Crankcase Breather - Another frozen story

Phyber0ptik · #1 02-08-2007, 05:27 PM

Hello all,

Looks like a rash of breather hoses - oil seperator issues on the board as of late. I fear I have the (dis)honor of being the next guy to report this issue.

I was down in Denver last week, get a frantic call from the wife: "Just drove the X5 into the garage and it's smoking from the hood!" I called my pop to go up to the house and take a peek. He tells me that there was a little bit of oil around the Oil filler cap and on the ground, about an 8th of a liter. He checked the oil, was showing full. He also put some cardboard down under the truck to see if it continued to leak. The wife reports to me no further leaking.

I get home yesterday, after doing some research here, and start looking for signs of bad crankcase breather hoses. Can't see anything, oil level is full, no problems. The breather hoses are a little gummy, so I decide be safe and change them anyways.

Pick up some new ones this morning, start pulling the old ones out, and then find this in the oil separator:

I start thinking...uh-oh. So I pull off the hose that goes from the bottom of the oil separator to the right hand side crank case, cut it open, and here is what it looks like:

Now here is the question of the day, do I replace the separator too? or not? As well as my parts person said that this part gets gunked up too and should be replaced: (Part number 2)
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...81&hg=11&fg=40

What do you guys think?

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noncom23 · #2 02-08-2007, 05:30 PM

What is that a colonoscopy?
No, sorry. Thats rough, man.

BimmerDude · #3 02-08-2007, 06:13 PM

Hello, let me give you my experience... Change everything, all hoses and oil sep... The reason being is because my dealer changed the hoses last time and this time the oil sep. cracked. Now I'm back at dealer doing what should have been done last year... So to make your life easier, just spent the extra now to save later.... Good luck

motordavid · #4 02-08-2007, 06:23 PM

Exc. post and pics, Phyber!

I had a feeling this niggling lil' glitch would come around
on the JukeBox again this winter, when the cold finally came...

It happens every winter season to some/many.

Punqeazz design and cheapazz materials, imo. I wonder
if the genius Teuton engineers did more than a month's
testing in cold weather. These BMWs have a tough time
in conditions outside of "perfect" and with some miles under
their belts, imo.

Great pics, too: I think our Beloved Co-Founder/Co-Admin.,
the versatile DrDrex, would recognize that situ, lol!

Hope ya'll get your situ fixed and spring in Calgary, is only
months away.
BR,mD

X5HogTown · #5 02-08-2007, 06:43 PM

I've had this problem twice. I haven't had a problem since I started using 0-40 oil in the winter. Kudos to the dealer for recommending.

drbgm · #6 02-08-2007, 07:01 PM

Just went through the same thing, Saturday morning -30C here in Winnipeg, start it up, let it run a while then go. Get 10 minutes away smoke, smell, oil blowing back from the front of the valve cover down the side to the exhaust. Took it in Monday morning needed to replace valve cover gasket and clean out condensation from breather hoses. Turns out these don't like to idle very long.

So moral of the story start it up let run a minute or two and take the long way to work to get fully warmed up.

Thank you Warrenty, the valve cover gasket is apparently a 1.9 hr job?!? plus parts = ~$400 w tip and taxes.

While they had it I told them to leave it out overnight and see if they could find where an occasional, only when it's real cold, fuel leak was coming from. Turns out 3 injectors were blowing gas out the top. By the time they got it inside on the lift, up in the air, saw that it was not from the main line, let it down and got the top engine cover off the leak had stopped (engine slightly warmed) but the spary was still visible on the inside of the plastic cover over the fuel rail. Turns out Warrenty is replacing the seals as well.

Cold Sucks!

BimmerDude · #7 02-08-2007, 07:15 PM

I'm going to start using 0-40 in winter also, since it seems that these cars are extremely sensitive in the winter, but I have notice that thicker oil is OK in the summer but in the winter especially with this below zero B.S. the car seems that it works so much more tougher to get started with the thicker oil... I've contacted the dealer to change the oil and put 0-40 which they said is what they were going to put anyway.

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