2011 X5 35i, oil mix with coolant, dealer says oil cooler leak at filter housing

[faz]

Hi everyone,

Haven't been here for a while now (since replacing our E53 with E70 a couple of years ago.)

I took our 2011 X5 35i (mileage is about 90k) to dealer to check a couple of issues (heat in passenger foot well, and passenger seat belt alarm even if no one is sitting there).

#1- passenger foot well heat: they say all other X5s in their lot of the same age are showing the same symptoms, this is normal. I am not sure if I agree. This wasn't happening in the past.

#2- passenger seat alarm: no codes, suspect leather tightening while hot weather (when the alarm happens). I agree to leave it alone for now. Just need to keep the buckle in all the time.

But the most important and what the purpose of this thread is:

#3- in debugging the issue (#1) above, they found that there is considerable amount of oil in the coolant, and they say that the oil cooler is leaking by the oil filter housing. The cost of repairs: OVER $1900 !!! (labor intensive to replace the part and flush the system a couple of times to clear all the oil out, parts are about $300-$400 or so.)


I did a search on oil cooler leak and can't find much reported on this forum. Youtube has a good video of N51/N52 gasket change for oil filter and oil cooler (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IORcQabnoIw) which is not too labor intensive it seems.

Any experience with this problem (#3) that you can share? Any suggestions / thoughts about any of the above (#1, #2, #3)?


THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR TIME AND REPLY!