E60 Valve cover

[jwhee0615]

150K miles on my 2008 528i and sick of the oil smoke and smell from the valve cover leak. I understand that its best to just replace the entire valve cover as opposed to just the gasket as the PCV valve is built into the cover. Question is which one to go with? OEM or one of the off brands? Anyone have experience here? Thank you for any info.

[Holbrook]

If you’ve got 600$ I’d go buy an aluminum VC and get a cheap gasket (15$-30$). The aluminum will hold better pressure than the plastic and the gaskets only really go bad because of the plastic VC. Good luck.

[jwhee0615]

I have never seen an aluminum valve cover offered. Where do you buy such a thing?

[Holbrook]

I have an N54 (535i) so the aluminum VCs are on a few sites. I know the N52 (530I) has one but I’m not sure what the 528 engine is.

[PinoIX]

I had a leak too and took my 528xi to my local German Auto shop. Had them replace the valve cover gasket and decided to go with a new OEM valve cover. Ours are plastic, and due to the age (2008), decided a new one would be good. Just make sure you also check the eccentric sensor inside. It has it's own gasket too. Mine was leaking in to that, so had to replace the sensor and gasket too.

[RepairGuy]

Will you be doing this repair yourself? I wanted to mention that you will want to get a complete set of valve cover bolts. Cheap insurance. They are not meant to be reused and it is almost certain that some will break. Maybe even coming off. Happens to me sometimes. But definitely when you go to tighten them if you try to reuse them. Be prepared with an extractor. This is especially an issue if someone has tried to tighten them down in the past in an attempt to stop leaking. I did an oil pan on one a few weeks ago and got to extract about 10 of the bolts that the owner was able to get to to snap the heads off thinking it could be tightened more to stop leaks. Have it happen on valve covers a lot too.

[Holbrook]

Hahaha that sounds so funny, the things people do to save from fixing a problem. Thanks for the heads-up regarding the VC bolts, I just ordered my new Cast Aluminum VC and at $650 its almost as expensive as a Genuine OEM Plastic VC. I coupled this with a Genuine BMW VC Gasket and compared to a cheap Rockauto VC Gasket, the Genuine one has a hardened frame inside the gasket whereas the Rockauto VC Gasket felt like jell-o between my fingers. I believe this setup will hold more pressure and will refrain from cracking.