Eating Oil?

[Gulelin]

I checked my oil today, and if i'm reading it right(oil was closer to 'min than 'max' on the dipstick) than i'm at least 2 quarts, maybe 3 down. Is this normal??? I followed the break in period to the letter, and although i've had it moving a couple of times, and had it to the redline maybe 10 times ever, this shouldn't have hurt anything. It's not blowing any smoke and it isn't leaking. Any ideas, or similiar exeriences?

[moto]

Gulelin. If the oil level is at the first notch (provided the dipstick
is the same as my 2000 328i) ,it will be down by only 1 litre or
quart. Thats not bad after 7000 miles with a new engine. I would
not follow the 15000 mi (25000 km) oil change interval. I would
change it now and then monitor the level from now on. Engine is
broken in now so it may not use much oil now. If you decide not
to change the oil yet, Buy a quart of BMW Synthetic oil at the
dealer and slowly add until the level is at the top notch.

[Gulelin]

Thanks for the advice! I went ahead and changed the oil yesterday, and i'll keep an eye on it. I don't plan on following the scheduled oil changes anyway, i'm prolly gonna change it in between the dealer changes so that it gets changed every 7500 or so. I just can't trust every 15000 miles.

On a side note the 330xi takes 8 quarts!! Jeez!

[white 330ci]

make sure you are useing the right kind of oil, my brother has an older bmw that the shop kept putting some crappy oil in and the oil was getting burned of at a quart a week!!!

that shop will never touch another one of our cars.

[ACSTypeI]

nothing to worry about like others said... burning oil during break-in isn't an unusual thing. Some burn more than others..I kept having to refill my oil for the first couple of months. Now it's rock solid, oil level doesn't drop a millimeter.

as for which oil..

3 oils you should be using.

1. OEM BMW 5w30 oil from dealership
2. Mobil 1 0w40 (yup, you heard it right.. Mobil 1 5w30 DOES NOT meet bmw performance specs, only their 0w40 does)
3. German made Castrol 0w30 (MUST say Made in Germany. This is hard to find, because it's imported, so not many people use it. It's not the same as the regular castrol you see in stores)

you could use other oils like AMSoil and Redline.. however, those are the only 3 oils that are BMW approved..