Wow. I had never heard of this being a common problem before. Is it the first time that it has been that cold since they started making the X? I am glad to live in a part of the country where weather is mild. Good luck with your X Vin. Keep us posted

Will be very interesting to know if this part was added in later builds of the 4.4i, or if the TSB applies to all 4.4i's up to MY2006?? I hate to think that my X5 is a ticking timebomb. If that's the case, I may try to have the TSB applied even if my oil separator has yet to grenade (my X5 is almost always parked in a heated garage)...

This prob. came up, with some frequency, way back on the
RoadToadBored, in early '02...
it comes around on the JukeBox every winter when the really
cold temps arrive.

Crummy design, cheapazz parts, etc., imo.

It affects some, and yet, others are lucky.

I suspect "time" eg miles/years on the crank breather system allow
for an accumulation of hydrocarbons, sometimes exacerbated by
lots of stop & go, short trips, etc. But, they do/will accumulate
over time. Combine that situ with very cold weather and, some fail.
Some don't.
Many will, sooner or later, in very cold weather, over time,imo.

GL to all and keep your damn crank hoses clean! :thumbup:
BR,mD

Thanks Dave, that sounds like a logical explanation to me. The X does not like short trips for sure. Reving the engine from time to time may help keep the engine and lub system cleaner.

I also agree. I spoke to service guy and asked if this was something Bmw has added, he said that it is a part that is to be put on to those cars that have this oil sep. problem. Its supposed to help stop this problem from happening again. We will see.

And to think that I was getting ready to write up a nice article for posting about how to stick a couple of 12V snowmachine handgrip heaters onto the oil seperator to keep it warm! I guess BMW already thought of that. :confused:
Hope all you guys with dead X's get them back soon.

As anyone investigated the use of a different oil seperator? I used to have an '05 Dodge cummins diesel, that engine has an oil seperator on the crankcase beather system, and I have never heard of any cold weather problems related to that part on the Dodges.

Maybe BMW's oil seperator was the low bid design?

My X goes to the dealer in Anchorage on Friday for installation of a new instrument cluster under the BMW goodwill replacement program (thanks again to whoever found out about that :thumbup:) I'm going to ask them about this oil seperator thing and see what they have to say.

What is this oil separator you guys are talking about? Is this a container that catches blowby from the valvecover and recycles it back into the engine slowly? I'm confused. Pics of the part in question and a desc would be awesome :)

Here's a pic I copied from RealOEM.com:

and here's the page I copied it from:

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...17&hg=11&fg=15

Its part of the crankcase breather system, it seems that BMW's oil seperator builds up water-laden oil over time which then freezes solid at some point, causing all sorts of grief. At least, that is the way I understand the problem, somebody correct me if I'm wrong...

Kind of..think of it as a very fancy pcv valve...Or if you have any experience with turbo charged/modified vehicles, it basically a sophisticated oil catch can with the ability to drain the oil back to the crankcase.

I hope someone can get a copy of the TSB for this thing as I'd like to install it myself and save the money on the labor. If anyone has a current TIS CD, please let one of the administrators know and we can get this TSB posted.

I assume the 97-03 5 series and 97-01 7 series is also affected by this?