Newish member/owner (Northern California)

[flyride]

Hello, just introducing myself as a new member, although I've been lurking this forum for awhile with all the useful information here.

I've owned a E39 530i since 2003 as a daily driver, and my Sunday car is a 2005 M3. This has led me to the realization that the E39/E46 era cars are arguably the best combination of maintainability and modern that BMW has ever produced. So last spring, we retired my wife's Toyota and replaced it with a clean, well-maintained 2004 Imola on black cube 6MT ZHP sedan and she's been on cloud nine ever since. She even blogged about it here (http://thebluestmuse.blogspot.com/2014/05/100happydays-little-red-zhp.html).

I did an Inspection 2 once I got it home, and since then have replaced FCABs with the Z4M parts, added a Bluetooth TCU and factory alarm. Koni Sports are so cheap right now, I bought a set and will install them soon, and will have to do the RTABs at the same time.

The 530 has always burned a lot of oil, gradually increasing from about 800 mi/qt to a consistent 400 mi/qt. Over the winter I installed a catch can setup and saw oil consumption drop to 2500 miles/qt. Now have about 3000 miles on the setup with no issue or codes. The ZHP is currently burning about 2000 miles per quart with the standard oil separator but I'll be keeping an eye on it.

I'm pretty regular over at M3Forum, and I occasionally post on the e39 bimmerforum and e46fanatics, but I do really appreciate the concentration of information and knowledge that is evident here. Looking forward to sharing the ownership experience with a great community.

Tim (Sacramento, California)

[fredo]

Welcome, Tim ! You will love this forum. Please post pics of your 3 BMWs when possible.

[Vas]

Welcome to the forum. Post pics when you can.

[ELCID86]

Welcome.


Thumbs, iPhone, Tapatalk.

[johnrando]

Awesome, welcome. Will check out the blog later.

Sent from mobile

[BMWCurves]

Welcome, Tim! Reading the blog post it's awesome to see you're willingness to trek 12 hours one way to Seattle to pick up a car for your wife who seems thoroughly excited about the purchase! Keep us updated.

[Oli77]

Welcome from KY.

[ClimRox]

Welcome


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[danewilson77]

Welcome home.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

[KevinC]

Welcome!

What's with the crazy oil consumption? Are both cars hyper-milers? I'm at 80k and have never burned a drop. But 80k isn't much I suppose.

[flyride]

Thanks!

The 530i has 195K and the ZHP is at 90K now. My personal feeling was that 800 mi/qt was pretty crazy consumption, but both BMW and my indie mech at the time said that was on the high side of acceptable. I didn't really question it until it got significantly worse - which led me to some discoveries about how the CCV worked and ultimately led to the more typical PCV-managed crankcase breather.

I've written some opinions on the subject of the M54 CCV on other forums. The CCV not only acts as an oil separator and return, but regulates the pressure in the crankcase by closing off and releasing the breather. I think there are conditions where the CCV causes momentary positive pressure in the crankcase, which results in oil siphoning from the pan through to the intake manifold, as well as contributing to the short lifespan of valve cover and oil filter housing gaskets.

I'm very happy with both cars at 2000-2500 mi/qt now, and suspect that is close to the average. I really don't think there are too many engines with no oil consumption. With an OCI of 7500 mi, which I think most of us do, we could be 1.5 qt down at oil change and not know (without measuring) what comes out.


Welcome!

What's with the crazy oil consumption? Are both cars hyper-milers? I'm at 80k and have never burned a drop. But 80k isn't much I suppose.

[JB3]

Welcome Tim. Thanks for sharing your oil consumption experience. I'll keep an eye on mine now.

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[WOLFN8TR]

Welcome Tim. I have a 2005 M3 also. [emoji106] I'm also over on the other forums under the same name. Enjoy the ZHP!

[flyride]

Pics as requested:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a5d826b3127ccee91bf1dc030a00000030O00IZs2bdoyZOQ e3nwE/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00902247033320150607074505119.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a5d826b3127ccee91bd1c6030000000030O00IZs2bdoyZOQ e3nwE/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00902247033320150607074504899.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a5d826b3127ccee91a7ecf638a00000030O00IZs2bdoyZOQ e3nwE/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00902247033320150607074505525.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

[JB3]

First two pics are cars that are very clean!

Third pic was taken by a potato, but I'm going to give you benefit of the doubt that it is clean, too. :rofl

[flyride]

Well, I've been called worse than a potato. In all reality I don't have any good pictures of the M3 yet as it's spent many months in a garage either undercover or apart while I went through it over the winter.

It's definitely on the tasklist to get all the cars out together and get a good shot ... but it just hasn't happened yet.

Here are a couple more I dug up, 'cause I can't have anyone thinking the M is a POS... it's a collectible as far as I am concerned.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a5d826b3127ccee91a5b45238a00000030O00IZs2bdoyZOQ e3nwE/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00902247033320150607173652021.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a5d826b3127ccee91a5c32636600000030O00IZs2bdoyZOQ e3nwE/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00902247033320150607173652207.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

[JB3]

Potato= camera , not the photographer lol. I guess I should have said "taken with a potato". Just internet slang for the picture quality of a phone camera in bad lighting, with blur, grain, etc.

It's definitely not a POS. It's real, reaaal pretty. :roundel

[imola red zhp]

Welcome fellow Nor Cal

[WOLFN8TR]

Nice cars! That color on the M sure looks familiar. [emoji2]

[oldzilla]

Welcome