Blue-white smoke from driver side tail pipe after valve cover gasket replaced

[zachthefcr]

I have a 2005 X5 4.4 with abut 99,000 miles on it. I do love the truck. It had been leaking oil slowly (a quart every six weeks or so) over a one year period, and had been told by a BMW specialty shop that it was due to a leak from the valve cover gasket. I finally decided to have the gasket leak repaired, but was told at the time of the repair that not only did the valve cover gasket need to be replaced, the alternator seal, the eccentric shaft seal, the timing cover gasket and the camshaft solenoid seal all needed replacing. I went ahead with the repairs, as I had been taking the X5 to this specialist, and they have generally been reliable. To my shock, about $2600 and 1500 miles later, I noticed that the "check oil level" warning came up. I also noticed a blue-white smoke coming out of the driver side tail pipe, which had never been observed before. The smoke was not necessarily observable at all times. When the smoke was evident, hitting the gas pedal would put out a big plume of smoke. There has been no smoke coming out of the passenger side tailpipe. I put oil in the car, and had to subsequently put oil in the car again about another 1500 miles later. I'm taking the car back to the shop to find out what the problem is, but thought I'd post here to see if I can be armed with some information before being given a diagnosis by the BMW repair shop. Thanks for assistance anyone can proivide.