Oil separator/Valve cover gasket
 

WTF is going on I changed my oil separator last month and valve cover gaskets 2 days ago and today there was oil squirted all over under my hood, looks like it came from oil filler cap. This happened after I started it in -15C today. Checked oil an it is low and some milky stuff on dipstick. There's also oil dripping on the ground from driver side. Did the separator fail again??? I'm so ready to sell this f-ing thing!

Did you clean out all the hoses when you replaced the separator? Sounds like redo.

At about 5 degrees fahrenheit it may have just frozen again... did you replace the lines as well with the separator?

Sorry to hear about your problems. :(

Keep venting here, it'll help, then when you're ready to get back on the horse ...

Listen to these guys and they'll be able to help with your situation.

Good Luck getting the X fixed! :thumbup:

The hose update is much more important for folks like you in super cold climates.

You have to think of separator problems like the cold virus. Disinfecting your fork and your knife is great, but if you put it back on your infected plate, or whichever combination you do if you do not do all three, you are just going to have to do it all over again.

Additionally, from reading the posts of people in cold places, if you do not let the car warm up on short trips, this seems to overcome the system and hasten failure, even of new parts.

You will get it worked out.

Thanx for all the responses...

Yes, I changed the hoses too. And my trip to work is about 20 km each way, so even in -15 C that day, it warmed up a fair bit.

I'm starting to think I put the hoses back wrong. Does the top one on the separator connect to the valve cover? Other then that, maybe there's just a lot of moisture still in there from before?

I lost about 2 litres of oil that day and the whole underbody, including the rear mufflers, was COVERED in oil! Seems to have no leaks now when starting in the garage though.

I think I might just top it off again and keep driving it.

Pipes .. check out this thread:

http://www.xoutpost.com/x5-e53-forum/...=oil+separator

It has pics on post #13 from lo_jack. Hope that helps.

Sorry to hear about your problems... I know all about it since i'm a past victim too. In your cold climate, you may wish to switch to 0w - 40 oil in the colder months.. That might help..

cool. Mine is actually a 4.4i, but I did find the diagram for the separator for the 4.4i on realoem.com. It seems like the top one goes to valve cover, but off a DIY I found on here it looks like the bottom one goes there! I'm not too sure now, or if it even makes a difference. Can anyone confirm?

i had my oil seperator replaced also. the main advise i got from this forum which proved to be most valuable is "don't drive the thing till its fixed."
It saved my engine and i hope it will save yours.