3.0i beware (oil leak from the cold weather)

F

funjohnson

Member
I'm posting this on all the z4 boards to give warning.

Yesterday, as I pulled into my garage, smoke started poring out of the vents. I lifted the hood to find oil all over the engine bay.

I have 49,000 miles on the car and I'm two months out of warranty. 2003 3.0i.

I brought the car to my local BMW dealer and got a call an hour later with a $1750 tab. The valve cover gasket was blown out and the oil separator was to blame (PCV valve). The PCV valve froze... pressure built inside the valve cover... it blew out.

I made a call to BMW NA. They called the dealer and got the price brought down to $1250.00. This is a known design issue with the 3.0i. There is a TSB out showing a fix. X5s and 3 series have had this more, but the TSB shows the z4 too.

Now, I work for Toyota NA. Had this happened to anyone with one of our cars, the customer would have had the car fixed for good will. BMW will not help any further. I have made more calls with no added results.

This is a warning to anyone with the 3.0i... get the oil separator fixed ASAP. They have been know to hydrolock the motor with oil.

Here is the TSB:

SI B11 08 03
Engine

February 2005
Technical Service

This Service Information bulletin supersedes S.I. B11 08 03 dated December 2003.

[NEW] designates changes to this revision

SUBJECT
Oil Separator - Cold Climate Conditions

MODEL
E39 5 Series, E46 3 Series, and E53 X5 with the M54 Engine

[NEW] SITUATION

Certain areas of the US experience extremely cold climate conditions during the winter months A small number of vehicles in the above series listed have experienced problems ranging from leaking or broken valve covers to complete engine failure.

[NEW] Cause

Moisture accumulating in the engine oil separator, hose to oil dipstick guide tube or the orifice in the dipstick guide tube can freeze. When this occurs, depending on the position of the internal valve, this may either cause high crankcase pressures (stuck closed) resulting in valve cover leakage/breakage or cause an oil hydro-lock condition (stuck open) which could result in engine damage.

[NEW] CORRECTION

In case of a customer complaint, replace the crankcaseventvalve, crankcasevent hose and remove and clean the oil dipstick guide tube orifice.

[NEW] PROCEDURE

Repair/replace all affected components. Access to the oil separator is best achieved by removal of the intake manifold. Refer to Repair Instruction 11 61 050 for details.
 
God funjohnson, so sorry to hear about this. Do you have an extended warranty that can help you cover some of the costs? :?
Thanks for all the detailed info. and I hope everything gets worked out.
 
Sorry to hear about your misfortune and thank you for the heads up on this issue. :thumbsup: In Canada, it's extreme cold climate conditions any day of the winter :wink: so that's a good thing to know.
 
A co-worker had this happen to his X5 2 days ago. He had it serviced at repair shop (not a dealer) and paid $750.
 
Not a good story to hear and terrible that you have to foot a bill on a known warranty - still to to me in the UK to have a 2003 car just 2 months out of warranty is amazing. We'd love such warranties.

Not knowing what part of the US you come from how cold are we talking about for this valve to have frozen up?

Never heard of it in the UK
 
So do we have to prove something has actually gone wrong or can we just go in with the service bulletin and ask that the components be replaced prophylactically?
 
Also is this something easy (i.e. no cost) to check and see if it's been done. Also if it hasn't will they fix it for free even though i'm out of warrenty?

And 10 degree F is not that cold? LOL i've been in the desert too long. 50 is cold.
 
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