Re: E46 M3

["Jonathan Van Houtte" <Jonathan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dick--

As the car should have had the oil topped off at the 1200 mile break-in
service, you may have lost about a liter after 2500 miles.  Owner's
Manual says difference between high and low lines on dipstick is 1.2
liters or 1.4 quarts.  Did you follow the exact procedure in the manual
(and on the sticker in the engine bay) when you checked the level?  If
you don't, you risk over-filling it, which is worse than running it a
bit low.

Contrary to what Henri wrote (and BMW did specify their 5W-30 synthetic
for a while), the spec for the E46 M3 engine is now Castrol 10W-60
oil--not very thin.  About the only place to get this oil is a BMW
dealer.  It comes in liters, and the labels are in German.  I keep a
liter bottle (in a heavy-duty zip-lock bag) in the niche in the
styrofoam above the mobility kit in my M5.  You can use Mobil One 15W-50
in a pinch.

These engines, which are close to racing design, will burn more oil than
most.  I wouldn't worry unless the consumption goes below one quart per
thousand miles.  The consumption should lessen as you put more miles on
the car, though; it's barely broken in now.  If the consumption stays
high, or gets worse, that may be a sign that the engine wasn't broken in
properly, which is a possibility if the car was used as a demo...

- --Jonathan
01M5 (burns one liter every 4000 miles, now at 18,000 miles)
95M3 (down about a half liter when changing at 7,000 miles, now at
185,000 miles)
02M3 (not yet delivered)

>
> Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 20:09:37 -0800
> From: Henri Baccouche <henrib@domain.elided>
> Subject: Re: E46 M3
>
> Believe it or not the spec for oil consumption is 300 miles a
> quart for all models before they will warranty the problem.
>
> Most cars will consume less.......
>
> Remember, these cars specify very thin 0w-50 or 5w-50 type oils.
>
> Henri
>
>
> Dick,
>     I speak with no personal experience of owning an E-46 M3,
> unfortunately, but any new high performance car that gets
> 2500 miles per quart of oil is doing pretty well, especially
> if it was driven hard. I know of specs of various high
> performance street cars that say that even down to 800 miles
> per quart is "normal". For example, Bruce Anderson keeps
> answering this question about Porsche 911s in Excellence and
> that's what he says. Performance cars would not all
> necessarily be that low, but I would not worry about it. I
> would be concerned about the exact nature of the warranty,
> however. Peter Cain
> >
>
> Richard Bergen wrote:
>
> > I'm looking at a 2002 M3 with 3700 miles on it.  It is the car
> > belonging to the dealer sales manager.  I checked it out today and
> > everything looked fine - - except when I checked the oil level and
> > found it was down to the lower mark on the dip stick - - 1.5 quarts
> > low according to the owners manual.  Any of you E46 M3
> owner out there
> > - - is this noraml oil consumption - - 1.5 quarts approx every 3700
> > miles?
> >
> > Dick Bergen

------------------------------