Valve Seals Replaced at 63,000 mi

[PUZZ]

Just got my '08 4.8 back after 2 weeks at the dealer. Complete valve seal replacement at only 63k miles. Had to take the engine out of the car! The bright side is that BMW covered 85% of the est. $5500 cost. Bad new is that his happened in the first place. I was told it is common for this V8 engine. I had a 2015 X3 3.5 for a loaner that I got pretty used to but happy to have my car back. Anyone else run into this .

[eurogreek1]

Just had mine replaced also. 2007 with 61k miles! Not a fun experience! Starting to dislike my X5! Too many problems!

[MAK3N3]

Is your X out of warranty - just wondering since they covered 85%. Sucks it happens at such low miles...I just rolled past 62K so I'm curious, Thanks.

Originally Posted by PUZZ

Just got my '08 4.8 back after 2 weeks at the dealer. Complete valve seal replacement at only 63k miles. Had to take the engine out of the car! The bright side is that BMW covered 85% of the est. $5500 cost. Bad new is that his happened in the first place. I was told it is common for this V8 engine. I had a 2015 X3 3.5 for a loaner that I got pretty used to but happy to have my car back. Anyone else run into this .

[ard]

Common? Hmmm.

[OhioBill]

Did you have white smoke out of the tailpipes? Engine light on the dash? My 09 has 81k and doesn't seem to show any signs or oil usage. If something is going to go wrong, I hope it does it soon because I've only got five months of CPO left.

This has been a problem with the N62 going back to 2002 E65s. There's a company in California (All German Auto) that has made a pretty cool kit as an alternative to pulling the engine and the cams...although the kit is pricey at $800!

[X5ists]

Originally Posted by OhioBill

Did you have white smoke out of the tailpipes? Engine light on the dash? My 09 has 81k and doesn't seem to show any signs or oil usage. If something is going to go wrong, I hope it does it soon because I've only got five months of CPO left.

This has been a problem with the N62 going back to 2002 E65s. There's a company in California (All German Auto) that has made a pretty cool kit as an alternative to pulling the engine and the cams...although the kit is pricey at $800!

This is the company you are talking about

https://www.agacoolantpipe.com/produ...stem-seal-tool

Video too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YacOx2ydMbI

[gregg3gs]

this is very common on all v8 engines after 2006 (from what I understand).

simple test:
- leave the car running at idle for 2 minutes
- afterwards press gas pedal all the way down
- watch blue smoke lol

[DrumAdrian]

I heard this directly from a BMW mechanic at a BMW CCA meeting...... and it changed my mind on buying a 4.8i

Very common issue.

Here are some other posts about it:


http://www.xoutpost.com/998656-post9.html

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ml#post1008817


Maybe you can use the same show the guy in the post used to get it fixed cheaper when it comes up again.

Good luck,

Adrian

P.S. Thank you everyone in the Xoutpost universe for sharing all this valuable knowledge. Much appreciated.

[Davidf]

I recently finished replacing the seals on my '04 545i. I used AGA's special tool and the task, along with coolant transfer pipe replacement, took me about 32 hours of labor. Once I got to valve covers off, each valve stem seal took an average of 25 minutes to replace. There are 32 of them! I made the repair at approximately 125k miles, but seals were leaking oil for some time prior which I believe contributed to my clogged secondary air ports. I was able to clear on side, but the other side will require removing exhaust manifold and mechanically clearing clogged ports with AGA tool for same purpose. Saving that task for another day.....

Also, my 08 X5 4.8i has 81,000 miles and the valve stem seals are fine for now. Fingers crossed.

[pgh2002]

I just got rid of my '07 4.8 because of the "multiple leaks" and cost to fix. Replaced it with a '12 3.5i premium. Definite drop off in power, but so far so good...