x5 leaking oil after valve cover gasket replacement
 

Hi,
I appreciate any help or ideas as I like to be able to start driving my X5 again. Here is the story:
I have been dealing with this oil leak that originally started about 3 years ago when dealer decided gasket needed to be replaced (my last visit to dealer ever). Leak started after that but it was not that bad and I don't drive the car that much. I added a quart every few months. Slowly it got worse and I did not like that I had oil drops in the garage. Last year I almost did not drive it at all.
Last month I replaced gasket myself (with OEM) and noticed old gasket was not placed correctly by dealer as at the back it was not even in the groove and was bent. I thought that would definitely fixed the problem and opened a beer to celebrate but to my disappointment after driving a bit, the leak was still there (Full Disclosure: I did not torque the screws as I thought I would first see if leak is gone). So I took it to an independent shop by the house and they washed engine and told me yesterday that gasket need to be replaced and asked $350 for the work. I brought car back home (paid $70). The 2 minutes drive home, caused quite some leak and lots of smoke from front. I guess the cleaning was causing the leaked oil to fall on bare metal plate and burn more.
I took some pictures this morning. It appears to me the leak is not from the gasket as that part is dry and it is under it that there is fresh oil.

Has anyone experienced this? I have circled the part that is leaking in the first picture.

What are we looking at in the 3rd picture? That 2nd picture is the heatshield/manifold gasket combo. That gets oil on it from the VCG.

Drive it more and see if it keeps smoking.

Wait, is the third picture your oil pan? You need to take the skid plate off and track that leak. It might not be the VCG at all. Lots of techs like to go with that first because it takes 15 minutes, but you might have that AND something else, which is typical. Clean all of that off and then run it in situ and see where oil starts pooling and track it back. Don't drive around if you can help it because wind drives oil drips into odd places.

Third picture is the rear of the head on the passenger side. Just forward of the A/C connections in the firewall.

I notice you have not tightened any of the nuts on the cover; you also need to replace the 15 or so rubber seals on these nuts.

You are not going to get a good leak diagnosis without carefully tightening these fasteners down - until they bottom out, and then just slightly more. It's possible that your cover is cracked; in which case it will probably never seal.

There are two different seals for the M54 valve cover; make sure you are using the correct one.

Scott's right. I see now. You have to tighten those down, but don't go crazy. Those bolts that go through the grommets will snap if you over tighten. What he says is best. You can feel them bottom and then go a hair more. Use new grommets.

Thanks. I had tightened to what I thought was close to torque (10 N.m). I actually found out that a wire at the very back got stuck under the cover. That is where the oil was leaking from. I put the gasket back again with a little bit of cleaning and tightened the bolts. I don't see any oil leak any more but I still see some smoke. Not sure if it is from the oil leaked before the fix or something else still need to be fixed.

Start and idle till warm. Most likely residual oil just burning off. If the smoke goes away you'll still smell some oil burn which is normal. Take it for a short ride to burn the rest off.

Wash down the engine again to make it clean and proper. Good work

Hi,

I advise you to check the membrane in the valve, I had the same problem with oil leakage. Here's how they look:

https://vanos-bmw.com/product/111275...53-11127548196