#1 plug looks too clean to me to think it’s burning that much oil.



I pulled oil fill cap while running – not sure if I was being punked. Oil squirted everywhere. Engine idle dropped, and picked back up when I replaced the cap. I think I heard sucking but was more focused on the squirting oil.


In researching oil separator issues, I see that my oil separator hoses may be reversed. I reinstalled them as they were before I started work (“before” pic below) but this post says they were wrong: 2001 X5 4.4i - CCV/Oil separator confused - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums. I swapped the hoses according to that post, and when I started it, I had high hopes. It took longer to start smoking, but within a few minutes it was back to the same behavior.