I've seen quite a few posts about valve cover gaskets leaking, however, mine seems to be leaking around the bolts in the top of the covers rather than from around the edges of the valve cover. I hadn't noticed it until I smelled some smoke today when I got home from work. I wiped it down, checked that the bolts were tight and drove around for a bit. When I returned there was a trickle of oil coming from the 3 of the 4 bolts on the top of the right side valve cover. Has anyone else experienced this? I'd like to know what I'm up against before I take it to the dealer.
I've seen quite a few posts about valve cover gaskets leaking, however, mine seems to be leaking around the bolts in the top of the covers rather than from around the edges of the valve cover. I hadn't noticed it until I smelled some smoke today when I got home from work. I wiped it down, checked that the bolts were tight and drove around for a bit. When I returned there was a trickle of oil coming from the 3 of the 4 bolts on the top of the right side valve cover. Has anyone else experienced this? I'd like to know what I'm up against before I take it to the dealer.
Thanks,
B
o
b
Bob, looks like those bolts may be over-torqued. Do that and you deform the individual bolt ring gaskets, resulting in localized leakage.
Back off the bolts, buy new bolt gaskets, reinstall to BMW specs.
Should help.
Salty.
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2000 M5 Avus Blue
Interior: titanium trim, Motorsport tri-color fabric seat & door panels w/ black leather, split folding rear seats w/ ski bag, sunshades, alcantara, DSP, etc, etc.
Mods:
- stock 2003 angel eyes upgrade
- Supersprint Magnum exhaust and X-pipe
- Rogue Engineering tranny mounts
- hardwired Valentine One.
- DME upgrade Sept 08.
- Red Line 70W80 tranny fluid
- door mounted cup holders
you can buy those little rubber gromets from the dealer and replace them individually. As you can imagine, they get hard and brittle over time. Easy and cheap.
Mike
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Mike
91 M5 Alpine White II, Silver Gray 3/90 production
17x8/17x9 M system with PS2, 20mm touring roll bar; Ground Control Coilovers; EAT Chip, CD43; bmw/nardi blackline steering wheel, 3.8 Cam Gears
08 535i / 6 speed
Space Gray; Gray; Sport/Premium/Nav
00 M5 Ti Silver; Imola/black sportiv --Sold
Engine:
Supersprint Headers, Dinan CAI kit and MAFS, Throttle Bodies, Cams, Ported heads, Exhaust, Custom dinan software, Evosport Pullies, Dinan clutch and lightened flywheel; Ignition solutions plasma coils
Suspension:
Dinan Stage 3 with front and rear Strut Tower Braces, Beastpower Sway bar brackets, Dinan Wheels with 275/285 PilotSport, X5 Thrust arm bushings, Stoptech 355mm 4 piston front, 355mm 2 piston rear brake kit, Dinan 3.45 diff
Interior/Misc:
Eurodash, updated steering wheel, Bluetooth retrofit, Sirius Retrofit, hardwired V1, Widescreen Mk4 nav, M audio retrofit, Ice Link, BSW Stage 1 speaker upgrade, bmw towbar
This is no biggie at all - after they put my engine back together, I had the same thing - my tech tightened a loose grommet and everything has been fine since - I wouldn't worry about them getting brittle either - my car has 101,000 miles and the tightening cured it.
Thanks everyone for the replies. The car is at the dealer. Looks like they're going to replace the seals and the valve covers under my 3rd party warranty.
There were a few other unrelated things that I asked the dealer to look at while the car was there. For one of these the dealer came up with an answer that just doesn't make sense to me so I'll start another thread for that.
Valve Cover Leak?
Linear Mode
