Breather cleaning needed?

[Mr Whippy]

I was reading a BMW magazine in WH Smith the other day and it had a Z4 buyers guide.

It suggested the breathers for the M54 engine would clog over time and cause issues. We have seen that on here with one owners manifold exploding and needing replacement!
The swirly separator thingy blocked and caused pressure build-up.

Well anyway, the F&Q suggested that to check for blocked pipes or problems you could remove the oil filler cap when the engine was running to see if the engine was blowing much air out the top or not.

Well, I did mine and it's not blowing much, not like on other cars I've had where the filler cap will wobble/rattle around if not tightened and generally make a lot of noise. Also, when I did this the engine ran a bit funny, like it was missing and knocking a bit, like rpm were dropping, then when I put the cap back rpm's would rise and it'd sound normal.


Soooo, are my pipes a bit blocked, or are they good? Anyone done a full clean of the swirl separator thingy or had their system cleaned... tempted to remove the manifold and give it a good clean and all associated pipes, but wonering if there is a treatment I can use to help clear it all out without that process?!


Any advice/ideas etc welcomed... don't want an exploding manifold

Dave

 

[srhutch]

I didnt think much of the buyers guide, othet than the springs most problems they mentioned arent bought up on here and the one that are discussed here they never mentioned

 

[Gorbash12346]

I was reading a BMW magazine in WH Smith the other day and it had a Z4 buyers guide.

It suggested the breathers for the M54 engine would clog over time and cause issues. We have seen that on here with one owners manifold exploding and needing replacement!
The swirly separator thingy blocked and caused pressure build-up.

Well anyway, the F&Q suggested that to check for blocked pipes or problems you could remove the oil filler cap when the engine was running to see if the engine was blowing much air out the top or not.

Well, I did mine and it's not blowing much, not like on other cars I've had where the filler cap will wobble/rattle around if not tightened and generally make a lot of noise. Also, when I did this the engine ran a bit funny, like it was missing and knocking a bit, like rpm were dropping, then when I put the cap back rpm's would rise and it'd sound normal.


Soooo, are my pipes a bit blocked, or are they good? Anyone done a full clean of the swirl separator thingy or had their system cleaned... tempted to remove the manifold and give it a good clean and all associated pipes, but wonering if there is a treatment I can use to help clear it all out without that process?!


Any advice/ideas etc welcomed... don't want an exploding manifold

Dave

the car should struggle to idle when you remove the oil cap this is normal as you are introducing air into the crankcase which is being recirculated into the cars inlet thus making the car run lean and the car has to try and compensate for the sudden increase in unmetered air through the use of it's lambda probes (oxygen sensors) generally when the breathers fail they crack and allow unmetered air in making the car run rough and almost always the EML light will illuminate when the car cannot add enough fuel to change the lean running condition i.e. maxed out

hope this helps

 

[Mr Whippy]

Ahhh that all sounds good then. It's doing what it should be doing

Is there any way to clean the breather system generally bar removing the manifold/breathers and clearing them?

Ie, an additive or something?!

Just the car is approaching 75,000 miles now, and I like to keep ahead of potential problems and the breather system is apparently an area that might need looking at.
It's had oil changes at 62k, 68k and will have another at 75k soon, so it's probably helping clear itself out via that? (ie, regular oil changes!?)


Thanks for the help!

Dave