XSeries-forum

Hi everyone,

Just signed up to the forum.  Recently bought an old 2003 plate E53 3 litre diesel with a manual box. 

Been away from BMWs for a few years now, the last I owned was the incredible 635 E24 well over 12 years ago.

I own a few other cars and am bit of a petrol head.  I own a JZA80 Supra TT that I use for drag racing and the X5 will be used to get it to the strip, replacing an old Navara pick up used for this and as a daily.

Have had a few problems already with the x5 but am slowly working my way through them, although one (oil everywhere when driving hard) is causing me concern and will start a new post about that in due course.  Yes I have already changed the CCV for the new type and didn't help   

Hello and welcome.

A manual version is a very rare beast indeed.

If it helps, a copy of the repair guides used by Dealers has appeared at newtis dot info.

Welcome Shane...the X5's are pretty bombproof engines...as for the oil leak, thats a bit of a find it jobbie...

Hi Shane.
Re oil leak have a look round the oil filter housing they tend to leak at the seals where they bolt on.
Also make sure the "O"ring on the filter cap is in the correct grove and not at the top of the thread.

Thanks guys for the pointers and to Alan for pointing me to this forum.

Oil leak is weird, as it appears to be spraying all over the engine bay when driven hard,but bonnet open after a jet wash and rev it there's no sign of a leak or problem, guessing because its not really under load at these conditions.  Also, I am sure there wasn't a leak until last weekend when chasing a boost problem I had the inlet manifold off and replaced the vacuum hoses. 

Yesterday I replaced the  ccv and looking at the state of the original I was quietly confident I had sorted it but a spirited drive today left me with a lot of oil over the engine.    Car sounds beautiful and apart from a intermittent boost/power issue is otherwise perfect, and hoping that's down to a tank pump which is on order.

I have 2 code readers, a generic Chinese handheld one and a elm chipset bluetooth dongle which I have good results with on other cars but neither work with the bmw, so unable to offer any codes for clues.

One thing that occurred to me earlier is that when I replaced the vac pipes there was 4 outlets on the vac tree and only 3 appeared to be in use, so I did what was logical (to me at least) and capped the unused outlet off with a blank, anyone know if this 4th outlet should be capped or have I maybe missed something?

Should also mention maybe that I did an egr delete the other day.

Will get some photos up in coming days.

Cheers all

Shane where you the guy over on Xoutpost ?.
Can't think what that 4th outlet is for it was in a post recently but we don't have it on our e53 3,0d so a blank was fitted to it.

Hi Alan,

Yes I was, thanks for the pointer.

Well bit of an update on this.  I am pretty sure that the blocked CCV has caused terminal damage to the turbo.

If I keep it gentle and under around 3k on boost its ok but as soon as I start to drive it hard on boost I get smoke from the exhaust...and I mean a LOT of smoke and it also sprays oil from every nook and cranny on top of the engine.  Looks like I will be replacing the turbo in the next week or so and cleaning everything out.  Just hope I havent damaged the crank seals.