Dorin: Thanks for the tips, and for the vote of confidence in the OEM Cold Climate CCV kit. My X5 also has the updated kit, and so far, so good, with two winters under our belts. I have cheese under the 710 cap and sometimes on the dipstick when checking oil, so I need to address that, but am very thankful we haven't had the oil-sucking-into-the-intake problem. It's happened at least twice on our vehicle to previous owners.
I've been watching this thread and debating whether to dive into the mod or not; I would like to go with something like the remote mounted CCV kit that's been discussed, just so it can be easily cleaned out, and also would like to see about adding something that would remove water vapor from the crankcase, but knowing you've had success with the OE kit is encouraging.
I have used the cardboard trick in the past on other vehicles, but wasn't sure how the X5 would react to it. The other trick of keeping the heater off until the engine warms up is something I do, but it'll be a tough sell with my wife; her first move when climbing into a cold car is to crank up the heat, never mind the fact that it creates a wind-chill effect inside.
