Oil Seperator

[switchman]

Originally Posted by lo_jack

Cliff's notes: Do not pull the intake manifold to get at the separator. It is unnecessary. I have R&R'ed mine twice, and my manifold has never left the engine.


You do not need to take off the intake manifold to find/see/replace the separator on the 3.0i. Take off the air box, the silencer, and the throttle body boot. Remove the nuts/bolts that hold the vacuum manifold (gray box with lots of hoses and wires going into it, located under #7 in this diagram. Push it aside, and disconnect whatever electrical leads allow you to do that. There are several right there, and they are only long enough to get to what they are supposed to go to, so do not worry if you need to disconnect them. They are spring loaded and go back on easily.

With that out of the way, you should see, under the intake manifold, a black plastic part with several hoses coming off of it. That is #1 in this diagram.

There are two screws that hold the separator to the engine. They are not easy to get at, and the lower one requires taking of the throttle body (#5 here), which is held on by four bolts. Just take it off the block and let it dangle back towards the firewall.

If your separator has never been replaced and needs to be done, I would recommend replacing all of the associated hoses , 2, 3, 4 and 7 in that diagram, plus the distribution piece (#5 here, which comes with new #6's installed).

That is the entire system. It takes blowby gases, unburned hydrocarbon (all bad for the crankcase), funnels them into the separator which sends liquid oil back into the pan (hose that comes off the bottom) and gases up to the distribution piece to be sent to every cylinder to be reignited. A good way to tell if your separator is working or not is taking off #7 in this diagram and seeing if the insides of the manifold are covered in oily goo. If it is, the separator is not working right, as oil is getting sent back into the intake where it does not belong. This is usually accompanied by decrease in mileage, as the oil in the chambers forces the computer to add fuel via injectors to achieve the correct air/fuel ratio.

lo_jack,,, need some help ! got the air box out, removed 1 bolt, i nut of vacuum manifold but can't find another bolt or nut holding vacuum manifold in place. what/where is holding manifold ? i don't have a bentley so i'm just following your post here. appreciate more help, thx.

[lo_jack]

Originally Posted by switchman

lo_jack,,, need some help ! got the air box out, removed 1 bolt, i nut of vacuum manifold but can't find another bolt or nut holding vacuum manifold in place. what/where is holding manifold ? i don't have a bentley so i'm just following your post here. appreciate more help, thx.

That manifold shares a bolt with the throttle body, if I recall correctly. If you have the nut and the bolt off, there is one left and that would be it. I had to find it blind just shoving my right hand in there and finding the mounting bracket. Also, it is not going to move a lot once the bolts are off - I just swing it down towards the driver frame rail so it is mostly out of the way. You can get the separator out over it then, no problem.

[///MB]

I will be going in for service soon and was wondering if this is something I need to have checked out/replaced. I have 65k miles on my X right now and the dealer replaced all 4 crankcase hoses about a year ago. I don't believe the oil separator was ever replaced.

Since I live in So Cal, should I get the separator replaced? Also, I have the BMW extended warranty until May. Would this be covered? Thanks.

[bcb1]

I'm in the same boat as MB above. I have a 2005 X5 3.0i with 52K miles and I'm taking it to my indie mechanic next month for oil change.

Do the '05 models have the same problems with the oil seperator as the earlier year models? I'm wondering if I shouldn't have mine replaced as preventive maintenance.

[X5-limo]

...add another 'new' '01 X5 owner to the boat - 62.5k miles. I'm figuring with the age of our SUV's and lack of quality warranty protection that it's in our best interest to 'preventative maintenance' as much as we can to help ensure a long (and expense-LESS) X5 driving relationship!

Maybe we should start our own 'Preventative Maintenance (for higher mileage/older) SUV' thread!??

[klnteg]

Guess What!!!!!! yep it went again!!!! just got a bill for $782 on Dec 12 08 and it failed again! I see a puddle of oil under the vehicle. I think I read somewhere that there was an updated seperator for the X5? Not sure if they put the new one on or an old stock new one? anyone know that part # my part number was 11-15-7-560-068 is this the new or old one? Any ideas?

Thanks

[djbock]

Originally Posted by klnteg

Guess What!!!!!! yep it went again!!!! just got a bill for $782 on Dec 12 08 and it failed again! I see a puddle of oil under the vehicle. I think I read somewhere that there was an updated seperator for the X5? Not sure if they put the new one on or an old stock new one? anyone know that part # my part number was 11-15-7-560-068 is this the new or old one? Any ideas?

Thanks

Mine did the same after changing it out. Was leaking out of the oil fill cap. Did they change the oil as well? After I replaced the oil it has been fine.

I think that the replacement separators are the updated ones, not sure though as they have the same part number.

[primetime]

The updated seperator has an insulated wrap that goes around the hoses so it won't freeze.. Thats what you need. And yes when you change the seperator you need an oil change too to get that old crap in the old oil out..

[djbock]

Is that "updated" or an "upgrade"?

[primetime]

Updated supposedly.. It does work though.. Also alot of people in colder climate winters switch to 0w - 40 oil during the cold months. Seems to help also, from what they say.