Oil leak on a cold day

[audiophool]

Our X5 (Blair) usually sits in a heated garage but was parked ouside in -20C weather for a couple of days last week. The wife drove it 10km into town and there was massive smoke coming from under the hood when she stopped at her destination. I looked and there was oil all over the AC compressor and the exhaust area. Cleaned it up and there's no more leak. Blair's back in the garage now and seems OK. 280,000km on the ticker and I have no idea how long ago the CCV was changed, or if it ever was.

Pretty sure this old engine is in need of some TLC as I've never done anything but oil changes for the last 5 years. Maybe VCG, spark plugs, OFH gasket etc.

Thoughts?

[80stech]

The vacuum manifold for the CCV might have froze and the pressure pushed oil out of the valvel cover gasket.

[cn90]

- Google "BavarianE39 CCV Mod", it will lead you to the infamous thread here.

- Then do the CCV Mod ASAP, I posted some photos in that thread, it also reduces the oil consumption from 1qt/400 miles down to zero consumption.

[80stech]

The "mod" as cn90 suggests, does nothing to help this problem.

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by 80stech

The vacuum manifold for the CCV might have froze and the pressure pushed oil out of the valvel cover gasket.

OP you are living on borrow time with that old CCV. Replace it or suffer a catastrophic failure one day.

[audiophool]

Originally Posted by upallnight

OP you are living on borrow time with that old CCV. Replace it or suffer a catastrophic failure one day.

PO says he changed it along with all insulated hoses not long before we bought it from him. That said, it was over 5 years ago. I exepect our saving grace is the fact the trucklet is stored in a heated garridge rather than being left to the arctic winds.

I do plan on a full topside maintenance in the spring.

[80stech]

Replacing the CCV is not the answer to the freezing problem either. The BMW winter CCV kit is not even a good band aid for the problem. A better fix (if keeping the CCV system is necessary) was the electric heater they installed in the next series, but that is what the fire starting recall is all about. The saving grace for the OP is that he had a crappy aftermarket valve cover gasket that gave way before something else did.

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by audiophool

I expect our saving grace is the fact the truck is stored in a heated garage rather than being left to the arctic winds.

This. And avoid short drives in the winter.

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by audiophool

PO says he changed it along with all insulated hoses not long before we bought it from him. That said, it was over 5 years ago. I exepect our saving grace is the fact the trucklet is stored in a heated garridge rather than being left to the arctic winds.

I do plan on a full topside maintenance in the spring.

5 Winters and who knows how many short drives. Like I said you are living on borrow time. The fact that this has already happened to you should tell you the same thing.

[andrewwynn]

Couldn't I simply defrost the CCV with a hot air gun before driving when the temp is say below -5C?

My wife's car has symptoms of the problem (bad mpg, oil consumption, yellow slime in the oil).

I always try to drive our x5s until they reach closed loop which usually means about a ten minute drive in the winter time. Wife doesn't follow the rule which leads to her car having CCV related issues I suspect.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro