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Thread: Oil, oil everywhere (2007 X3 3.0si)

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    NYC
    Posts
    60
    My Cars
    E83 LCI 3.0si

    Oil, oil everywhere (2007 X3 3.0si)

    Hello Bimmerforums! I hope you are having an awesome night. My poor baby is in desperate need of help and I hope you can give me your two cents.

    A little background:

    I replaced my intake manifold cover after discovering it was warped, a few months ago. I do drive spirited, and I was surprised to find this part in plastic. New gasket there. While I was under the hood, I replaced the oil filter housing and oil cooler gaskets as well. I am at 138k miles. All work was done at an indy shop that has a great rep here in NYC.

    I have come to find an oil smell seeping from the vents during the last 200 mile drive. At a stop, the engine was smoking. My first guess was high miles, time for 15w40 (synthetic) instead of the usual 5w30. Is that ok to do in this case? Should it be 20w instead?

    There's a little pool around the oil filter housing, and at the visible edge of the intake manifold housing (above the washer fluid reservoir) you can see the oil drip, drip, dripping out. I looked at the tensioners and belts, lo and behold there's oil everywhere. I am surprised I didn't run out of oil at this point.

    The work was done, and I can bug the mechanic about it, but could it be a totally different issue?

    I remember my old Volvo 840 with 240k miles was basically pushing oil out of every orifice until we troubleshooted and diagnosed the oil catch was backed up, once that was cleaned she got fine pressure. Could this be a similar issue?

    Your thoughts matter! Please help. Thank you.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Saskatoon, Canada
    Posts
    1,509
    My Cars
    '88 320i Mtech2; 2004 X3
    my thoughts...

    - fix the leak and stay with the 5w30 or 5w40 synthetic oil

    - leak could be from valve cover gasket
    ... forty-three years of driving before I get behind the wheel of a BMW .... and I am thinking, "why did it take me so long?"
    ... and then after another 4 years I can't believe that I have two of them !!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Ca
    Posts
    6,981
    My Cars
    2001 525it
    The three amigos, valve cover gasket, oil filter stand/cooer gaskets and oil pan gasket. Don't fix it, then may be the oil soaked engine belt will come apart then go into the crank seal, that will be fun.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    NYC
    Posts
    60
    My Cars
    E83 LCI 3.0si
    My1stE30 - thank you! OK I will do that. The valve cover is what I meant - I am sure I got that seal replaced.

    jclausen: Ahh!!! that's terrifying. The last thing I want is for the belt to whiplash anything. I guess no long drives until this is done. Nothing nearly spirited either. Valve cover gasket is what I meant when I said intake manifold cover... The valve cover is what was replaced, along with the seal.

    I spoke to my indy shop which gave me a 2yr warranty on the labor for the valve cover/oil cooler/oil filter housing. There's one wizard there who said the pressure buildup may possibly be from a faulty oil separator. He said the car doesn't have that many miles for me to concern myself with anything above 5w. He's seen his share of e46 motors above 250k miles. 5w40 sounds like a good bet.

    A stupid oil separator could be causing this much pressure building in the engine? Opinions? Thoughts?

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