POPULAR TOPIC THIS TIME OF YEAR Help - Oil Separator
 

The high was 18 this week. I started my X and I noticed smoke in the cab. Popped the hood and heard squirting coming from the passenger side rear of the engine bay. looks like oil. Oil pressure dropped and I shut the car down, the message center told me to.
oil under car and all over passenger side of engine..

anyone?

4.4i 2001

UPDATE - It is the oil separator. Must have froze from the cold weather. They (BMW) make a kit that insulates and warms that part, it plugs right into the harness. I'm not buying it though.

Pics would definately help. What have you had done service wise lately? Can you see any oil leaks from the top of the engine bay...around the filter housing, coming from the back of the intake manifold or maybe the valve cover gaskets? Check for something simple like the oil drain bolt? This is tough to diagnose w/o some more detail.

Maybe the crankcase vent valve froze up and pressurized the crankcase, forcing oil to squirt out of the valve cover gasket. I remember seeing threads on that last winter...

I hope nothing froze up..
 

Here's what I saw:

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...6/DSC05331.jpg
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...6/DSC05330.jpg
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...6/DSC05329.jpg

I just had a 100K mile service done, full tune up spark plugs etc, oil change all of that a week ago. Car sat in Freezing temps for a couple of days without being started.

The oil was spraying out, someone said they saw black smoke coming from the tail pipes.

I got the message and shut it down, oil pooled on the ground, not very much.

Spraying sound...

That's where the OSV valve is, but you should take the cover off and look closer. In the meantime, here is some light reading ;)

engine noise, whine, howling, oil separator valve
OSV [Oil Separator Valve] replacement enclosed.
Notes/Photos for replacing the BMW E38 (M62) Valve Cover gaskets.

All found on www.e38.org. Very useful information since we share the same motor, and the V8 w/ all it's problems have been discovered and remedied for around 6yrs before the 1st X5 was even born :)

Time to replace oil seperator, Crankcase vent, all rubber hoses, and possibly valve cover gaskets. Goodluck

That is all great stuff, does the OSV sit on the passenger side towards the back of the engine bay/ hood compartment?

How much should a OSV replacement cost at a shop? 1 hour job? $100 parts?

Anyone think it could be the oil pump? My shop can't look at it until Monday. He thinks that the hissing noise came from bad pump.

I had the breathing tubes, water pump, T stat all replaced last year.

This happened to me last winter and I was out of town. I had no choice but to get it to a shop. approx. $400 at an independant shop.

One month later, I was out of town again and the same thing happened. $800 this time. New OSV, valve cover gaskets, and vent hoses. The OSV "freeze up" issue seems to happen whether or not the hoses and OSV are new. From my experience it seems like a design problem related to cold weather.

The newer X5's might have an insulator for the OSV hoses. I read about it in the forum but I was never able to track down a part number. I've asked my dealer about it, and they claim that it doesn't exist.