Stumped...
 

My girlfriend purchased a 2001 X5 4.4 about a year ago. The car has been great but has start developing a few issues. First, the oil separator hoses are completely worn. They have the consistency of playdough and are torn. So last night I started disassembling the engine to replace the oil separator and the hoses. Everything I read said it is a major PITA, and they were not lying! Second, there is oil around the spark plugs, which also lead me to believe the valve cover gaskets are blown. So, I have been following this write-up:
Replacing A Leaking Valve Cover Gasket On Your BMW. | BMW Tech Tips, How-tos and News - Bavarian Autosport Blog

I ran into a couple of problems while dissembling everything. For starters, the remote battery terminal that is supposed to be attached to the right valve cover is not there. Instead it is attached to the firewall, but it snakes in a very unusual direction. It comes up the right side of the engine, over the valve cover, under the intake manifold, out the rear of the engine, and then connects to the firewall near the master cylinder. I can not understand why it is routed like this. It makes the valve cover removal a major task. Is this standard? Everything I have been reading does not show this setup like I explained. I would like to reroute the wire and not go underneath the intake manifold.

Also, there is a small hose about 1/4 of an inch that was connected to the bottom of the intake manifold, but was severed and covered with oil. What is this hose, and what does it connect?

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

yup...

mine is on the firewall as well. i do not see any issue with rerouting it, just mind the hot areas.

that hose i may just a breather hose. but check the routing of the secondary air flow system which has a small hose that connects to a valve near the secondary air pump underneath the Air Filter Box and back to air intake pipe somewheres...

that bav auto site is good.

i recommend new nuts / bolts / and rubber washers.

check this site out:
RealOEM.com * Online BMW Parts Catalog

Im doing to work my self, waterpump, valley pan, valve cover, and seperator hose replacements. Its a Pita and thinking why BMW routed the power terminal under the intake manifold just angers me.

That cable routes under the coolant pipes and are attached the valley pan cover plate via 3 plastic wire straps. I couldn't find a way to get more slack from the bottom, and since I was opening up the intake manifold anyways I skipped my valve cover gasket repair till after I was done with the valley pan.

Also If you are replacing your oil seperator hoses, there are the obvious two hoses above the intake runners in the rear, but if those are putty its a great bet that the oil return lines that are associated with the OSV is also putty.

I replaced the two hoses above my intake manifold 2 years ago, but when I took out the intake manifold lastnight, I ripped these hoses, and upon inspection they were putty aswell.

Still havent decided if I would go with the OEM/Bulk hoses to replace these (they are straight hoses) or if I would go with a silicone hose instead, should handle the heat and oil with no issues.

That 1/4 hose is one of the said hoses I mentioned. It routes on the bottom of the Oil seperator valve to the oil return line. If the top ones are putty then the bottom ones are aswell.

There is also a oil return hose maybe 1/8 dia hose, which routes from the bottom of the intake manifold to the oil return pipe.

http://realoem.com/bmw/diagrams/t/x/61.png

said hoses are 9 and 12

Ah, I did not realize that the wacky remote terminal routing is so common. Why would BMW route the wire like this? It makes absolutely no sense. Also, I HATE the hose clamps that BMW used for the oil separator. The ones that do not have a screw and are crimped together. Is there a trick to easily remove them?

I ordered the oil separator, both oil separator hoses, the oil return hose (12), and the screw hose clamps from bimmerspecialist.ca. These guys have great prices and awesome customer service. They sold me all the parts and next day/saturday delivery for $120.

I tonight I am going to reroute the remote power terminal and replace the valve cover gaskets. I thought about routing the cable along the driver side fender wall. Any suggestions?

As for the clamps when I replaced mine 2 years ago I judt cut them and bought generic hose clamps. Worked perfect as they had a 6mm nut w/ a flat head. But the nut was perfect for a small socket in the tight places.
As for the terminal I am going to route it ontop of the drivers side valve cover as there are mou mounting holes there like the e39.
You can cut it short or route it safely along side the wheelwell/ fender.
And then place it on the valve cover.

Strike that idea ontop of the valve cover. Forgot there was a wire behind the plastic bulkhead. Just run the power lead along the fenderwell and cut it short. Looking at the connector its just a flat tab crimped and then soldered onto the wire it self.

Today I finished replacing the valve cover gaskets, oil separator, and oil separator hoses. Unfortunately, the Service Engine Soon light is still on, and it is misfiring very bad at low RPMs. Once the RPMs are above 3k, it seems like the misfiring disappears. The SES codes are the following:

P1161
P1347
P1349
P1341

I do not understand why it is misfiring. Could it be the Camshaft Position Sensor? Any other ideas?

Check the plugs and for any vaccum leaks. Also check to see any loose couplings near the maf/ intakr.

I replace a few vacuum hoses and double checked the old ones, but I did not see any that were loose or cracked. I find it odd that the codes are signifying cylinder 3 and cylinder 4. Is it possible that the oil that had accumulated around the coilpack and spark plug because of the leaky valve cover gasket could cause the coilpack to fail?

Its rare coil paks go bad but it does happen? Test the coils ohm ratings but also do the old plug to ground spark test.

Did you put in new plugs?

I replaced the plugs. How can I easily test the resistance on the coil pack?

It tested the 3rd and 4th coil pack. The 4th stayed a steady 1.1 ohms but the 3rd continued to bounce between 1.0 and 1.6. Is this normal? Does this mean this coil pack is failing?

So I dropped off the X5 at the dealership yesterday. I heard back this morning and they claim the misfires are from bad timing case gaskets. Can these gaskets cause misfires? I would think if these gaskets were bad, I would see puddles of oil and low oil levels, but I don't. The cement under the care is clean.

By the way, they want to charge me $1,740 to replace these gaskets!

i would guess that if the gaskets were worn and the parts loose then yes you can have a problem with timing. but again i would have to assume that there would in fact be a visible leak... but maybe you cannot see it as it drips onto the cross reinforcement plate.

dude,
you're alot braver than me. i wouldn't touch that job with a 10 ft pole. good luck

when you replaced the plugs, did you check to see if they were burning oil?

Last year my 2001 4.4 started losing alot of power. Plugs showed the valve gaskets needed to be replaced. Forget doing just one side. My dealer tried getting away with that. A week later, he still had to do the other side. My point being, if you got the valve covers off, that's the toughest part, especially the driver's side. Just a thought.

I replaced the valve cover gaskets when I changed the oil separator, but the problem still exist. I don't think the dealership did much analysis, because I told them I replaced the valve cover gaskets but they included the cost in their estimate. I am going to remove the throttle body, clean it and replace the throttle body gaskets.

Update:

It turns out to be two bad coil packs. Also, two weeks later, two more coil packs went bad. So of the course of a month, I had 4 coil packs go bad.

Well ... good to see you found your problem. At least it didn't cost you $1800 the dealer wanted - at least I hope not.

Yes. Fortunately it only cost me about 700 in the end. I also replaced a bunch of hoses and gaskets that were looking worn.

I know this thread is a bit old but for those that trun into it regarding the pos cable on the firewall and routing over the valvecover, just disconnect it from the firewall by removing the large nut and push it under the intake while pulling on the other end of the cable where it comes from under the manifold near the valve cover and you will be able to put enough slack in it to pull it completely out of the way of the valve cover, just pull it towards the radiator.