumption in these vehicles especially a four cylinder

[Dragonfly Trumpeter]

Originally Posted by dubb13

I don't know that raises some concerns I have a 530i I check my oil at least once a month and mine has not moved it's sitting right at Max and that's the way it's been since I bought the car I though I only have 3400 miles on it and I don't drive the car hard I just feel like the oil depleted a quart is that normal? Has anyone else experience any oil consumption in these vehicles especially a four cylinder

I had it in my previous 4cyl G20. Needed a 1 litre oil top up at around 7000 miles. I was also a little bit concerned at the time but the dealer was not surprised and said it was normal for the 135kw B48.

So I would think it is pretty normal and doubt it is any cause for concern with the 530i (185kw?) version B48 either.

[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by dubb13

I don't know that raises some concerns I have a 530i I check my oil at least once a month and mine has not moved it's sitting right at Max and that's the way it's been since I bought the car I though I only have 3400 miles on it and I don't drive the car hard I just feel like the oil depleted a quart is that normal? Has anyone else experience any oil consumption in these vehicles especially a four cylinder

Yeah, I think this is the way it should be. A new car (imho) should not need oil topped off between changes. Prior to purchasing my Audi, I read all the horror stories about previous generations needing frequent oil top offs. I've never once had to do it.

The thing that concerns me about a new car throwing a low oil alert, is the sensor itself. If this is truly the problem, then adding oil above the maximum limit could adversely affect the crankshaft by creating foamy oil. I'd have that car in the shop immediately for a diagnostic.

[dubb13]

Yeah I agree I think I would have took mine in for service at the dealer and have them look at that and have that documented I wouldn't have taken to a third party oil place to have them top off the oil

[AiredaleDad]

Originally Posted by ToddRGuy

Yeah, I think this is the way it should be. A new car (imho) should not need oil topped off between changes. Prior to purchasing my Audi, I read all the horror stories about previous generations needing frequent oil top offs. I've never once had to do it.

The thing that concerns me about a new car throwing a low oil alert, is the sensor itself. If this is truly the problem, then adding oil above the maximum limit could adversely affect the crankshaft by creating foamy oil. I'd have that car in the shop immediately for a diagnostic.

I agree with Todd. If the car is truly needing oil that quickly it indicates that either there is a leak, or the sensor is bad. I understand it was the weekend. However a car also will not seize the engine for being a quart low. Unless you are going on an extended trip, I would have waited and called my dealer on Monday and asked them to take a look at it.

See this is a problem with cars not having an actual Dip Stick anymore. Before, if a car said it was low on oil, you could pop the hood, pull the dip stick and see if it really was low. I have no way to check the oil myself in either the RR or the Mercedes either.

[lancetb]

I called dealership this morning to schedule service and service tech said using 1 qt of 0W-20 won't harm anything. Curious to find out why a 7 mo. old car that only gets driven about 1,000 miles per mo. needed a quart of oil.

[lancetb]

Took car to dealership this morning, which was kind of a waste of time. Service Advisor said it’s normal for engine to go through a quart of oil every 6K miles and that topping off engine with quart of 0W-20 won’t harm engine as long as it’s full synthetic. Instead of changing the oil, they scheduled an oil change in September when I should be at about 9K miles. Wish they had just told me that over the phone, so I wouldn’t have driven an hour down to the dealership. Anyway, I’m not mechanically inclined, but I have never owned a car that burned oil period, let alone a quart every 6 months, and think this sounds like a design problem with the engine.

[PsychDoc]

Originally Posted by lancetb

Took car to dealership this morning, which was kind of a waste of time. Service Advisor said it’s normal for engine to go through a quart of oil every 6K miles and that topping off engine with quart of 0W-20 won’t harm engine as long as it’s full synthetic. Instead of changing the oil, they scheduled an oil change in September when I should be at about 9K miles. Wish they had just told me that over the phone, so I wouldn’t have driven an hour down to the dealership. Anyway, I’m not mechanically inclined, but I have never owned a car that burned oil period, let alone a quart every 6 months, and think this sounds like a design problem with the engine.

That advice seems like BS to me. My car (540xi) has 6000 miles and has burned no oil whatsoever. And neither did my G30 or my F10. I'd run that by the geniuses at the genius line as I don't think they'll endorse what you were told. And, if so, I'd ask to speak with the dealership's service manager and complain that it's pretty irresponsible to give customers inaccurate information, particularly about something like this.

[RichardInCA]

Originally Posted by lancetb

Took car to dealership this morning, which was kind of a waste of time. Service Advisor said it’s normal for engine to go through a quart of oil every 6K miles and that topping off engine with quart of 0W-20 won’t harm engine as long as it’s full synthetic. Instead of changing the oil, they scheduled an oil change in September when I should be at about 9K miles. Wish they had just told me that over the phone, so I wouldn’t have driven an hour down to the dealership. Anyway, I’m not mechanically inclined, but I have never owned a car that burned oil period, let alone a quart every 6 months, and think this sounds like a design problem with the engine.

Ugh - hate that

[Dragonfly Trumpeter]

Originally Posted by PsychDoc

That advice seems like BS to me. My car (540xi) has 6000 miles and has burned no oil whatsoever. And neither did my G30 or my F10. I'd run that by the geniuses at the genius line as I don't think they'll endorse what you were told. And, if so, I'd ask to speak with the dealership's service manager and complain that it's pretty irresponsible to give customers inaccurate information, particularly about something like this.

Expanding on my last post, we had 3 G20s of similar age in our company fleet that all used a little bit of oil with the 4cyl B48 engine. I had mine 5 years and twice needed a top up in the earlier period but nothing at all outside of normal servicing thereafter.

Probably the best, most reliable and trouble free car I had. Were it not for company policy and age, I would have kept it longer than I did and that was only with pushing them. I am not so sure it was irresponsible or inaccurate info, it certainly gave me 5 years of trouble free motoring for the price of 2 quarts. Some engines use a little bit of oil for whatever reason. No big deal imo, there are bigger issues to be found in many instances.

Out of interest PsychDoc, was your G30 a B48 with no oil issues or B58 as well? Maybe it was only pertinent to the lower powered B48 anyway but it was definitely quite common with that spec.

[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by RichardInCA

Ugh - hate that

Me too. I mean, I'd want to know where the oil is being consumed. I think of them as closed systems, for the most part. I mean, is it being consumed during the combustion process, the crankcase, the turbocharger, or where?

If they say that it's "normal", then some engineer clearly has built that tolerance into some aspect of the design and they should be able to tell me at what stage during the process its lost, imho. I wouldn't be satisfied with a nebulous answer.

[PsychDoc]

Originally Posted by Dragonfly Trumpeter

Expanding on my last post, we had 3 G20s of similar age in our company fleet that all used a little bit of oil with the 4cyl B48 engine. I had mine 5 years and twice needed a top up in the earlier period but nothing at all outside of normal servicing thereafter.

Probably the best, most reliable and trouble free car I had. Were it not for company policy and age, I would have kept it longer than I did and that was only with pushing them. I am not so sure it was irresponsible or inaccurate info, it certainly gave me 5 years of trouble free motoring for the price of 2 quarts. Some engines use a little bit of oil for whatever reason. No big deal imo, there are bigger issues to be found in many instances.

Out of interest PsychDoc, was your G30 a B48 with no oil issues or B58 as well? Maybe it was only pertinent to the lower powered B48 anyway but it was definitely quite common with that spec.

All of my 5'ers are B58's. Maybe I'm an outlier, but I've never understood the logic of buying a $75k upscale midsized sedan with a buzzy 4 banger when the difference in price is only ~$4500 for a vastly superior powerplant. I just don't get why anyone would choose the B48 at this level.
But, like I said, maybe I'm an outlier.

[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by PsychDoc

All of my 5'ers are B58's. Maybe I'm an outlier, but I've never understood the logic of buying a $75k upscale midsized sedan with a buzzy 4 banger when the difference in price is only ~$4500 for a vastly superior powerplant. I just don't get why anyone would choose the B48 at this level.
But, like I said, maybe I'm an outlier.

No, I feel the same way. The B48 wasn't a consideration for me. The difference in smack down off the line is huge. It (B48) make's the same HP as my A5 Sportback and weighs considerably more. That can't translate well. What's amazing to me, about B58 is that the fuel performance vs the B48 gas mileage are fairly negligible.

I'm really curious what kind of mileage that I'm going to get when driving pretty conservatively. I'd probably be a reasonable EV driver, as I inertia brake at distant red lights, downshift with paddles, etc. when I'm in that mental mode.

[Dragonfly Trumpeter]

Originally Posted by PsychDoc

All of my 5'ers are B58's. Maybe I'm an outlier, but I've never understood the logic of buying a $75k upscale midsized sedan with a buzzy 4 banger when the difference in price is only ~$4500 for a vastly superior powerplant. I just don't get why anyone would choose the B48 at this level.
But, like I said, maybe I'm an outlier.

No argument there, but my question was not related to cost or performance, merely in relation to oil usage with the (B48) 530i in this thread and comparing to the B48s a few of us had the same experience with. A little oil usage appears to be a common enough problem but only in the B48.

And you guys are lucky, the price difference from the B48 to B58 models in the UK is much greater. We are the outliers

[AiredaleDad]

Originally Posted by Dragonfly Trumpeter

No argument there, but my question was not related to cost or performance, merely in relation to oil usage with the (B48) 530i in this thread and comparing to the B48s a few of us had the same experience with. A little oil usage appears to be a common enough problem but only in the B48.

And you guys are lucky, the price difference from the B48 to B58 models in the UK is much greater. We are the outliers

Probably because the 540i is not available in the UK. You have to jump all the way to the 550e in order to get the B58. I don't understand BMW's thinking on this. But the 540i is not available in the EU at all. And the 520i and Diesels are not available in the US either.

[Dragonfly Trumpeter]

Originally Posted by AiredaleDad

Probably because the 540i is not available in the UK. You have to jump all the way to the 550e in order to get the B58. I don't understand BMW's thinking on this. But the 540i is not available in the EU at all. And the 520i and Diesels are not available in the US either.

Very true and BMWs available model choices in different markets are very strange, but it is a £16,000 price difference between the 530e & 550e in the UK

[lancetb]

UPDATE:

After 6 weeks oil level had gone down about ¼ way from Max line, so I made another appointment with dealership and took in car today. The service advisor tried to blow it off like the first advisor back in July, but I told him they need to find out what is causing the car to lose oil, because this isn’t normal for a brand new car.

The advisor contradicted himself several times and I felt like he thought he was talking to an idiot. I may not know anything about car engines, but I do know the oil shouldn’t have to be constantly checked in a new car. At any rate, first he said it’s nothing to worry about, then he said M Series used to have this problem and it caused bearings to burn out. I told him that sounds like a big deal and that I’m surprised there wasn’t a class action against BMW. He also said if it’s a quart low that’s perfectly normal, but when I asked if I should bring the car in when the low oil light comes on (i.e., when it’s a quart low), he said I absolutely should get the car in as soon as possible when that happens. Ok, so not a big deal, but get to the dealership ASAP. Then he said I can’t be certain it’s burning oil, because the oil level might have been low from the factory, but I pointed out that the sensor showed it was full after a quart was added and the level had gone down since then. It was like talking to a brick wall and he insisted that just because the sensor was showing the level had gone down, that didn’t mean it had really gone down. He actually said that.

Even though I was told by the dealership to bring car in early for the first service to have the oil changed, he acted like he was doing me a favor and had to get “approval” for the oil change. Anyway, I did leave the car, but just got a text from service department saying they don’t have any 0W12 in stock and can’t change the oil. Unbelievable.

I wasn’t rude, but did make it clear that I want them to find out why a brand new car is burning oil, because I’m not going to take my car down to the dealership every 3 to 6 months to have them top off the oil. Even so, I had to insist they change the oil so the level can be monitored from a point where we know it was full. Typical lousy, American customer service, which you wouldn’t expect from BMW, but I guess even their standards are in the toilet these days. I paid cash for that car and trade in frequently, so you would think they’d want to keep me as a customer, but BMW couldn’t care less about my business.

[SkykingUSA]

Sad to hear this. So far, I have had great experiences with my local service department and hopefully that won't change any time soon. Good luck! If you're not living out in the middle of nowhere, I suggest taking it to a different dealership.

[lancetb]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

Sad to hear this. So far, I have had great experiences with my local service department and hopefully that won't change any time soon. Good luck! If you're not living out in the middle of nowhere, I suggest taking it to a different dealership.

Unfortunately, that dealership is the closest one to me and it's an hour each way.