Oil Seperator

[primetime]

Originally Posted by flatlander

lo_jack, I think you are correct in the relationship of the oil filter seal with the oil separator issue. After my oil separator went, I replaced the valve cover gasket, separator and hoses. A few weeks later I found that my oil filter seal had failed too. I think it failed as a result of the over-pressure from the separator failure.

This separator system design is just plain amateur, sub standard, POS, whatever you want to call it. BMW should be embarrassed with this design. I've never had this issue with any other car.

This winter I've decided to keep the X5 in the heated garage, no driving whatsoever. I'm driving my Ford in this sub-freezing temps.

I hear ya brother.. Be sure to drive the bimmer on some of the days though, you don't want to let her sit too long with out starting her up and driving her around for a bit. Otherwise you might experience some other problem because it had been sittting too long..

[bcb1]

Man, whatever would posess BMW to make such a complicated, hard to get to design for a PCV valve? Nuts.

All of my other cars, It's always been easy to get to, and the valve costs a whopping $3 or $4 at Walmart or Autozone. Why not make a more simple, easy to service design, even if it required more frequent replacement...?

[JCL]

Originally Posted by bcb1

Man, whatever would posess BMW to make such a complicated, hard to get to design for a PCV valve? Nuts.

All of my other cars, It's always been easy to get to, and the valve costs a whopping $3 or $4 at Walmart or Autozone. Why not make a more simple, easy to service design, even if it required more frequent replacement...?

A PCV doesn't separate out the oil mist, it just vents. The crankcase ventilation valve includes a separator to keep that mist out of the intake.

[lo_jack]

Originally Posted by JCL

A PCV doesn't separate out the oil mist, it just vents. The crankcase ventilation valve includes a separator to keep that mist out of the intake.

Well, as far as I can tell, the X5 system separates oil and drops liquids back down, and lighter blowby goes into the distribution piece where it is added to every chamber for recombustion. I emphasize this because every domestic PCV system I have ever seen does this part only in theory, but if you pull the intake manifold(s) you will find only 2 or 4 (depending on number of cyls) cylinders actually get oily and dark from this practice. Therfore, one can only conclude that the X5 system applies the recombutibles to every cylinder so they go less lean over time, have less variance in A/F ratios across cylinders and therefore are easier to accurately control for performance purposes.

[X5 Meister]

Not sure about what years are worst, but BMW has issued 3 SIB's on the issue so far to cover the 3 main engines M54, M62, N62/62TU, which are present in a lot more models then just the X5.

Originally Posted by GershX5

What years is the oil separator a problem?

[X5 Meister]

That is true, but only for the M62 engine. The M54 and N62/62TU updates do not have any wraps and are completely different fixes.

Originally Posted by 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..