[asus389]

My 06 325i is getting up there in mileage. Gonna hit 87k this week. I noticed that I was going through more oil (~2qt) than usual between oil changes and a visual inspection of the engine area shows some seepage starting to happen on the passenger side of the valve cover gasket.

In Feb 2011 (~58k miles), my car had the exhaust side hydraulic valve lifters replaced because of ticking. On the invoice it references parts 11-12-0-409-288 (set of alum. screws) and 11-12-7-581-215 (profile gasket). According to realoem, this appears to be the valve cover gasket and screws. So it seems that they replaced the original valve cover gasket and screws at the time they did the lifter SIB. No leaking or broken bolts were noted on the invoice.

Is it normal that after only 2.5 years (~30k miles) I would need another valve cover gasket? Has this happened to anyone else after the valve lifter SIB? Is there some fundamental problem with the design of this part that has since been updated? Is there some common pitfall in doing this repair that could have happened when they did it?

The original lifter replacement was done under the CPO warranty more than 2 years ago. The car has now been out of warranty for a year. I am unsure what to do. Is it even possible to get BMW to re-do this repair at this point?

please advise

thanks