Possible cause of oil moisture (picture provided)

[NaweedMustafa]

Was just inspecting around the engine bay for oil leaks. Nothing from the valve cover gasket gasket as i expect it to drip from the leaning edge of the engine. Any advice on where this is coming from?

Been keeping track of the odometer whenever i top up after the oil level sensor goes off






The shiny out of focus part. Forgot to mention this. oops.

 

[Rockhopper]

Your car has a dip stick I think, you be much better off using that the check your oil instead of waiting for the warning to go off.

1 litre per 1000km is considered normal by BMW for your engine i believe.

Mine goes through phases, sometimes it uses non, sometimes it used a bit. But as regards leaks, BMW engines are not really known for their oil tight qualities.

 

[bigwinn]

Struggling to see oil on the pic but as it’s an m54 I’d say oil filter housing gasket or vanos oil feed pipe

 

[NaweedMustafa]

Your car has a dip stick I think, you be much better off using that the check your oil instead of waiting for the warning to go off.
1 litre per 1000km is considered normal by BMW for your engine i believe.

Indeed the dipstick is used in conjunction with the oil level sensor. Yellow warning lamp after switching off engine indicates that it is just below the half point. yellow warning lamp while driving (light disappears after a few minutes) means it is at the absolute minimum level. I frequently check the dipstick as well hence the 0.5L top ups in between.

vanos oil feed pipe

This is a good one. didn't think about an additional line feeding into the Vanos. I will look around a bit more to see where i can do some preventive work. My CCV was replaced almost 98,000KM's ago by the previous owner so it might be time i take care of that soon...

 

[Motionblurrr]

100% it's the Vanos oil feed line. It has a banjo bolt with 2 washers on each side on that end. It doesn't leak at first, it just weeps/ "sweats" oil and that's the first sign of it failing. If you wait long enough it'll eventually drip.

Very easy job to do.

If your CCV was replaced only 98,000km ago, I wouldn't worry about it until you see signs of any leaks or smoke from the exhaust. I had just replaced mine for the first time at 280,000kms. It was the original CCV from factory too! I opened it on the inside and the diaphragm had a tiny cut so it wasn't too bad but it was still letting oil through.

 

[NaweedMustafa]

Oh wow, after 280,000Km's. I guess I'm worrying too much about this haha. My valve cover gasket was also last replaced the same time as the CCV but i see no faults there. I'll maybe pop the spark plugs out to see if I got some oil there otherwise, I'll let it be. I'll do some research on getting the vanos oil feed line replaced

 

[x-driver]

There is an easy way to check your CCV health. Try to open the oil cap when engine running. If there is strong vacuum, your CCV is bad.

A bad CCV disrupts the whole vacuum inside the engine and therefore causes high oil consumption. I just replaced it for the second time in my e39 M54b30, the bottom pipe was squished together, imploded actually.

If you try to open the oil cap and your CCV is still good, there will be weak vacuum on the cap and when you open it, the engine behaviour will change to rough or struggling to run.

 

[colb]

Usual place for a leak where you have oil is the gasket between the oil filter housing and engine block. Alternator has to come out to get at the housing bolts to chant the £4 gasket.