really weird case with my X5, 2001 4.4 liter

[vladc77]

Hi,

I just wanted to share with you the experience I recently had. I recently had a trip over the mountains. So, I was driving up to mountains for couple of hours and then back to home. As soon I got out of the car I was able to smell a burned oil smell. I didn't get my attention to it while I was up in mountains, but after I got back to home and left my car in garage I noticed oil drops on garage's floor under each wheel. All plastic shields above wheels were covered with oil, as well as left and right sides of the car were covered with oil mixed with dust.

I was shocked and took the car to closest shop. They didn't find any suspicions signs of oil leak at all. The car behaves as usual. I cannot imagine where I could get this oil. The oil level in engine is exactly what I had. The only place I could not check is automatic transmission. I could drive over the oil somewhere during my trip, but honestly I could not really find the place where it could happen.
I washed the car and drove the car a couple of days and now it is all clean, no oil at all. It seems like a good sign, but I might already lost all oil that was leaking.

I am wondering if anyone ever had anything like that or heard about it. What this can be? How can I check the oil level in automatic transmission and if there is a way to add oil to it.

Any advice is highly appreciated.
Thanks.

[NOVAX5]

it is not a weird case at all, rather a common case. oil seperator failed on you, blown head gasket. extreme cold weather + 2001 4.4i enginer + burning oil smell + oil drops will make your oil seperator the top candidate. good luck.

[vladc77]

Thanks for the reply. I did not have any signs of leak from head gasket. The oil level is normal, not over or less. It seems like a very little chance.
I might be wrong. I will check it. It also does not explain how I could have so much oil outside the hood, but not inside at all. It seems like this idea is not a really good fit to my case.

[Tomaz]

This may be a ridiculous suggestion, but you may have driven through a puddle of oil?

[NOVAX5]

Originally Posted by Tomaz

This may be a ridiculous suggestion, but you may have driven through a puddle of oil?

Hmm, interesting point. if it were a puddle of oil you should have a big relief.

[vladc77]

Honestly, I tend that it might be something like that. The car is driving well, there are no any abnormal signs. I don't see any oil spills under the hood and under the engine or transmition. I am only kind of surprized that I could see the oil on exterior after front and rear wheels. It seems like that the oil was spreading from them, but I think I should get some oil in front of the car from cars that were moving ahead of me.

[elric75]

I guess one other idea would be to check the CV boots for leaks. When they break the grease drops all over the wheel area.