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  #1  
Old 01-25-2025, 08:59 PM
jac jac is offline
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Mysfiring and mustard-yellow liquid inside valve cover

I am not feeling it this time... I am thinking this engine may be kaput.

I drove it for a few hundred miles 2 weeks ago on a Saturday after the snow storm in north Texas. Drove south to Austin, and back, at highway speeds mostly on cruise control. It drove beautifully.

Then the temperatures dropped again for the past few weeks. I went to turn it on and here come the multiple misfires.


I have DME codes:
  • F6 [secondary air system, flow rate too low, bank 2]
  • F0 [cylinder 3, mysfiring during warm up]
  • EE [cylinder 5, misfiring with cylinder cutout],
  • F2 [cylinder 5, mysfiring during warm up].

It is a mess, it can barely stay running, very little power.

I opened the oil refill port and the below is a photo of what I saw! Time to throw in the towel?
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  #2  
Old 01-25-2025, 09:20 PM
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Definitely not time to throw in the towel. That yellow goo you're seeing is the winter cheese wiz effect. It's very common in wintertime and it's caused by condensation building up in the crankcase due to short trips in cold weather. Wait until Spring/Summer and it's gone.


Here's a link to a thread I started on this about 13 years ago:


https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...ck-photos.html


As far as the misfires, I'll defer to some of the experts on this forum who have more experience with troubleshooting misfires.
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Old 01-25-2025, 09:36 PM
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msammy: thank you very much for the link to your thread!

I did try to use the search function before posting but kept getting a 500 error...

Anyway, I have had the X5 since it rolled off the lot and I had never seen this!

You've given me the hope I needed to go figure out the mysfires. Thanks!
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Old 01-25-2025, 09:46 PM
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You're welcome! Our E53 does this every winter and by Summer, it's just a burnt brown color on the inside of the valve cover cap as the engine temps burn off the "cheese". Haha.


As far as the misfires, try swapping the coil packs from cylinder 3 & 5 into other cylinders to see if the misfires follow the coil packs. It's a really simple test to do and if the misfires follow the coil packs, order two new ones and replace them. I had a similar problem years ago and one of the coil packs was bad and boy did it run like $hit.



Give it a try as you wait for the experts to chime in. Good luck and I hope you figure it out. The E53 is a great ride!
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2002 X5 3.0i, Sport Premium, Titanium Silver, Grey Dakota, Cold Weather Pkg, Xenons, DICE, LED Tails, just a winter vehicle...

2007 550i, Sport Premium, Silver Grey Metallic, Grey Dakota, Nav, Cold Weather Pkg, Comfort Access, HD Radio, Xenons.
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  #5  
Old 01-26-2025, 08:12 AM
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Next time you drive to Austin, hit me up! Plenty of breweries around here.

Has your auxiliary air pump ever been replaced? Mine made screeching noises when starting up cold. Check the connection. On cold start, open the hood and listen to it. It should run for a few minutes. The #5 misfire is the one to check. Pull the plug for inspection. Swap the coil with another. You can ohm it and compare it to another coil.

How old are the spark plugs? Coil packs?

Don't worry about the goo. Mine does the same thing. After installing a cold weather CCV system, build up seems less no not existent. I'm curious if a new aluminum valve will have an affect on it too. I'll monitor build up. With three major oil fixes complete, mine should be going to through oil a lot less. Swap the cover seal too. Moister could be getting sucked into the crank case over time.
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Old 01-26-2025, 09:45 AM
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Others had the same concern your not alone...
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...php?p=30993927

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Old 01-26-2025, 06:17 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by X5chemist View Post
Next time you drive to Austin, hit me up! Plenty of breweries around here.
Yeah, for sure! I should be going a few times a year, my son's attending UT. I'll let you know next time.

The spark plugs and coil packs are quite new. But something is up.

@getty150: thanks! It is comforting to see that this is caused by condensation from short trips and not something major.

So today I exchanged coil pack #1 with #4, cleared all the codes and reset all the adaptations. It started to run well. So I took it for a 30 min hwy trip and no issues whatsoever. I did log a bunch of stuff with the OBDLink app just in case. Anyway, I'll report what goes on in the next few days as I drive it around.

Thank you all!
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