Newbie looking for advice

[RB2017]

Hi all, I'm new to this site and looking for a bit of help.
Having owned an E30 325i Cabriolet in the mid 90's I returned to the BMW fold earlier this year by buying a '08 X5 35d MSport with just about every extra on it - absolutely love it.  Looks - Power - Comfort
Unfortunately its developed 2 issues. One is that on hard acceleration black smoke comes out of the exhausts. Because the car is white this leaves a black residue on the back bumper. I have noticed a small oil leak from underneath the engine so think the two may be connected. I am booking it into my local garage soon so will update all with what the diagnosis is. However my other issue is that the blower on the drivers side won't blow hot air - the passgener side works fine. I've searched the site for help with this and it all seems to point to thermostat issues - however would this just affect the drivers side and not the passengers? any help would be greatly apprecaietd - thanks

[graemeX5]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I am not the greatest at the diesels but generally under hard acceleration most diesels will have black smoke out the back which is where it putting a lot of fuel through and it could also be clearing the cat on the car.

if there are no error codes you will have to connect either a plaptop or scanner to check or any messages on the dash check control then it should be okay. The exhausts on a 35d come straight out so it is probably not much you can do about their exiting that way apart from cleaning the car.

The small oil leak does need checking to ascertain where it's coming from, it's really a process of elimination
as it could be several areas, such as a seal etc.

So it's best to wipe clean the area above the leak on the floor and put newspaper or cardboard on floor to see if further drops overnight and then next morning if drops you should be able to see from where, if none then you will have to run the engine and see if any leak if so from where and then you can fix it.

With regards to. The heater blower not working on the drivers side but it does on the passenger side then is odd.
I know it's a stupid thought but check the heater and blower settings are the same on the passenger side to drivers side and all the vents are open set the same, just in case it's that straight forward.

If not then side I would check if the passenger side vent at top of dash and on front of dash and in footwell to see if gives out heat and if it does and the temperature display sits in the middle then it's probably not the thermostat.

Does the blower work out of the centre vents is also worth checking and if that does and the passenger side is okay then it's probably worth checking the hoses from the heater blower to the vents on top of dash and right of steering column to make sure they haven't been dislodged or blocked in some way.

If you have a look at www.realoem.com
That will help show how the heating system works

Graeme

[Horizon]

[quote="RB2017"]
Hi all, I'm new to this site and looking for a bit of help.
Having owned an E30 325i Cabriolet in the mid 90's I returned to the BMW fold earlier this year by buying a '08 X5 35d MSport with just about every extra on it - absolutely love it.  Looks - Power - Comfort
Unfortunately its developed 2 issues. One is that on hard acceleration black smoke comes out of the exhausts. Because the car is white this leaves a black residue on the back bumper. I have noticed a small oil leak from underneath the engine so think the two may be connected. I am booking it into my local garage soon so will update all with what the diagnosis is. However my other issue is that the blower on the drivers side won't blow hot air - the passgener side works fine. I've searched the site for help with this and it all seems to point to thermostat issues - however would this just affect the drivers side and not the passengers? any help would be greatly apprecaietd - thanks


[/quote]

Hi and welcome to the forum

[RB2017]

Thanks GraemeX5 and Horizon - thats great info and gives me somewhere to start. Will post updates as I get them.

[Nat]

Hi,

I would check the heater control valve........................back of the engine rhs , same side as the expansion tank.  round cylinders the size of an old film canister . Each one is a solenoid for each side. Pull the connector off and see if the hot air stops on the side that it is coming out of.

No4 on the diagram

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showpar ... Id=64_1600

Thats what i would check.

Good luck

[H4MP]

Any luck I have the same car and same problem an oil leak. Previous owner has removed the dpf

[quote="RB2017"]
Hi all, I'm new to this site and looking for a bit of help.
Having owned an E30 325i Cabriolet in the mid 90's I returned to the BMW fold earlier this year by buying a '08 X5 35d MSport with just about every extra on it - absolutely love it.  Looks - Power - Comfort
Unfortunately its developed 2 issues. One is that on hard acceleration black smoke comes out of the exhausts. Because the car is white this leaves a black residue on the back bumper. I have noticed a small oil leak from underneath the engine so think the two may be connected. I am booking it into my local garage soon so will update all with what the diagnosis is. However my other issue is that the blower on the drivers side won't blow hot air - the passgener side works fine. I've searched the site for help with this and it all seems to point to thermostat issues - however would this just affect the drivers side and not the passengers? any help would be greatly apprecaietd - thanks
[/quote]