Dear Readers, I have a confession to make. I have been losing some sleep here and there. The reason is silly: I cannot stop thinking about a couple of cars that burn oil. Both of these cars could have easy fixes, or fixes so expensive that my wife and I would be better off just selling the cars and moving on. Somehow, both my wife’s BMW 525iT and my newly-acquired Volkswagen Phaeton smoke, and I’m not talking about little puffs, either. I’m going to see if I can get these rides to stop billowing like steam locomotives. How about you? Are there any car repairs keeping you up at night?
Let’s start with what my wife is dealing with. Toward the end of last year, her 2001 BMW 525iT started exhibiting some alarming behavior. If you haven’t been following the story of this car, it’s the one I bought from The Bishop in 2022, and then gave to Sheryl. At first, our only concern with the vehicle was the fact that its rockers and jack pads were rotting away. Now, we have a whole different problem.
The car always consumed about a quart of oil every thousand miles or so, but suddenly, the consumption ramped up, and quickly. Now, the car burns a quart every 50 miles and it has both myself and a local BMW expert flummoxed.
I’ve been able to confirm that the quart loss of every 50 miles is accurate. The 2.5-liter straight-six under the hood takes about 7 quarts of oil. Sheryl used to get about 30 mpg with the car. Do the math and the engine will burn itself dry of oil before my wife could even drive a full tank of fuel.
We’ve done some diagnosis under the wing of a BMW mechanic. Upon acceleration, a thick cloud of dark grey smoke comes out of the tailpipe. The smoke is thick with oil and will leave droplets on the windshield of a following vehicle. No oil has gotten into the coolant and no coolant has gotten into the oil. Somehow, this car is just burning tons of oil. The mechanic believes it could be an issue with the vehicle’s crankcase ventilation system, but we need to do a leakdown test first. The mechanic is not ruling out the possibility that the engine is in the middle of crapping itself out.
What I can say is that the oil burn has gotten so bad that the vehicle’s spark plugs are oil-fouling. The car now runs with a constant misfire and it’ll even puff out oily smoke at idle.
The other oil disaster I’m dealing with is my newly acquired Volkswagen Phaeton V8. Thankfully, the oil burn is much less than the BMW, but the car still puffs smoke with the pungent odor of oil. The smoke here is interesting because it isn’t dark smoke like the BMW, but a blueish-gray color. The lighter smoke color suggests possible head gasket issues, but the vehicle’s coolant remains clean, pink, and exactly on the reservoir mark it should be on. On the other hand, the oil level does go down.
I will perform a leakdown test to be sure. However, I bought the car with a known bad valve cover leak and I’ve been told that the PCV valve hasn’t been touched in years. Even better, the PCV valve is surprisingly easy to get to on the VAG 4.2-liter timing belt engine.
I feel more confident in vanquishing the smoke issues in the more complicated Phaeton than I do the BMW, and that’s saying something. Really, I’m ok with some oil burn in my cheap Phaeton, but Sheryl is devastated by the state of her BMW. She, like our very own Thomas Hundal, may find herself at a crossroads of dumping way too much money into a car that may not be worth keeping around.
The problem is just finding the time to do all of this. I’ve spent much of this year thus far doing road trips, which hasn’t left me with a ton of time to do the wrenching I’m still allowed to do at home. So, these oil issues will have me up for a little longer until I figure this stuff out.
How about you? Tell us about the car issues you’re perhaps losing some sleep over.
Just recently had to replace the EGR valve.. this seems to be a common issue on the transit Connect.. The thing I didn’t realize is that there’s a small coolant hose that runs in front of the engine and attaches to an entry tube on the EGR.. When the shop remove the old valve, the van lost some coolant. The radiator doesn’t have a cap and the system uses a plastic reservoir instead. Spent 3 days checking and topping off.. parked the van on a down hill sloop just to burp the system. Think I’m finally past a critical point but I’m keeping the 5 gal coolant in the van for a bit longer.
Nothing on my cars at the moment. I’m unhappy with the performance of the suspension on both my mountain bikes right now though, even after servicing them. And one is brand new, so replacing it probably won’t help.
The repair that kept me up at night the most was when a wire to my transmission corroded through due to a nick in the insulation. The truck wouldn’t start so I would have had to get it towed, and I’m sure it would have been expensive to have the dealer fix it. I spent weeks looking for a bad electrical connector (which is what every other instance of my error message online had been) and stressed about it the whole time. I will say the feeling of elation when I finally got it to fire up again was almost worth the headache.
I’ve had an EVAP valve causing a vacuum leak since I bought my car almost 2 months ago, I got a replacement one last month but life/chores/ the weather’s been stopping me from replacing it for over a month. I just want to stop having a check engine light so I can sleep soundly.
my Magnum came with an intermittent lifter tick and ever since I watched a teardown of a 6.1 Hemi with a failed lifter that gouged a 1/2″ furrow in its cam lobe I get anxious when I hear it
My 2002 WJ Grand Cherokee with the 4.7. Blugh. I bought it in 2022 towards the height of the used car market (read as slightly overpaid) after selling my modded 06 300c, also at the height of the market. It is mint. No rust, perfect interior, etc. My goal was / is to build into a more off-road capable machine. I did all of the standard preventative maintenance after I got it and knew it had a few other things I’d tackle when I lift it.
Then I did a Blackstone Labs oil analysis…..Coolant in the Oil. Not a week after that, a friend was driving behind us and said he saw smoke coming out of the tailpipe. Then I stuck a borescope down each cylinder and found the leak in cylinder 7.
The fix is killing me. Its sat for almost 2 years now. I can wrench, but I don’t have the time to dedicate a week of wrench time to it with other family commitments and projects. I’ve had I don’t know how many shops tell me to scrap it and its not worth the work, OR just flat out refuse to do the work. Turns out not many shops want to touch the 4.7l and its 3 timing chains. Of the few shops I’ve gotten a quote from, the cost has ranged from $2500-$4500.
I can’t tell you how much stress this thing has caused me. It still runs. It just drinks coolant and smokes. I could’ve bit the bullet and gotten it fixed by now. I could’ve sold it at a big loss. I could’ve junked it. I could have…..
I love these Jeeps. I, personally, think they’re the stoutest of Grand Cherokees (say what you will about the ZJ, David. lol), and this is my 3rd. I know the torque specs by heart for a lot of things. I’m finally biting the bullet and getting it fixed. I can’t see sending something to a junkyard thats so mint and is / was a strong runner.
My nightmare WJ saga, folks….
Try this one on for size: 2019 Grand Cherokee with the 5.7L V-8 that has cylinder deactivation. I’ve noticed lately that when it’s cruising down back roads at ~30 mph, the engine will often vibrate or shudder with no torque: it’s exactly the noise you get if when driving a manual, you need to downshift, say from 4th to 3rd.
I took it to the Jeep dealership this week (2k miles to go before the warranty expires) and they said they couldn’t replicate the problem and couldn’t diagnose because no CELs.
Has anyone else seen this in the newer Mopar 5.7L V-8s?
I’ve since been wondering: is this actually a transmission problem? (where the engine is fine, but it’s not downshifting when it should)?
Nothing keeping me awake. Yet. I’m seeing enough battery degradation in my Volt to tell me that’s going to need attention soon. One of the shift cables in my daughter’s New Beetle is done. I’ve seen that type of fraying on a bicycle cable but not one of that size. I’m pretty sure the steering gear in my Frontier is on it’s last legs.
The Beetle and Frontier aren’t HARD jobs, or really expensive for that matter. It’s just that it all keeps piling on.