Found what appears to be another leak in the BMW. Use a paper towel to soak up the oil and it appears to be ruby red and had the distinctive smell of ATF. Oh no not the trans!!!

Maybe it's the Valve cover gasket (wish full thinking). So I got underneath the Truck (who laugh when they see people referring to the X5 as a truck on this forum) and was relieve somewhat to see the area around the trans dry. So maybe the line from the trans to the cooler was leaking so I removed the plastic belly pan. Yep the leak was at the front of the belly pan so I inspected the lines to the cooler. They appear dry so what could be leaking. Look around some more and found it.

It was the return hose from the PS pump to the PS reservoir. Lucky for me I was going to replace the PS reservoir and had also purchase new hose. Unlucky for me that one of the bolt securing the reservoir fell and was lost in the abyss. So after about an hour of work I had the reservoir and two new hose in. My old reservoir cap said to use ATF, but the new cap that came with reservoir said to use CHFS 11. I used the new cap put replaced the fluid with ATF. I will reinstall the old cap if I ever sell the truck.

After 3 days with a piece of cardboard place under the belly pan no fluids were found on the cardboard. The return hose was like the oil filter housing gasket that I replaced last year, very brittle.

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2006 Infiniti G35
2001 BMW 3.0I E53 X5 Build date 08/2000 SOLD
Lotus Europa 1970 Destroyed by fire
Lotus Europa 1970 S2 Renault Powered
Lotus Type 52 1970 Twincam Webers Powered
PORSCHE 911 Targa 1982 The Garage Queen
Audi Avant donated to Kars for Kids
BMW 525IT Sold
Audi 4000CS Quattro Sold
Jensen Healey Lotus Powered Sold
Opel 1900 Sold
Triumph Spitfire 1971 Sold
Triumph Spitfire 1968 Sold
Plymouth "Cuda" 340 Six pack SOLD