Quote:
Originally Posted by lux.sh
is this problem just random or related to driving-style at all?
if aggressive driving could raise the chance of triggering this issue, i better start slowing down..
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Well, Palm Beach county isn't the kind of place you can really be aggressive. I don't track the car. It is mostly babied by me. But if the mood strikes, I will bounce the rev limiter on occasion.
Part of what I'm hoping this thread will do is encourage N52 owners to look at their cars and either report they've paid for this repair or look in their engine bay and spot the oil leak on the left bank of the engine right under the valve cover. If you spot a oil leak, it shouldn't be hard to locate a broken bolt.
This is a crappy design just because of the fact that BMW decided to change out the magnesium valve cover in place of plastic in later vintage of the engine. I suppose it could also be a quality issue with the bolts themselves, but I suspect that they can't stand up to the resonant frequency the engine transmits and this problem will only resurface again in the future.
To state more around what my personal situation is, I found a local trustworthy repair shop and had them back out the broken stud which shouldn't be hard to do, and replaced just the bad bolt. Hopefully restoring a proper bolt will resolve the leak, but I am suspicious. It will take a few months of regular driving to convince myself either way. I ended up paying for one hour of labor.
To say more about the leak itself, I never lost enough oil to have to add any (remember these engines hold 7 qts of oil), but the fact the leak is there means that your engine bay will get dirty, and I hate dirty for a car I spent this much money on.