Prevent Oil Separator Problems?
 

From what I have read on this site, it appears that the oil separator failures seem to happen in very cold weather. Would replacing the oil separator every (x) amount of miles prevent failure? Does the oil separator fail solely on cold temperatures alone? Living in NJ, and picking up the new (to me) X5 this week I want to ensure I take the necessary precautions.

It fails when moisture trapped in the oil freezes holding the valve shut. Long enough highway trips that get the oil hot enough to burn off all this moisture helps prevent this. Also having the updated "cold weather" parts with insulated hoses etc helps too.

A garage and using the warm up method JCL describes in other posts. I only idle for about 20 to 30 seconds then drive VERY slowly, never going over 2k rpm until I am out of the blue temp marking. This warms the engine a lot faster than simply idling for long periods of time.

Sea Foam is advertised as not hurting rubber, but there are a lot of plastic pieces in modern engines, and I would worry more about them than the rubber. Many of these plastics weren't even invented when Sea Foam was introduced in the 1940s.

A cheaper version, used many years ago, was to simply pour white gas/camping fuel into the engine, as it is a primary ingredient of Sea Foam.

I am not sure that we are seeing water come out of lubricating oil as with the jet fuel, I think the failure mode is that natural condensation in the engine crankcase (from repeated heating/cooling cycles) builds up and emulsifies with the oil if it isn't burnt off by getting the engine hot enough, for long enough, as it was designed to be operated. Short trips build up that condensate, which forms an emulsification with the oil, producing a cream-coloured paste with the consistency of Vaseline. If it is collecting under the filler cap, where it is visible, it is also collecting in the oil separator, where it isn't visible. If it gets cold enough, that emulsification/condensate freezes, as it has a lot of water in it. I don't think the water separates out, but rather it stays in suspension.

In my experience, if the condensate/paste is visible under the oil filler cap, you can clean it out with one or two hot oil changes in quick succession. The trouble is, if it stays there for any length of time, it has also collected in the separator and the only way to clean that out is to remove it.

I don't know whether Sea Foam or white gas would clean out the separator, but I tend to think it won't, as the separator only sees fumes from the crankcase, and not oil flow. I could be wrong on that, but I wouldn't trust an engine treatment to clean the separator the same as it cleans under the valve cover.

Does the white gas vapor up enough to circulate through the separator system enough at normal oil temperatures? If so it *might* help with the cleaning.

I'll say, when you do valve cover gasket check for sludge on the driver side cover (one of the two hoses from oil separator goes back here); If so replace the oil separator (it's only $30 or clean it with brake cleaner), replace the two hoses and wrap them with pipe insulation, check and clean for more sludge on the smaller hoses where the funnel end of oil separator goes.

Try:
- to use the car for longer mileage
- to have shorter oil change like 7500mile/6mo to get rid the water/sludge that may clog the oil separator.
- or just upgrade to heated version of the hoses.

I assume you have 4.4i

A long time ago in a universe far, far away I owned a Vauxhall Viva. The 1200 cc engine was notorious for forming mayonnaise (emulsified oil and condensation) in the valve cover with the green gook very apparent on the oil cap when you took it out. If you ran only short runs it would block the breather hose to the carb. Vauxhall (The British Division of GM) came up with a solution.
They issued a diagram of a plate to be made/fitted by owners to block airflow from the engine driven fan across the valve cover. This allowed the cover to get much warmer and cured the problem.
I wonder if replacing the engine driven fan, even though it has a thermal clutch, with an electric, thermostatically controlled fan would help or solve the problem?

Hey all...after diagnosing the problem and weighing my options. I have had to let the dealer take the cake on this preventative maintenance spoof I must of overlooked. feel free to check the Service Departments price estimate. DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE!



:banghead:

My god, just looked at the estimate.... that is high! The cyclone valve is 1 hour less labor than that, and the belts labor is not only high, but overlaps the tensioner/idler pulley labor as you have to pull one of the belts off to do them. And the DISA flap labor is up twice what it should be too. That tech should not be allowed to work there, I hate that crap!

I have never gone that far to make an emulsion out of motor oil, but I do make mayonaise in the kitchen. Same theory I guess, and I don't have to replace the immersion blender afterwards....

I agree that a hot oil change won't do anything more than this, it will only do the same thing. My preference for the hot oil change is that it keeps Sea Foam out of the engine. I just don't like chemicals like that in a modern engine, personal preference.

After cleaning it all out, it sounds like you are going to leave the Sea Foam in there. That will reduce the quality of your new synthetic motor oil. If I did come to the point of using Sea Foam, I would add it, run the engine until it was hot, drain it, and put fresh oil in. I wouldn't leave it in.