Not happy.Annual valve cover oil leak.

[Hvacdude]

Ok, so when I bought my used x5{2003,120k miles} I searched this forum for common issues that our cars have. The thing that really scared me was the ccv/valve cover leaks/hydro lock curse. This is my first winter with the car. Driving it the other day, I smelled the distinct scent of roasting motor oil. My very first thought was a blown valve cover gasket. On my way to the Detroit auto show I could smell it again. Parked it, opened the hood, found it wet around the valve cover. Thanked God the engine didn't hydro lock/suck oil.
So I gotta change the gasket. I'll be good for ? Who knows? The next time it gets freezing cold... Next winter.... Engine blows the next time the CCV freezes up...
After reading the threads on this issue, I knew it would happen to me. Lots of chatter about this issue, no real solutions. I thought, just eliminate the whole ccv system. Vent the pistion blow by into a can or put a check valve in the line going to the dipstick. Maybe a pressure relief valve in the valve cover that pop's before the gaskets do. It would prolly freeze shut too.
I don't do short runs with the car. I start it and go and it is warmed up when I shut it off. Warmming it up, I don't think it matters. That valve freezes up and yer screwed.
Is this going to be a annual thing ?
What should I do ?
I Kinda missing my $1000 Jeep now. I could just dump a quart of oil in it when I started to hear the motor clikity clack, and if It died... It was easy to fix or get another one .
I'm starting to "get over" BMW's . They changed after 2000. Not as reliable/well engineered or well built as the older beemers I've had.

[Gurjit]

what engine, post your bmw specs in your signature

I changed my valve cover gasket at 100,000kms and im at 162,000kms now and they are leak free still and I did this job half buzzing on crown royal

the temps drop to -10*C and go up to 40*C where I live, season to season

you should do a catch can setup if you are worried about hydro locking the engine

and start driving her hard, get those oil temps up, red line a day keeps the shops away, your pcv condensation free and your piston walls unglazed

very likely your valve cover is warped, overtime the plastic changes shape

[Jungerishere]

Over torquing the bolts? What brand of valve cover gasket are you using?

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by Hvacdude

Ok, so when I bought my used x5{2003,120k miles} I searched this forum for common issues that our cars have. The thing that really scared me was the ccv/valve cover leaks/hydro lock curse. This is my first winter with the car. Driving it the other day, I smelled the distinct scent of roasting motor oil. My very first thought was a blown valve cover gasket. On my way to the Detroit auto show I could smell it again. Parked it, opened the hood, found it wet around the valve cover. Thanked God the engine didn't hydro lock/suck oil.
So I gotta change the gasket. I'll be good for ? Who knows? The next time it gets freezing cold... Next winter.... Engine blows the next time the CCV freezes up...
After reading the threads on this issue, I knew it would happen to me. Lots of chatter about this issue, no real solutions. I thought, just eliminate the whole ccv system. Vent the pistion blow by into a can or put a check valve in the line going to the dipstick. Maybe a pressure relief valve in the valve cover that pop's before the gaskets do. It would prolly freeze shut too.
I don't do short runs with the car. I start it and go and it is warmed up when I shut it off. Warmming it up, I don't think it matters. That valve freezes up and yer screwed.
Is this going to be a annual thing ?
What should I do ?
I Kinda missing my $1000 Jeep now. I could just dump a quart of oil in it when I started to hear the motor clikity clack, and if It died... It was easy to fix or get another one .
I'm starting to "get over" BMW's . They changed after 2000. Not as reliable/well engineered or well built as the older beemers I've had.

BMW are only engineered to be reliable for the first Owner. Lifetime fluid is marketed to the first owner. 15,000 miles oil changes which have since been revised to 10,000 miles oil change is marketed to the first owner as part of their free maintenance program. The greater the intervals between oil changes the less money BMW will have to use to for the maintenance program.

CCV won't freeze until it starts to clog and by that time the car is out of warranty. Cheap plastic won't break until the car is passed the warranty period. Engine gaskets won't become brittle and starts to leak until after the warranty period.

Parts needs to be coded in order to be replaced, this is gear to stop DIYer and independent from working on the car. Why should you need to get a new battery coded in order to replace an old battery, because they don't want you to go to Wally Mart to buy a cheap $100 battery but go to a BMW dealer to buy their $400.00 battery which is probably made by the same company that makes batteries for Wally Mart.

To Hvacdude, find a car or truck that uses a PCV valve and not a CCV system.

[motordavid]

upallnight: out fookin standing summation of the BMW 'experience'. Two thumbs up.

While I have had a very fortuitous experience and time of 13.5 yrs with our '01, modern MY BMWs are intention marketed to be leased/sold and then resold/off lease with a thin 'CPO' that BMW is banking won't cost them much. After ~ 5+ yrs, many of the cars are 3rd/4th owner and it is that buyer's problem and often large expense for many repairs, both common maintenance, or more severe.

I have enjoyed our '01, and it may be the 2nd or 3rd 'best car' I have owned in 50+ yrs of cars, but the Footman awaits on my getting some considerable and expensive 'maintenance' work done soon, for the chance to get another few 'comfortable' years of use from it.

A new $70-$90G X of any variety is not on the reasonable horizon for us, in RetiredBumDom.
GL, mD

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by motordavid

upallnight: out fookin standing summation of the BMW 'experience'. Two thumbs up.

While I have had a very fortuitous experience and time of 13.5 yrs with our '01, modern MY BMWs are intention marketed to be leased/sold and then resold/off lease with a thin 'CPO' that BMW is banking won't cost them much. After ~ 5+ yrs, many of the cars are 3rd/4th owner and it is that buyer's problem and often large expense for many repairs, both common maintenance, or more severe.

I have enjoyed our '01, and it may be the 2nd or 3rd 'best car' I have owned in 50+ yrs of cars, but the Footman awaits on my getting some considerable and expensive 'maintenance' work done soon, for the chance to get another few 'comfortable' years of use from it.

A new $70-$90G X of any variety is not on the reasonable horizon for us, in RetiredBumDom.
GL, mD

No such thing as a BAD BMW. Only owners that don't know how to fix a BMW.

Originally Posted by Wolfgang Gullich

I purchased my '11 X5d as a CPO car with 42K on the clock.

When I got the car, it had a couple issues the dealer needed to fix off the bat. One was a scratch on a fender (not a mechanical issue) and the infamous cracked EGR cooler (known issue on 2011 and earlier X5ds).

Everything was fine for a while, then 1800 miles out of the full, factory warranty, the passenger-side headlight had a stepper motor failure. It was fixed as a Good-Faith repair but would have cost $2400 in parts alone if I had to foot the bill. BMW doesn't want their dealers replacing a $40 motor when they can charge 60 times more.

Well, forward to a couple months ago, and I started to smell toasted motor oil, a smell I'm quite familiar with having owned several air-cooled Volkswagens in the past. I suspected it was one of the turbos, but the dealer found the front diff to be leaking. Again, BMW opted to replaced the entire unit rather than the seals. A $40 repair on my 2010 Jeep Wrangler would have been $1800 in parts on the BMW as the seals are not replaceable...talk about a flawed design.

About 2 weeks before Christmas, the throttle valve actuator died. Another flawed design. The seal on the servo seeps allowing oil from PCV blow-by to fry the circuit board that controls it. Allegedly, that part was redesigned, but only time will tell.

So, 2 weeks ago, we're leaving my inlaws in the Sierras and the windshield squirters die. The pumps hum, but only a flacid spurt of windshield fluid hits the front and rear windscreens. And as of today, the toasted oil smell is back. And guess what? some nice, glistening oil can be seen on the low-pressure turbo through the gap between the heat shield and high-pressure turbo.

I'm dropping it off today expecting it to be fixed next week sometime. There's no reason a car that stickered for $63K should have these types of issues.

Is my X5d just a bad seed? Or par for the course? I absolutely love driving it and we're also on our 3rd MINI (also a BMW product) and have never had any issues on any of those cars...

Calling a Mini a BMW is like calling a Fiat a Ferrari.

[Doru]

I'm not with Upallnight 100%.......
My e39, e46 & e53 are all out warranty for some time now....
The thing is, if you buy used, right after it went out of warranty, you need to do some preventative maintenance, and then alter the "new" BMW maintenance schedule - this one kills the car (the 15 k miles oil change interval, and lifetime fluids philosophy).

I live where it's cold in the winter (really cold), and I have no problems with the CCV system. This is an overblown issue, and a catch can do more harm than good especially in cold climates. On the e39 the last time I changed the CCV was in 2007 with the cold weather unit & new dipstick. The thing is, you know when the temps are really low, so once this happen, one should check periodically the oil dipstick, and by periodically I mean at least once/week. Once you spot the condensate paste forming (mayo as people refer to), you should try to drive it at least 2500 rpm once the engine is warmed up for a minimum of 15-20 minutes. That's what I do, and I have no issues. You don't need to go on the Hi-way, etc, etc. You have steptronic, so instead of leaving in auto, you just shift while driving home at city speeds, but in the 3d for example, and sometimes in the 2nd.
Also, to warm up the engine faster in order to alleviate ice/condesate paste forming, I turn totally off the HVAC and monitor the KTMP until it reaches 82°C at least. It's not that bad - that's why you have seat warmers, and the aforementioned temp is reached rather fast. Once you turn on the HVAC, you will see a sudden temp dip of probably 10°C - because the heater core is also a radiator, but now the bulk of the coolant & the engine is warmed up, so the volume of coolant in the heater core will be heated up quickly.

Concerning the cooling system woes, I noticed that by abiding by the 2 years flush method and using the BMW coolant, the cooling system is rather solid. The plastics don't degrade by temp fluctuations only, but also due to unchanged coolant, in which the additives wear out, and the old coolant will degrade the plastic/rubber. Also, once the plastics/rubbers of the cooling system start going South, you will notice a change of color - from black to brown or a tinge of green (if you pay attention to things under the hood, that is)

Concerning the VCG, I heard about the plastic warping, but I never experienced it on any of my cars. But I also use the correct torque specs & tightening sequence. Also, for about 1 year, the OE VCG are Viton, so they will never degrade/harden. So once the VCG is removed and replaced with the new one, this is a moot issue.

As with any car, once it ages, components start degrading and sometimes you need to change them. Also, as with many other cars, certain "flaws" that are attached to the model have workarounds - some good, some bad. But then you have people complaining about it without doing a thing to address the situation.

If you don't like the vehicle, you can sell it anytime and buy another car you think is best suited for your needs.

I see you just joined this forum, just purchased an (old) vehicle and start making waves by bashing the car.

I know, when I buy a used car, I might have purchased some inherent issues - the car is NOT new......So the 1st thing I do (usually), I address everything it needs done and wasn't by the PO. Not sure where your "annual VCG leak" is coming from? How many have you changed on the vehicle?

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by Doru

I'm not with Upallnight 100%.......
My e39, e46 & e53 are all out warranty for some time now....
The thing is, if you buy used, right after it went out of warranty, you need to do some preventative maintenance, and then alter the "new" BMW maintenance schedule - this one kills the car (the 15 k miles oil change interval, and lifetime fluids philosophy).

I live where it's cold in the winter (really cold), and I have no problems with the CCV system. This is an overblown issue, and a catch can do more harm than good especially in cold climates. On the e39 the last time I changed the CCV was in 2007 with the cold weather unit & new dipstick. The thing is, you know when the temps are really low, so once this happen, one should check periodically the oil dipstick, and by periodically I mean at least once/week. Once you spot the condensate paste forming (mayo as people refer to), you should try to drive it at least 2500 rpm once the engine is warmed up for a minimum of 15-20 minutes. That's what I do, and I have no issues. You don't need to go on the Hi-way, etc, etc. You have steptronic, so instead of leaving in auto, you just shift while driving home at city speeds, but in the 3d for example, and sometimes in the 2nd.
Also, to warm up the engine faster in order to alleviate ice/condesate paste forming, I turn totally off the HVAC and monitor the KTMP until it reaches 82°C at least. It's not that bad - that's why you have seat warmers, and the aforementioned temp is reached rather fast. Once you turn on the HVAC, you will see a sudden temp dip of probably 10°C - because the heater core is also a radiator, but now the bulk of the coolant & the engine is warmed up, so the volume of coolant in the heater core will be heated up quickly.

Concerning the cooling system woes, I noticed that by abiding by the 2 years flush method and using the BMW coolant, the cooling system is rather solid. The plastics don't degrade by temp fluctuations only, but also due to unchanged coolant, in which the additives wear out, and the old coolant will degrade the plastic/rubber. Also, once the plastics/rubbers of the cooling system start going South, you will notice a change of color - from black to brown or a tinge of green (if you pay attention to things under the hood, that is)

Concerning the VCG, I heard about the plastic warping, but I never experienced it on any of my cars. But I also use the correct torque specs & tightening sequence. Also, for about 1 year, the OE VCG are Viton, so they will never degrade/harden. So once the VCG is removed and replaced with the new one, this is a moot issue.

As with any car, once it ages, components start degrading and sometimes you need to change them. Also, as with many other cars, certain "flaws" that are attached to the model have workarounds - some good, some bad. But then you have people complaining about it without doing a thing to address the situation.

If you don't like the vehicle, you can sell it anytime and buy another car you think is best suited for your needs.

I see you just joined this forum, just purchased an (old) vehicle and start making waves by bashing the car.

I know, when I buy a used car, I might have purchased some inherent issues - the car is NOT new......So the 1st thing I do (usually), I address everything it needs done and wasn't by the PO. Not sure where your "annual VCG leak" is coming from? How many have you changed on the vehicle?

Hope that wasn't directed at me since I have close to three thousand posts to my name for just this forum and another 3,000 posts on the Bimmerforums when I had an E34.

[Doru]

Originally Posted by upallnight

Hope that wasn't directed at me since I have close to three thousand posts to my name for just this forum and another 3,000 posts on the Bimmerforums when I had an E34.

Not you......

Just the remark about being reliable for the 1st owner....This is correct if the 2nd owner doesn't do his homework and check what the maintenance was.
Any car today, if it would go the 15 k miles oil change intervals & lifetime fluids would be iffy buy out of warranty. That's why I also said, that personally, any car I buy 2nd hand, I don't care what has been done to it, I just treat it like nothing was ever done. I was able to straighten out quite a few problems on the e39, e53 & e46 this way. They have never left me stranded, and personally I think they are quite reliable if well taken care of. All 3 of the cars I have had a few flaws due to previous owners "taking care" of them. I am 100% sure if I would have just driven them without taking a look under the hood and under the car, and to continue to follow the "BMW maintenance", I would have been in trouble a long time ago.

All's good Upallnight!!!

[romeokc10]

Shhhhhhhh.....don't talk bad about BMW, you guys are gonna piss off the BMW fan boys and then they'll attack you like rabid dogs...lol!