Oil Consumption

[developer]

Following a chat with noisy Dave at the meet yesterday it was clear that his (relative) lack of oil consumption was not the same as my regular oil consumption, despite our engines being the same.

With this in mind I checked the manual, which is E Class generally, not specifically E63, and covers all models.

It says:
"Depending on your driving style, the vehicle consumes up to 0.8 litres of oil every 1000km"

Blimey - that's getting on for a litre every 750 miles.

Thoughts and experiences?

 

[Benzowner]

That's what the book says, my B Class uses maybe max 1 litre per annum between services roughly 12000 miles

 

[HB]

4 litres 20k miles on the 63 John

 

[developer]

4 litres 20k miles on the 63 John

20K already

 

[HB]

Don't ask ...................

 

[daveenty]

Following a chat with noisy Dave at the meet yesterday it was clear that his (relative) lack of oil consumption was not the same as my regular oil consumption, despite our engines being the same.

Who's this noisy Dave then?

Any ways... Just checked my mileage and done less than 7,000 since the last service, but I've only once had the "Add 1 litre at next fuel up" light flash up, and that was only about two - three weeks back, so none asked for or added in c6,000 miles. Oh, and I only put 1/2 litre in then...

Having said that, I don't hammer it about very often, don't need to really, and it never goes over 2,500 revs until the oil's up to temp.

 

[developer]

Who's this noisy Dave then?

Courtesy of Al on the other side .

 

[190]

All car manufactures have a similar acceptable limit for oil consumption as a get out clause against warranty claims but that doesn't make it an acceptable level.

My 26 year old 190e's oil consumption was a tenth of that amount and my W204's oil consumption is barely measurable.

On the other hand my sons have had modern VW's and BMWs with appalling oil consumption. You have to wonder why modern engines can't get this right. I know several manufacturers including VW and Toyota have had problems with Nikasil type plating faults on the cylinder bores which have caused major oil consumption. If that's the cause it's very costly to rectify.

 

[st13phil]

Machining or material faults aside, the early use style of an engine can have a significant effect on the future oil consumption. Get one that was driven by Miss Daisy when new and chances are the bores and rings get at least partially glazed and it will gollop oil, whereas one used a bit harder from the start will generally use much less.

 

[StuartK]

My C63 was using a litre every 3-4K I would say.

 

[Charles Morgan]

My Alpina B10 drank 3.3 a litre every 1000 miles, there was an early batch of engines prone to glazing and lo, so was mine affected. It was an unwanted extra running cost!

 

[Deleted member 37751]

The brother in laws old Audi A5 2.0T was using one litre of oil per 100 mile at the end!

 

[Charles Morgan]

Audi would probably use that figure for the fuel consumption of an oil burner...

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Audi would probably use that figure for the fuel consumption of an oil burner...

The back end of his car looked like one of those decatted Golf/A3/Ibiza TDi's I see, it was just caked black with the amount of oil it spat out of the exhaust.

 

[zipdip]

Come on guys many of you are using too much oil which one is going to brave enough to give their engine the VIM treatment

 

[markjay]

My M271 engine does not consume any (noticible amount of) oil between services, but... old school says that an engine that consumes no oil will suffer more wear than one that does consume a moderate amount of oil (I think it was 'up to 1L per 1000km' or such like?), i.e. low oil consumption is actually undesirable from the mechanical point of view - yet owners 'proud' themselves of having a car that does not consume oil.

 

[190]

Worth noting the M271 is not a Nikasil type coated alloy cylinder but has steel or cast iron liners so at least it can't suffer from coating failure. It will wear more though in the long run.

As to whats acceptable oil consumption the goal posts keep being moved. I'm sure it used to be 1 pint per 1000 miles then 1 litre per 1000 miles and now it's 1 litre per 1000 KM or in some cases even more.

 

[zipdip]

Well my last 3 cars have not used hardly any oil between services,how that can wear a engine beats me,the oil is pumped around the engine failure of it reaching parts will result in engine failure,lack of it will also result in the same thing,burning oil is nearly always about glazed bores,or oil control piston rings failing,the problem with modern engine manufacture is they hone the bores too much,sometimes to get the grade of pistons nearly the same, my mercedes engine has about a litre of oil from the fill to full on the dipstick,ok mine does not use any I would be ok if it was a litre every 5000 miles less and I would be not happy

 

[markjay]

Well my last 3 cars have not used hardly any oil between services,how that can wear a engine beats me,the oil is pumped around the engine failure of it reaching parts will result in engine failure,lack of it will also result in the same thing,burning oil is nearly always about glazed bores,or oil control piston rings failing,the problem with modern engine manufacture is they hone the bores too much,sometimes to get the grade of pistons nearly the same, my mercedes engine has about a litre of oil from the fill to full on the dipstick,ok mine does not use any I would be ok if it was a litre every 5000 miles less and I would be not happy

The engine consumes oil by burning it... which means that oil gets around the cylinder rings and into the combustion chamber.

This in turn provides lubrication between the compression rings and the cylinder wall, reducing cylinder wall wear.

The oil scrapper rings (aka oil control rings) are in fact there to regulate the engine's oil consumption by scraping oil from the cylinder walls and back to the sump.

They are meant to regulate, not seal... ultimately, all engines consume some oil, this is by design. When we say that an engine 'consumes no oil at all' what we in fact mean to say is that the amount of oil consumed is unnoticeable - but it will definitely have consumed some oil.

 

[Peewee74]

I was always concerned about the amount of oil my W124 230ce consumed, so I looked at the owners manual and lo and behold it said 1 litre per 1000km
O.K. the car is 28years young but it's even scarier to see what some of the modern engines are doing.