Fixed another leak in the BMW
 

Found what appears to be another leak in the BMW. Use a paper towel to soak up the oil and it appears to be ruby red and had the distinctive smell of ATF. Oh no not the trans!!!

Maybe it's the Valve cover gasket (wish full thinking). So I got underneath the Truck (who laugh when they see people referring to the X5 as a truck on this forum) and was relieve somewhat to see the area around the trans dry. So maybe the line from the trans to the cooler was leaking so I removed the plastic belly pan. Yep the leak was at the front of the belly pan so I inspected the lines to the cooler. They appear dry so what could be leaking. Look around some more and found it.

It was the return hose from the PS pump to the PS reservoir. Lucky for me I was going to replace the PS reservoir and had also purchase new hose. Unlucky for me that one of the bolt securing the reservoir fell and was lost in the abyss. So after about an hour of work I had the reservoir and two new hose in. My old reservoir cap said to use ATF, but the new cap that came with reservoir said to use CHFS 11. I used the new cap put replaced the fluid with ATF. I will reinstall the old cap if I ever sell the truck.

After 3 days with a piece of cardboard place under the belly pan no fluids were found on the cardboard. The return hose was like the oil filter housing gasket that I replaced last year, very brittle.

Well done!

No leaks are great! My X5 has been dry for a long time. My 74-OIL has a slight rear main seal leak, but not enough to get past the splash shield. $600 to fix that leak. Maybe if it starts pouring out. LOL.

Good work Upallight ! Basic question on : wish full thinking about Valve cover gasket....what is your estimated time required for this job ? Reason i 'm asking bcause i need to do this on mine and my mechanic estimates this at 7hours ....what do you think ? Thank in advance ....

I replaced the valve cover gasket to a M50 engine which is very similar to the M54 in our X5. It took me about 5 hours including about a hour to degrease and clean the aluminum valve cover and repaint the cover.

You have a 4.4 engine so you need to do both banks.

Thanks for your time , so 6 or 7 hrs is ballpark...if i do both bank, should i expect double time ?

Nope, I think the time quoted to you was for both banks.

I could have done it in about 4 hours but I was taking my time and most shops wouldn't have degreased the cover or repainted the cover.

Mechanics are paid by the book time it take to complete the repair so if they could save some time on the repair they will still get the book time, not the actual time. so it behoove them to complete the job as quickly as possible in order to go onto another job.

Ok i Rogers that ! We believe that the leaks from the valve cover gasket has collateral impact on idle (unstable) and some missfire at cold start when temperature start to drop (i live in north east Canada)...anyway i have to fix this ..will see the benefits especially on misfire ? ..tx again

Congratulations on solving tht one!

I had that problem too, one of the hoses under the p/s reservoir was leaking downwards. My alternator was caked in dried oil!

I was lucky to come across a writeup on this over at e46fanatics I think. Apparently this is a common problem caused by the factory crimped clamp loosening over time, and it can be fixed by adding another clamp.

It worked for me, no more leaks from there!