Oil leak right hand side cold weather

[ekvals]

Hi ernald..

The shop confirmed today that it indeed was a blown valve cover gasket caused by frozen condensation in the oil seperator system...

So i guess it's gonna cost me..

I'd wish i had youre DIY and that the weather was milder.. the car is sitting in the garage, so i would have to tow it somewhere to make the repairs myself. I dont really have any place to work with it, and to do it outdoor in -15 celsius is not really an option..

I will get a quote for labour and parts over the weekend.. The guy in the shop said that he had a car last year with the exact same symptoms.....


I was thinking... Since this is caused by condensation in the oil, would it have helped if i recently had a oil change.? Or would the accumulated condensation still be in the system.???

[primetime]

Originally Posted by ekvals

Hi ernald..

The shop confirmed today that it indeed was a blown valve cover gasket caused by frozen condensation in the oil seperator system...

Pretty sure thats what I said it was in post #6... Good luck with the repairs, keep an eye on it the rest of the winter..Just because you get it fixed doesn't mean anything..It can happen all over again very easily. I have the same model X5 and I had to do mine twice. 2 winters in a row..

[ekvals]

It sure was primetime.. You where right on the money there...

2 winters in a row!!!! That sounds expensive and anoying.... I got the impression that the new parts where upgraded to reduce the risk of it happening again.???

Also, how can i keep an eye on it.? This is a closed system..?


And what would you say is a fair amount of hours for the work that needs to be done.? Changing the gasket and the seperator..? I would like to have an idea before i get the quote from the shop..

Thanks Primetime..

[primetime]

Originally Posted by ekvals

It sure was primetime.. You where right on the money there...

2 winters in a row!!!! That sounds expensive and anoying.... I got the impression that the new parts where upgraded to reduce the risk of it happening again.???

Also, how can i keep an eye on it.? This is a closed system..?


And what would you say is a fair amount of hours for the work that needs to be done.? Changing the gasket and the seperator..? I would like to have an idea before i get the quote from the shop..

Thanks Primetime..

ekvals...You can keep an eye on it by checking under the oil cap..Do this every 3 days or so..Look for that milky brown pasty goo subtance..If its there then thats telling you that you are indeed having frozen condensation build up happening again. if thats the case, (after you've had the repairs done of course) keep cleaning the oil cap, and drive the X5 for 45 minutes to an hour or more to get the engine hot enough to burn that condensate off. Its when people don't do this often enough is when it gets too late..With a fresh new seperator using this method will likely keep your X safe, even if you see that milky crap under the oil cap again..

The overall job should take 3-5 hours maximum. if you're having a shop do it they shouldn't take any longer then that. maybe 6 hours max and thats if they're going very slow doing their work. Good luck.

[ekvals]

Thanks again Primetime.

I have seen the pasty goo in the past.. I just never knew what it could lead too.

I use the car a lot for smaller trips, not heating the engine to a decent temperature.. So i guess i am in the danger zone for this too happen.. Ill make sure that i check the cap, and run the good and warm whenever i can..

Thanks for the tip on working hours as well.. When i met the mechanic earlier today, i used a lot of the info from this thread,and he asked me how i knew about these issue.. So hopefully he will expect that im somewhat aware of the time the job should take..

Thanks a bunch...

[primetime]

No problem ekvals..Thats what this site is for! Anytime you need help..don't hesitate to ask.

[ekvals]

One more question Prime..

The guy in the shop was talking about taking the intake manifold off, butas far as i can tell from this thread http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ed-w-pics.html that shoudl'nt be necessary.

What do you think..? Should i argue if they want to add an hour for this as well..?

[sequel95]

ekvals, and other friends on xoutpost, when we have this dreaded oil separator issue (cold temperatures, vehicle with 50,000+ miles, white smoke out back, oil under vehicle, sluggish performance, etc.) we need to take the vehicle to an authorized BMW dealer. BMW is well aware of this problem and knows the steps to take to fix your vehicle. On another forum, a guy in Minneapolis was told by an independent shop the engine was seized, which was not the case. He took it to the dealer and it cost him $300 and he was on the forum earlier looking for sympathy because the indy guy told him the engine was toast.

BMW will stand behind these oil separators in some regard. I had exactly the same problem as you, and BMW paid for all parts- I paid for labor. It was not the perfect solution, but at least they stood behind the issue.

I am not bashing indy shops at all. If you have a trusted independent shop, by all means, use them. But if your vehicle has a known manufacturer failure, and the manufacturer has taken steps in other cases to resolve the problem, we do a service to ourselves to dump every single oil separator failure back on BMW.

Who knows, perhaps they decide to start replacing these things for free as preventative maintenance.

Good luck, and keep us posted on your outcome.

sequel95 in Milwaukee

[ekvals]

Hi sequel.

Thanks for the info and advice..

My X is in a authorized BMW garage.. However, i think the market for X5's have'nt been very big in my area, and therefore they don't have the best experience yet..

I would expect they will get the info they need from other bmw shops to do this right..

I just wanted to have as much information as i can before they present the quote..


How did you get BMW to pay for the parts..? Did the dealer offer this.?

Since this is a obvious weakness on these cars, BMW shouldn't make the car owners have to pay the price..

The parts from bmw bulletine, and gaskert sums up to about 500 us here in Norway.. in addition, the BMW garage charges about 170us an hour.. (We have pretty hih prices in Norway) But if i could reduce the costs y not having to pay for the parts, it would help a lot...

Thanks.

[ekvals]

Okey.


I got received the quote today. They have already strarted working on the car, but they are waiting for some parts which are brought by mail.

Below you can see a scan of the quote, with explination under.

The prices are in NKR, and with todays currency, you would have to divide the value by 5,6 and then add 25% tax.. (Oh yeah..)

Okey, here goes...




The hour price is divided into 6 per hour.. 12 is 2 hours.


1. Is the hour price for changing the oil and finding what was wrong with the car. Total 2hours

2. Is the price of 7,5ltr of oil.

3. Is the oil filtre

4. Dismantling of the intake, as far as i can read. Total of 4,2 hours

5.Is the dismantlig of something with a valve.? Total of 2,7 hours

6.Switch the pump. 1 hour

7. Vent something 1 hour

8, 9, 10 and 11 are parts

12. are tools that the shop uses...

Beside the oil change and finding the error, they have estimated 8,167 hours...

Is this okey.? I could tell they didnt have too much experience, if any, on this specific problem, so im not sure on what basis they are estimating the quote.

The hours for the oil change and finding the problem is def going to be argued.. I told them to call me before they started any fixing on the vehicle. Which they didnt, and when i got there, they had changed the oil and spent some time on the oil change and finding the problem.
I knew when i got to the shop what the problem was (thanks to this great forum ), which means they could have spent 5min confirming it, instead of 1,5hours looking for it, also i had oil for a full change in the trunk...



As you can see, the total cost in dollars is a nice 2730 bucks!!!!

The prices in Norway are as you can tell, a bit stiffer then most places, but i guess what im asking is, should i argue about the amount of time they claim it take.? Or should a BMW authorized shop be able to do this in a shorter amount of time.??

Are the parts they have set up correct.?

I'm going to call them tomorrow, and all answers are much appreciated...