CCV Questions on 3.0i 153K miles...

[tonycajjo]

2006 e53 3.0i with 153K miles.

So i was burning a lot of oil, about a quart every 1000 miles or more. simple solution, it's the CCV. so i replace all the CCV parts on wednesday which was kind of a pain but doable and put it all back together. i cleaned the DISA, ICV, Throttle body, MAF and whatever else i could while in there. so i gotta put some miles on it to know if that was the problem.

yesterday i was doing some spirited driving cause it feels like she's got a ton of power, running great, and i just installed an AFE intake so i wanted to hear it. (i have a 6-speed Manual) When i got home i smelt burning oil, at least i think it's oil, i open up the hood and the engine bay is smoking. not a lot but enough to cause concern. i parked it and opened a bottle of vino.

no low oil light, no high temp, no low coolant and i took the X out today and still drives great. no smoke, no anything. (still smells from the oil yesterday.)

my only concern is that i may have busted the CCV when muscling it in there, or that the top hose #3 in the attachment is not connected properly at the top of the CCV.

any other suggestions or ways to diagnose before i go back in? i plan to do it monday, i will first look for valve cover gasket leaks and so on but that was done 8K miles ago or so.

[upallnight]

Did you look at all the old CCV parts after you removed them from the X? Were the hoses and valve clogged with oil/water mixture aka mayo? If they were clogged that could have been the cause for you oil consumption. If they were ok then it is probably something else that is causing your oil consumption.

Normally if a ccv hose is not on correctly you will have a vacuum leak which will cause a lean condition. Any SES or cel lights on?

[tonycajjo]

nope, no codes nothing. so i guess it's probably fine and must be something else...

i was kinda pissed when i replaced only to see that it wasn't all clogged up. the dipstick tube was so there's some hope there. someone must have recently done it. (i just bought the car about 1500-2000 miles ago)

i'm tempted do a BG109 treatment to see if it could clean the valves and whatnot.

https://www.bgprod.com/blog/bg-109-t...nance-product/

but i'm not gonna do that until i figure out why my X was smoking. i guess i just gotta get in there and look for a leak.

[tonycajjo]

Originally Posted by trader4

With visible smoke, couldn't you track down the area it's coming from? Did any oil spill when you were working on it and maybe it's just burning off?

didn't spill any while working, and it was a couple days later that i saw the smoke. i tried to look and see where it was coming from but didn't have any luck.

i'll just have to look and see. maybe its VCG or something. i was really pushing it. maybe i'll push it again and see if she smokes... maybe it was just some spill that finally made its way to the manifold.

[tonycajjo]

had a chance to check her out this just now and it seems i need to replace the seals near the spark plugs. aka valve cover gaskets. there was oil pooled up under the engine cover. the VCG was done (i was told) and it looks done but maybe they didnt change the seals near the plugs or did it improperly.

I may think i never noticed cause the oil had a chance to burn out because of a failing CCV.

one thing i did notice is even though i'm burning oil, well losing oil out the top of the engine there my oil level is high.

i drained the oil and filled with 8 quarts and it's reading high...

thoughts??? could i just be over filled?

[Ricky Bobby]

Shouldn't be overfilled with 8 quarts and a filter change. Should be just right

[StephenVA]

Oil in the Plug wells are what you suspect- valve covers and seals. High RPMs fling oil all over inside the cover so it leaks on hi RPM runs.
Easy DIY project. A LOT easier than the CCV system replacement you just did.

Chuck the plugs and install the NGK fine wire ones like
Iridium IX BKR6EIX Stock No 6418, gap .032

They will provide a little better tip in acceleration, idle quality, and fuel ECON

[tonycajjo]

i figured as much... i let it sit for a moment after i wrote that post and the level is right where it needs to be.

turns out cylinder 2 (second from the front) is loaded with oil. guess i'll have to do VCG. I know it was done recently but it must have failed or was not done properly and the bad CCV hid the problem.

shouldn't be too bad. in looking at it, it looks way easier than the v8 which i did a few years back.

[tonycajjo]

Originally Posted by StephenVA

Oil in the Plug wells are what you suspect- valve covers and seals. High RPMs fling oil all over inside the cover so it leaks on hi RPM runs.
Easy DIY project. A LOT easier than the CCV system replacement you just did.

Chuck the plugs and install the NGK fine wire ones like
Iridium IX BKR6EIX Stock No 6418, gap .032

They will provide a little better tip in acceleration, idle quality, and fuel ECON

i'll take a look at those plugs. thanks for the info

[crystalworks]

VCG on m54 is MUCH easier than the V8's. You'll be fine if you managed the CCV.

8qts seems like a bit much to me though on the fill? I thought the m54 was closer to 6.5 - 7qts depending on how much you were able to drain out?

Never mind... just googled it and the m54 in an X5 must have a larger oil pan or something to accommodate the 4 wheel drive. My experience has been with the e83, e46, and e39's with RWD.