Lost 62% of my oil in 7 month?

I have 4000 miles on my car and I'm on my 5th quart of oil and the rate of consumption does not seem to be leveling off. I have checked the garage floor and looked under the car and see no signs of any oil leakage. I didn't worry too much about it until I found out that my friend who has an 02 C4S has 8000 miles and he hasn't even added 1 full quart of oil since he got his car. I followed the break-in instrutions more or less. Should I be concerned? The car has no problems and there a good amount of power throughout the rev range. I know this topic has been covered before many times but I feel that 5 quarts is a lot seeing that the engine has a oil capacity of just over 8 quarts. That means I've lost 62% of my original oil in 7 month.

Well it cant be both, is it 'more' or is it 'less'? If it doesnt seem to be leaking underneath, I'd check your exhaust. Do you notice a bluish colour when the engine is running?

More or less meaning that I've only gone over 5k rpm a couple of times and the engine was warm. No i do not get those plumes of blue smoke coming from the exahaust on start up. I have gotten some white smoke twice in 7 month on start-up but only for a couple of seconds.

Well to my knowledge oil typically leaks several ways: 1.) During the ignition process, where the oil mixes with the fuel in the ignition chamber, due to bad sealing. 2.) Leakage via worn gaskets. 3.) Too much oil pressure due to oil overfill, the oil will seep out somewhere Maybe the oil that is leaking isn't reaching the ground, building up somewhere? Or... The oil is leaking through the ignition process but at such a slow rate you cant notice it by exhaust color? I'd have it checked out by a certified mechanic for peace of mind.

I suffered a similar rate of oil loss with a Fiat turbo some years ago. I was told that the synthetic oil was partly to blame and that generally the oil was being lost by getting past the pistons and being burnt. The amount of oil used decreased as the car ran in, but then it was stolen! The car was then driven for 3 months on false plates and recovered with an almost empty sump. My well run in C2 has never used any oil between services, perhaps I'm lucky but I can't help but feel that 4000 miles is not sufficient mileage to run-in this sort of car?

If there is too much oil, most of the excess should blow out of the positive crankcase ventilation valve. This should be easily evaluated by the mechanic. But that is a lot of oil consumption, for comparision my car has required about 400cc over the last 4 years. I followed the break-in pretty closely, of course there were a few blasts to 5k . I track the car 5-6 weekends per year where I am always running 6-7000 rpm. If your car is not leaking, it must be burning oil. Have someone watch from behind as you accelerate to look for smoke. Now on the other hand I know of TTs that use a case per month that is supposedly "normal"...go figure.

I just discussed the same issue with my dealer today. I have 2200 miles and my consumption is 1 qt per 1000 miles so far. The SA I spoke very quickly said it was absolutely normal. I don't know, I guess I'll see how it goes for the next 3-4k miles. I didn't really follow the break in but I don't drive her like I stole her all the time either.

In my opinion your usage is abnormal as compaired to my 02 hat has only used 1/2 qt in 21,000 mi. My best guess from the mileage and length of ownership is that you do allot of short haul trips, ie. stop and start and the engine never really gets up to opperating temp, as opposed to long haul runs

It's too much. Have the dealer check everything, plus this starts the clock on documenting the symptoms.

I had a '96 E36 M3 which used 1 quart every 1,000 miles. The oil consumption dropped to 1/4 quart every 5,000 miles after I had driven it 20,000 miles. It took that long for the oil consumption to change. When I talked to Dinnan about it, they said it was not unusual for an M3 to use that much oil. I was changing the oil - Mobil 1 - every 5,000 miles and not driving particularly agressively at the time. I rarely made it up over 4,500 RPM. I now think that this probably contributed to the problem. The BMW dealer was totally useless when I was investigating this.

Keyvan: Did you change your oil early? It sounds like the car is not broken in (rings seated). Don't baby the car now and don't change the oil, until you hit dealer recommended mileage. Drive it like you stole it as someone most aptly said...

I had a problem like this..It might be that your oil filler cap is not tight or the oil seperator is working properly. If there is any air leaks in the system you will have an oil consumption problem.