2011 BMW X5M (E70) Project

[Xulfiqar]

you should replace the cabin recirculation air filter too, its under the passenger side of the dashboard. cheap to buy but requires removal of the lower part of the dash cover and and 2 air ducts. (takes 10 minutes max)

[Xulfiqar]

If you can read a book and follow a diagram provided by BMW TIS, this is easy even for green techs. BMW expects that an average mechanic has all the proper tooling and also basic education to understand what is written.

Problem in Pakistan is that peoples hands are very "slow"

[Xulfiqar]

I have been passenger in a Brabus Rocket, - I fear to see the day when someone pushes it outside its limits.

[intoxicated]

buy/rent a coolant pressure tester and find the leak - then patch/fix it up.

The coolant I like to use in almost any car is either

Peak Global
OR
Peak Final Charge

Peak is now selling a 10X formula too, but I prefer global as Ive used it in single fill for more than 100K miles myself in my shitbox camry and sent a sample for testing, it still was good to use.

btw - Valvoline G48 is about 27 a gallon in concentrate and yields 2 gallons of ready coolant when you cut it with water. Napa have it on sale sometimes, I believe carquest/advanced sell the original mercedes/bmw concentrate coolant for about 28 a gallon too. You will have to go to one which has a commercial parts counter.

I bought 5 gallons BMW coolant to do both E46 and E70 and I think it'd be left over with some but good to know there are other options.

[intoxicated]

you should replace the cabin recirculation air filter too, its under the passenger side of the dashboard. cheap to buy but requires removal of the lower part of the dash cover and and 2 air ducts. (takes 10 minutes max)

Yes, I have ordered it and I plan to change it with the next oil service (hopefully next week).

[intoxicated]

The smoke is your valve stem seals leaking, and there is no other way to repair them, you have to replace them, you will see why when you remove them, they will be hard as rock.

Doing that is not a driveway job as it requires engine removal first, you will curse yourself if you try this inframe.

Its quite easy though, the entire powertrain drops out very easily on an e70, as long as you disconnect the rear driveline and have a hydraulic table setup.

The whole subframe carrying the engine, suspension, steering rack, diff and axles, brake rotors etc etc will drop out intact.

Once out, use an impact driver and a large shelving assortment to tear it down.

So I've been doing a lot of research and the symptoms I see aren't typical valve stem seal, no smoke at cold start (valve stem issues smoke at cold start), slight smoke on idle as well as with revs. I'm guessing it's either something to do with my CCV system, vacuum lines or turbo oil return line (X5M are known for oil return line clogging and leaking). When I was disassembling intake parts, I saw very slight oil in intake boots, heat exchangers, turbos, boost solenoids, etc., it may be visible in photos above. Smoke wasn't as bad as it is right now prior to replacing valve cover gaskets, it's most likely because of the vacuum/pressure in the head after gasket replacement.

I did get a quote from a reputable indy shop in the area, and was quoted 54 hours at $100/hour = $5,400 for valve stem seal replacement and would take about 7 days to complete.

I'll research some more and inspect with an endoscope or something to see what's going on with oil return line.

BMW recommends 5w30 for S63 but I had been using 5w40, so I'll switch to 5w30 and see how it behaves then.

[Hassan1991]

Any updates sir

[intoxicated]

Any updates sir

Yes, I'll be posting some updates in a little bit. I flushed the transmission fluid today and found some issues with suspension.

Hang tight!

[intoxicated]

I had been planning to do a transmission fluid flush but didn't have the time to in the last two weeks - I wanted to do it soon because the truck's been back to its' daily duty and miles were going up.

Before I jump into the transmission side of things, I received the cabin recirulation air filter and went ahead and replaced that - old one was clogged up and looked nasty.

Could not take any during the action photos because it was late at night and I just wanted to get it over with. Lol

Also replace wheel center caps to BMW color - I didn't like the black and white look.

Old ones

I bought cheap chinese ones because I plan on replacing them with BMW floating center caps later on.

[intoxicated]

Transmission fluid flush parts had been sitting for a while but I didn't have straight 6-8 hours to do the flush and I needed to start the car in the end to fill the fluid to the level, so I couldn't do it at night because the cold start is quite loud - I'm sure my neighbors hate me already.

Today was the day - All the tools and parts;

Lifted it enough to get access undernearth.

Replacement filter, magnets, bolts, drain plug, fill plug, rubber seals and mechatronics sleeve.

Drained all the fluid

How the pan is shaped, it still holds fluid so it had to be hung to the back so remaining fluid can drain.

Pan removed, next I removed the filter and mechatronics unit.

Pan, old bolts, filter and gasket - I wanted to replace the magnets but the clips decided they didn't want to come off, so I cleaned them the best I can.

Mechatronics unit - this thing was heavy!!

Inside of the transmission with mechatronics unit removed - apologies for the angles of the photos, I was working with limited space lol

Old vs new rubber seals - they tend to flatten out over time and the shifting quality detriorates - second photo shows how they flatten out - older tubes were completely flush but new ones were slightly protruded.

New rubber seals installed.

New filter.

Ready to put the pan back together and add fluid.

New pan gasket.

New vs old fluid, it looked real dark.

Everything was put back together and fluid filled took it out for a test drive and shifts were much more smoother. I had also reset throttle adaptions, so it can relearn with clean fluid.

Thank you!

[intoxicated]

In one of my earlier posts I had mentioned that I'm not very confident about how the it handles at the moment - I'm certain that it's because of several suspension related parts. So while inspecting the rear suspension, I found out that the rear radius arms are completely broken on both rear sides (radius arms/rods connect the subframe to the chassis).

Rear Left

Rear Right

so another BS I gotta deal with - will plan to do a suspension refresh insha'Allah.

[UAHMAD]

Terrible. But how did this happen?

[intoxicated]

Terrible. But how did this happen?

No idea. They're not that easy to break though, unless the truck flew over a big speed bump or fell off of a fork lift.

[capsat]

going over bump is plausible . Falling off fork-lift may be not under your ownership ??

[intoxicated]

going over bump is plausible . Falling off fork-lift may be not under your ownership ??

Neither happened under my ownership. So no idea how or what happened.

[Hassan1991]

When you have 700 horses these things are normal🤭 . I can see rust though.

[intoxicated]

When you have 700 horses these things are normal🤭 . I can see rust though.

Haha I've been accustomed to modded car issues but this is different, this is a pure example of someone not taking correct care. Suspension parts don't fail together or they probably could but not all sides around the same time lol

This was a Chicago truck, so it's seen fair amount of rain, snow and salt. It's mostly surface rust but it will be addressed as well insha'Allah.

[Hassan1991]

Agreed.
Insha ALLAH will be waiting.

[intoxicated]

Turbos going for a rebuild. Will update with details later.

[intoxicated]

Salaam/hello everyone,

I've been chasing couple of issues with the truck, smoking being the biggest of all, with following symptoms;

No smoke at cold start, even when revved it.
Blue smoke at idle when at operating temp.
Smoke after a long stop/idle (prime example of valve stem seals)

I'm not sold on valve stem seals playing a role here (I haven't still ruled it out though) but I'm going down the following in order;

1. Vacuum leaks
   I inspected all vacuum hoses and did not find any leaks visually or during idle, truck's idle is very smooth (BMW's are very finicky when it comes to vacuum leaks and their idle is all over the place if there's a vacuum leak).

2. CCV system leak
   There are only a few things around CCV system and I replaced everything with my last DIY, so I did not suspect much but I did find a small leak in the new hoses that I replaced (already opened a warranty claim and replacement is on the way).

3. Turbo seals
   I have seen traces of oil around the compressor outlet, so I'm suspecting the turbo to close to failure - I have sent them over for a rebuild and will find out soon whether or not it's true.

4. Weak piston rings
   This is probably my biggest fear at the moment LOL - S63 rebuild job is around $10,000 - so let's see how it goes with the turbos, if I'm told the seals weren't leaking, I'll be doing a compression test.

5. Valve stem seals
   I have researched a lot on this and figured - my truck does not seem to be having a valve stem seal issue (I still have not completely ruled it out).

So with turbo rebuild I wanted to tackle a few other things that I had planned and had the parts sitting. S63 engines are known cool up turbo oil return lines and clog them and when/if turbo coolant lines leak they drip right on the oil return lines cover in the V tunnel and turn into gunk over time. Long story short, I've sent off the turbos for a rebuild and I'll be tackling the rest of the stuff sometime this week.

Plan is to ceramic coat downpipes and exhaust manifolds to keep the temperature down within the engine bay while I have everything removed. So I'll be removing rest of the pieces this week.

When I started removed parts, I though it would be a straight forward removal but it turned out to be such an intense job, I had to remove half the things around and on top of the turbo to get access to them and then there were a few bolts that took me over an hour to remove because of access.

After removing them I had to remove all the hard lines.

I also suspected that exhaust side seal on the turbo may be leaking and causing the truck to smoke but looks like I was wrong - did not see any oil residue.

Next I'll be removing the alternator and couple of other components to be able to remove the heat shield that sits on top of the oil return cover and I can already see that it's going to be a mess down there.

Some of the parts that will be replaced with this job. Oil return lines, oil return cover, and bunch of gaskets.

While inspecting the CCV System / Intake boots, I found a small leak as mentioned above - here are some comparison photos for Cyl 1-4 and Cyl 5-8 intake boots. You can clearly see some condensation residue around the edges.

Here's Cyl 1-4 - bone dry.

Turbos are in for the rebuilt and would probably take about 2 weeks to come back and I'll tackle rest of the stuff while the truck hibernates.

Will post more details as I make progress.

Thank you,