Help - Oil Seperator Failure Issue in Cold Weather

[Ricky Bobby]

Edit nvm on N62 that point is irrelevant since no fan clutch

[StephenVA]

In your area, the drive from the warm bed you picked, should help keep you and the X5 happy. The water vapor sludge that collects, can be discovered long before there is an issue, by simply opening up the oil filler cap and look on the bottom of the cap. No "mayo" no problems. It has been posted before, that opening the cap after driving in cold weather will allow the vapor to whisk away into the atmosphere, solving the problem. The challenge here is to make sure you reinstall the damn thing before you drive off or you create a lot larger issue.
As you are aware, short trips do not allow all the water/oil vapor condensation to "burn off", so it collects on the top of the engine as warm water vapor and settles when the engine starts to cool off. The vacuum of the CCV pulls this air and separates it. As long as there are "normal" trips where the engine oil temps are at operating temps for an extended time, all is ok. Unfortunately, some engineering team decided on a solution many years ago that met the pollution standards but has down stream consequences on service life.
Welcome to the trade offs of auto engineering. 10-15 years of life is a good one as a lot of our Models (all engine sizes) are in the same boat up north.

Meanwhile the old and tested PCV valve, solves this issue. BMW decided that it needed a different approach than that simple American solution. Welcome to our ownership challenges.

[johnlacson]

Would changing to a 0w20 oil help the solution? Or is it irrelevant to the problem? I just got my 05 3.0 and I wanted to know how to tell if it has the new insulated part, or if I should have it changed before winter sets in. I've also seen some electric heating blankets for engine bays, was wondering if these would help if I put them on an hour before heading out.

[JCL]

Originally Posted by johnlacson

Would changing to a 0w20 oil help the solution? Or is it irrelevant to the problem? I just got my 05 3.0 and I wanted to know how to tell if it has the new insulated part, or if I should have it changed before winter sets in. I've also seen some electric heating blankets for engine bays, was wondering if these would help if I put them on an hour before heading out.

The 0w oil would not help.

If you need to make short trips where it doesn't have a chance to warm up, make sure that you give it a longer drive occasionally, when it is up to temperature and can boil off the condensation.

[johnlacson]

Thanks! I saw that there are insulated parts for the m54 engines:

11 61 7 534 237 Oil Separator Repair kit 1
11 43 7 563 831 Dip Stick Guide Tube 1
11 15 7 532 628 Hose

[StephenVA]

[StephenVA]

For our 4.8is we get this to open up and inspect

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