Think we found the burning metallic smell lol.
 

So after many trips to dealer complaining about the smell a few weeks ago we found the rubber trim was touching the headers from the fire wall , so we ripped it out and thought we fixed the problem ! well after a couple of days i still had the smell after heavy driving !

so i went back the other day for oil cause i seem to always be low on oil , i drove it hard to show them that the smell was still there and the head tech came out to smell my car and starting looking around the engine compartment and surprise surprise, it looks as if he found the issue !

blown turbo's , as he put it apparently the seals in the turbo's are f--ked and the oil is being blown right through the impellers rt into the headers or someshit , he went to the back of my truck and comfirmed this by the black sooot thats always all over the back of my truck even after the car wash tunnel, i gotta ask them to spray the back and clean it well cause the dirt never comes off , ive also noticed that even with the heavy duty stuff they cant get the chrome back on the mufflers !

so im in shop now , they say that the oil has prolly clogged the cats and thats where the nasty metallic burning smell is coming from !

so looks like 2 new turbos , and an entire exhaust system from the headers all the wway back to the muffler !

hopefully this solves the prob as the smell has gotten progressively worse and literally makes my eyes tear and opening windows only makes it worse !

he said its a fairly large jobb but that after the truck will be runnning much better and i gotta brand new 2012 750i to enjoy for the few weeks i'll be outta comisssion !


if you have the smell and wanna check for yourself just open the hood , pull off the plemun cover (fancy plastic thing w m logo) its held in w rubber plugs very easy on off , follow the turbos to the rubber boot's w clamps on em , if theres oil seaping out've those boots then you gotta a problem ! i spoke with a performance guy and he said this is very common problem for hi perf turbo applications

anyway wanted to share , will keep you posted on their finds !

NEIL

How can you not feeling any loose power from a blown turbo?

Wow, that would be a 'fun' repair, post warranty...
glad they found your problem.
GL, mD

The turbo was still working just some oil was getting through the seals

Seriously - this is not what I would expect from the ultimate vehicle. After having the vehicle for close on 12 weeks and replacing items including the turbos, I had enough.

Cheers,

Glad they finally figured out what's going on! Even though I wouldn't be too pumped about the turbos going out soo soon at least they are taking care of it now.

ECS Tuning

Figured the turbos would go at some point, but that was fast. I hope it was just a fluke and doesn't become a trend. Especially on the M's.

They better give you a nice loaner after dropping that much coin on a vehicle.

Dealership
 

That was a good catch. Which dealership do you use? I'm in NY also.

.

i use habberstadt in huntington long island , a great small enough to care but big enough to service , private dealer that knows how to treat customers and keep em coming back for more unlike some of the bigger more commercial dealers that are just looking to make a buck !!

i did notice a little bit of sluggishnesss but never enough to say there was a problem !

thx fib

NEIL

nah come on now , its a hi perf vehicle and i trully drive the crap outt've it just the way it was meant to be driven , so if once and a while something goes wrong as long as they stand behinf theyre product and deeliver i have no isssues !!

much more than i can say for some other nameless manufacturers!

NEIL

Still, you'd think it would be more reliable and/or better engineered to take the punishment given it's intended design and function.

Still in shop , looks like turbo's are backordered fml....

prolly another few weeks hopefully buy the end of the mo , will keep you guys posted !

NEIL

just got herr last nite , feels strong but could just be in my head since i was drivin the 7 for close to a mo !

new turbo's , cleaned out cats and muff's , although i still kinda smell the damn smell so ima give it a couple of days then see what they wanna do if the smell don't go away !

NEIL

still have the smell , still burning oil , still have oil dep's on rear of car !! muff's were blk tues got a car wash and had em clean on mon afternoon and i wasnt even driving the car hard !

went to the dealer yest , let them know they gonna see about replacing the exhaust , the tech was like just beat it hard to burn everything up , i was really 100k car unaceptable !

anyway this'll be the 3rd time in shop for the smell , so i mentioned lemon law and he said he'll see what they say

fml...

NEIL

When I got mine a couple months ago, the service manager told me to order a case of oil. They go through oil. Oil for the turbos comes from the motor. So low oil means no oil to the bearings in the turbo. So you HAVE to keep these beasts topped off with Oil.
Also someone said "that would be a fun job post warranty" Youre right it would be costly but really having replaced two Turbos in my 1997 911 Turbo, I think this one would be easier given the turbo is on top of the motor. ON the 911 the turbos are below the motor and I had to remove the whole exhaust system to get to it.

But thanks! THIS IS A TOP TIP (as they say on Wheeler Dealer) Pay attention to your OIL and keep it full at ALL times. The first things that are going to suffer is peripheral items away from the motor that need oil, when the oil gets low!

Not sounding good................. let us know how this tunrs out & good luck!

Cheers,

Ok so im back in the shop again , its been like a week so far !

looks like the oil dep's on the rear of the car were not oil its unburnt fuel , which would also explain why it takes the car forever to turn over , which ive been telling them since this all started that the starter was bad !! maybe a bad injector or someshit , theyve opened a puma case w bmw and are working on it once again !

ive also insisted that they replace the entire exhaust from the headers all the back to the mufflers as thats most likely where the burning smell is coming from and they agree ! so hopefully this will be the end of it and maybe i'll be able to get better than 9mpg but i doubt that ! lol

i'll keep you guys posted

NEIL

full exhaust headers all the way thru has been approved , now they just working on fuel isssue !

The Cayenne may be your only other option :)

Only kidding, hope they sort it out!

Cheers,

JFC Neil. Had no idea you were going thru all this. I think an F10 M5 may be in your future.

Sup pal , yeah alot closer than i may have thought !!

got the truck back on fri nite last week , ( soon as i started i knew something was wrong cause it turned overr for 8 sec's then stopped , i ran right in and told him then i text him from mc'ds ) didnt even get 3 miles to mc'ds w the kidd and there was blk soot all over back of the car ! brand new exahsut is already ruined , burned about a quart of oil since fri nite with very lil drive/beat time and on top of all that im getting like some 6mpg !

car doesnt start properly !
smokes !
burn's oil !
rips thru fuel ! usually get 190-200 full tank , i got 120 ?:wow:
shooots an ugly amount of sooot outtve the pipes to the point that the new tips are ruined after 5 days ! car wash yest , trunk tips etc blk today !
smells like a whores dirty asshole after a weekend on craigslist !

this is all prettty embarrrassing , for me , bmw and the tech's @ the dealer !

and all this after 7 weeks , 4 weeks 1st time had it back for 10 days then 3 weeks 2nd time ohhh and the best part 30+k in parts and labor !!

dealeer made the call yesterday for they're rep to come down , i told em i want out've this car as a good loyal customer to bmw and the dealer they kind've agree ! so well see ! im gonna keep it till they call me in next week for the rep to look it over cause im jus sick of loaners ! ive paid approx $2500 in the last 2 mo's to drive loaners lmao :rofl:

i love bmw , my 10th brand new one in like 13 yrs give or take , so im not going anywherre but believe me , and i made this very clear that if this isnt resolved in a clean and timely fashion , i'll put that truck as sexy and pretty as she is rt thru the front window of that dealership ! then i'll sit w nicole and write up an order for an m5 ;)

keep you posted !

NEIL

This is a shitty deal man...time to let this ship sail.

Whats the Next ride?

This is going downhill fast..................

Cheers,

Hi Neil any updates on what's going on with the x5m?
First day I took delivery of the 2010 x5m I drove it in M mode and started smelling the burnt metallic smell as well.
I took off the pendulum cover and no oil around the clamps. So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it was just because it has been sitting at the dealership for a while.

sorry been a while , havent been on forum !

believe it or not im still driving this pig around , looks great runs like shit !

bmwna stepped in and authorized the ret'n of 2mo's payments for downtime and troubles and a trade assist ! the dealer is in the works of hameering out the details on a new m5 or x5m for me ! just taking forever , like 6 weeks !

ill keep you posted on outcome

neil

Got home from work and noticed a strange burning smell! Popped the hood and engine cover and smoke was rising from the turbo area...thought the engine was going to catch!!! Only have 19,500 miles! Anyone know a good dealership in Houston?

OK found the reason for the smoke coming from under the engine bay. Look's like plastic enbrittalment and probably in-proper installation of a weather strip after having the car in for some recall work caused the gasket to fall on top of the exhaust cover.........

Luckily nothing worse!!

Neil. I had a major electrical issue on my 2011 and BMW was really good at getting me a new X5. If they opened up a PUMA case on your car and the issues were still not resolved, I am sure you will be made right. Sucks that you had to deal with this but for me, I drove a X5 for 6 months and then was given a new 2012 which I guess I can't complain. Good Luck

I've been told by my dealer that all the new BMW's have cheap plastics at the engine/hood interse ction. They melt, fall apart, smell like shit.

what was the end result?

Damn.....I Think im experiencing the same issue....

my 2010 has 88k on her though and i noticed a splatter of oil out the exhaust during start up.

took the covers off and followed the turbos and i can see discoloration from fluid at the joints so my turbo seals could be going out too