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Hi there. I have a 12 year old BMW with over 150K mileage, and for a few months now I have had to top up the engine oil from time to time. There is no oil leaks, none that I detected anyway, no spots on the garage floor etc. What could the reason/s be? I was wondering if this is caused by us changing to fully synthetic engine oil, as I think before, say, mid this year the car was using semi synthetic. Any ideas? Thanks.

The vehicle has done a fair amount of mileage and the internal parts of the motor do wear over time. The piston rings will have wear on them and it isn't unusual for an engine to use oil. But, depending on how much oil it is using will determine if it is in need of an urgent repair or not - there is an acceptable amount of oil usage too.

You could consider trying a heavier grade oil (for instance: if you are using a 10W30 you could try a 15W40 engine oil) to see whether it helps reduce the oil usage but semi-synthetic or fully synthetic shouldn't make a difference.

You can fix this problem through AA repair workshop.
On the other hand you can check Auto Repair Tempe manual to solve this problem.

Thanks Donavan. I'll get the garage where I get the car serviced (AA-approved garage in Albany) to look into this. Hopefully there is nothing too sinister! Cheers.