Massive Oil Release

[Rush]

@jfoj

Thanks for the tips. To be honest, I have no idea. It survived three Buffalo winters without issue, and while it was in a garage at night, MANY (most?) days it spent 10+ hours sitting outside in a parking lot after a 10 minute drive. Long before I knew anything about this issue.

Maybe it has sloooowly built up over time. I'm going to check the oil cap tonight.

The engine oil you see is no more than 6-8 weeks old, and that oil certainly isn't anywhere near black. If you look at the center of the red box, and look also to the right of the tire in the picture, that is is oil. It seems, to my virtually ignorant eye, to have the normal darkish caramel colour of Mobil 1. Directly below where it has dripped looks black because of light reflection in the photo. There can't be more than 100 miles on the car since it was changed. However, each time it was driven, the engine was plenty warm. Even if the thermo is soft. How would I check that?

[Rush]

Originally Posted by David.X5

It's a PITA, messy job. When mine went (a 15F day), it was about $500. Mostly labor to clean everything. Intake has to come off. Only part the Indy replaced at that price was the actual CCV. I later replaced every other part of the system myself and then put the heated wrap gizmo.

I guess I should add that I did not loose anything that looked like coolant. Definitely worries me a little that one of your head gaskets let go.

Thanks, David.

I'll let you guys know the verdict before I get it repaired.

Pleasedon'tbesomethingcatastrophic, pleasedon'tbesomethingcatastrophic...

[Rockit]

Originally Posted by Rush

@jfoj

Thanks for the tips. To be honest, I have no idea. It survived three Buffalo winters without issue, and while it was in a garage at night, MANY (most?) days it spent 10+ hours sitting outside in a parking lot after a 10 minute drive. Long before I knew anything about this issue.

The garage saved you all that time. If you said oil and antifreeze leaked you may have blown the head gasket and most likely another oil gasket.

[Rush]

Thank you, Rockit. It certainly is frustrating that an item with such a simple fix can do so much damage to your car.

I suppose if you are getting a new car every few years these things aren't likely going to matter, but honestly, after spending nearly 10 years here, I can't fathom not being on a board like this.

[Omerta]

Did you pop the hood and see where the leak is actually originating?

[Rush]

No, there wasn't enough light.

I'll try tomorrow and bring a flashlight as well as my camera.

[Rush]

Welp, underside pictures aren't quite in the cards yet, but I got these of the oil cap:





and the dipstick:



That is the so-called mayo, I assume. Is that a lot?

and a bit inside:



Short of crawling under the car to get pictures (which I couldn't right then) I could not find any evidence of an oil or coolant leak from above. Assuming in the most generic of ways that the valve covers are in the place where valve covers should be, there is no leak there. I ran my hands along the gaskets and found no fresh oil.

As mentioned before, the following was done 6-8 weeks ago:

Valve cover gasket set
Valve cover seal washers
Intake manifold cover
Intake manifold casket/gasket (sic)
Serpentine belts
Master cylinder
Brake booster
Low control arms

Are there any of these things that would have involved the CCV, and if so, what/how? Or, if there is a schematic? I didn't figure it out on Realoem.

Any thoughts?

Thank you again, as always.

[bcredliner]

Originally Posted by Rockit

If you live in colder climates like me this is common on these junk E53's. Happens on both 6 and all V8. The kits are a joke and only work the first year. The white milky stuff freezes in your oil if you don't drive more than a half hour each day to work to burn it off, it gets stuck in the PCV valve and oil tubes. This happens around 18 degrees and lower. BMW well knows of the design flaw and ignores it.

The pressure in the engine sucks the engine oil in the cylinders and makes the engine smoke and or causes hydraulic lock and ruins the engine by bending the pistons rods or blows a head gaskets or both.

On my 4.4 it forced the oil out the valve cover fill cap and it never smoked. It did blow my valve covers and rear main seal $2K

The only way I found to help avoid this is 1. don't own a X5 2. Don't start the car under 18 degrees 3. definitely use Marvels Mystery Oil in your oil.

This only happens if you don't drive far each day and the temps get below 18 degrees....6cyl-8cyl, new CCV parts ,it doesn't matter, will happen.

Paraphrase--it's junk, it costs me a ton of money, there's no fix and BMW could care less so I bought two

[Rockit]

Originally Posted by bcredliner

Paraphrase--it's junk, it costs me a ton of money, there's no fix and BMW could care less so I bought two

I bought 2 before I found out they where JUNK before they broke once a week.

I've owned many 5's and 7's and was very happy...this was the first and last BMW X5 I would ever buy. They are major JUNK machines and the owners are masochists. If I didn't own 2 I would not know what POS they where

[jfoj]

Hard to tell from the latest pictures.

If there is mayo or milkshake in the motor, then this may not be a frozen CCV, but a blow headgasket or some other major engine failure.

Usually mayo just builds up on the underside of the oil fill cap and valve cover and can and will get caught and frozen in the CCV and hoses, but rarely mixes in the oil.

BTW, what is the oil level as indicated on the dipstick? With a much oil that came out, you should probably not have oil or what ever on the dipstick.

Did you check the coolant level as well?