oil leak in 330CI

I found a thread from 2001 that refered to a lot of problems with 330 and 328 motors. It just sort of died off. I have a 330 CI and I have two problems that have been driving me crazy since I got the car.

First, the car uses a quart of oil in less than 1,000 miles. This started in the first year when it was using oil at about 4,000 miles and has gone down hill since then. The dealer as no clue. Anyone know what might be going on? Anyone had this problem and had it fixed?

Second, I have these Continental tires, and the right rear has worn out twice after 20,000 miles. The left rear went in about 20,000 miles but seems ok now.

These tires are crap in the snow so I am going to have to change them out. Any recommendations for reasonable wearing tires?

If you have oil all over the bottom of the motor like mine has, then it might be the front seal leaking. If the motor is burning it ,then you will see smoke out the exhaust pipe.

Now here is the dilemma. I have neither. No smoke, no mess on the garage floor, no oil in the engine compartment.

Do you have oil in the radiator tank? If it is it could be a bad head gasket. Wish I could help but that is a tough one.

What are you running for oil? just regular 10W 30 or synthetic? And if your tires are wearing unevenly maybe you should get your tires balanced or get your tires realigned? that could be the problem for that.

The converter will hide the oil usage and you will not see any smoke unless the converter goes bad. If you drive it fairly hard you can expect to see some oil usage and bmw has a bulletin that says a quart in 1000 miles is not a problem however irksome it may seem.

Yeah that would kind of worry me, id be thinking crap im burning off a lot of oil.

Yeah that would kind of worry me, id be thinking crap im burning off a lot of oil.


I have a 330 Schnitzer ( non supercharged) with 50,000 on the clock 3 years old with the same problem ( if it is a problem). Its burning about half a litre to a litre of oil for every 1000 miles (although it does depend how i drive it).

Ive taken it back twice and they replaced the oil level sensor first then simply topped it up the second time and took a reading and told me to come back after 600 miles. They can then measure oil usage and compare with normal range. The technician said although he thought it was nothing, any problems are difficult to diagnose as the tell tail signs such as blue smoke etc dont happen - The cat converters get that hot that any oil heading for the exhaust system burns away. Things to check for are lack of power and idle vibration of which mine has neither. If it has take it back quick..... Im not too concerned as it had recieved a bit of a kicking through the back roads of north wales for a good 100 miles the day before the warning light came on but i will let you know.

One other thing does anyone else have a small black spot dead on 4000 rpm. Apparently this is normal but ive never had a car thats done it before?? Anyone heard anything on this or have one that does the same??