X5 35d blowing grey smoke a few mintues after start up....

[BMWX5CHI]

I got myself a problem here. My 11' 35d is blowing grey smoke a minute after start, right after it warms up a bit and you go to accelerate. It eventually clears up after 20 seconds. There's a pretty big cloud that smokes out the traffic behind. My wife was driving her when this first happened. I drove her around after she got home but saw no smoke. Next day the same thing happened but I was able to see the huge amount of smoke blowing out the exhaust this time. It cleared up in about 10-15 seconds and doesn't smoke after the initial start up. Drove around and no smoke. She will smoke after you let her sit and restart but not as bad if you leave her sitting and the engine gets cold. I don't know exactly what is causing the smoke but I assume it is burning oil somehow. Oil level shows as max on display. Dipstick is hard to tell, everything is black. I was planning on doing an oil change today so I'm going to do that. Anybody had any similar issues in the past? Turbo seals bad? CCV? I checked the pressure with the oil cap off and there is no suction or pressure coming out. There is a build up of oil along the passenger side engine by oil filler neck, but no oil dripping on the splash guard or any signs that there is oil leaking down the engine. Need to fix this ASAP as my wife is using her as her DD until I buy her a new car this June. :-l Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[BMWX5CHI]

So I changed the oil. I did clean the oil dipstick and noticed it might have been a little low on oil. Put in liquid moly and new oil filter. Put in 7 quarts and started her up and added oil until it was at max on dipstick. I did notice a drop of oil on the drain plug with some oil in that general area in the back of the motor. CCV/PCV maybe? Turbos make no odd noise and engine has plenty of power. After pulling out the driveway I drove down the block and it started smoking again. And same as last time, smoke goes away after 20 seconds or so but its a lot of smoke. I was doing some research and seen something about the turbo charge pipe leaking? I don't know how it would get oil if it only has air going through there. I'm thinking the turbo seals may be bad? I need to narrow this issue down so I can at least be prepared for the fix $$$ wise. I know its leaking oil into the turbos and its burning it but the question is where is it leaking from and what is the culprit. I'm thinking worst case is I need to replace both turbos. Hopefully someone can shed some light into this issue.

[dw280]

You may be at the early stages of valve cover gasket failing. At our shop we have seen the gaskets fail and spray oil on the passenger side frame rail area. This is usually under boost though, not start up. From our experience, this happens around 130k-150k miles. We have also seen seals on a small turbo fail and vehicle smoked. Customer didn't fix it and it eventually locked up and caused loss of power.

[BMWX5CHI]

Originally Posted by dw280

You may be at the early stages of valve cover gasket failing. At our shop we have seen the gaskets fail and spray oil on the passenger side frame rail area. This is usually under boost though, not start up. From our experience, this happens around 130k-150k miles. We have also seen seals on a small turbo fail and vehicle smoked. Customer didn't fix it and it eventually locked up and caused loss of power.

Thanks for the reply and your input. I believe my turbo(s) is/are bad. Its burning all of the oil quickly. I am not driving her anymore but I did do some light test runs on low speeds to see if the oil levels drop and they do drastically. I don't know if the VCG would cause the excessive smoke and burning of oil but I am going to replace it and have my turbos rebuilt by Tim's Turbos and do the the Race 2 upgrade along with the "alphabet" mod. I'm in the middle of selling my home so she's going to have to wait until I purchase my new home. I will note that currently I have no loss of power or any strange noises. She will remain parked and will update you guys when I start tearing her apart.

[dw280]

Your intake has 2 sets of runners. One set goes straight to the head, the other set goes through the valve cover then into the head. When that set of gaskets fails, it allows boost pressure into the crankcase (inside valve cover) and pushes oil out from the inside. Oil can be pushed externally (usually at the passenger frame rail) or internally causing engine to smoke, or both. Either way will reduce oil level dramatically when bad enough.

[fullmetaljacket]

I have the same issue. Replaced both turbos in 2018..... spent a lot $$$. Now after 5 Years...the smoke is back and I have an oil leak that originates (I think) based on this recent photo taken down there... the oil leak is coming from above the AC compressor.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1Q...vO8E43e0txhTcK

I'm guessing my smoke is related to the oil leak. Emphasis on guessing