Useful Oil Separator Howto
Hi,
I just completed the replacement of the oil separator and the accompanying set of hoses. On my 2001 3.0i (no Nav), the procedure can be carried out by pretty much following the procedure detailed here: DIY Oil Separtor, DISA, ICV - bimmerfest - BMW Forums
Two things that you do not need to do on the X5, but which are on that procedure, are the removal of the heatshield and the microfilter.
Also, other procedures make reference to removal of the manifold. This is not strictly necessary. I installed the *winter* version of the oil separator and hoses (which means they are bulkier/thicker) and I still had enough room to do the work. Granted, it was not a cake walk, like changing your oil, but it was not rocket science either. It just takes time and patience.
Overall, the difficulty of the whole ordeal (in a 1->10 scale, 10 being the most difficult and 1 being changing your oil) is about a 4 or 5. You are having to disconnect a lot of parts and lots of wires and arc yourself in all sorts of strange positions to get to some bolts, but other than that it is no biggie. This is of course, my rating, giving the fact that I replaced all the hoses that attach to the oil separator. If you are trying to save those hoses: good luck! In my case the hoses pretty much disintegrated when I pressed them lightly with my fingers.
The most difficult part for me was installing the new parts: you have to wiggle, twist and turn those parts quite a bit to get them in there. Specially the short hose the goes from the oil separator to the top front part of the engine (sorry, I dont know what that part of the engine is called)... |
