[Razor1973]

I started smelling burnt plastic in the cabin while driving today and, since it started getting pretty bad, I just pulled up, realized smoke was coming out of my engine bay, popped the hood open and found this. It's dark out and you can't really see that in this photo, but something around the top edge of this cylindrical part is melting. It looks like black plastic. Any idea what this part is, what could be causing this, how bad it is, how it can be fixed, what it'll cost me and whether it's "safe" to drive the car this way?

Thank you!

[mge92]

Do you have any other shots?

[Razor1973]

I don't, but have already identified the part at least, thanks to RealOEM.com. This is the catalyst, seen here. I wonder if this is a common problem.

I kept searching and found this thread that may explain it.

It looks like the part goes anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500, plus labor and my warranty just expired a few months ago Not looking forward to a replacement, so I'm hoping it can be repaired. I will need to wait till Monday to take the car to a shop, though.

This is obviously frustrating.

[Razor1973]

OK, so I finally took my car to the dealership Service Department and they just called me to let me know they found and fixed the problem. They said it was the valve cover that was leaking oil onto the precat and not a problem with the precat itself. They said they replaced such valve cover. Valve cover? What could they be referring to? It has to be something right under the engine on the passenger's side, right above the precat.

[Radioactive]

Well, they're referring to the cover for the valves. Under the engine glamour cover is the access to the spark plugs and valves amoung other things. The valve area is full of oil during operation. On cars i have worked on two things will cause the cover to leak; bad seal ie gasket and/or poor torquring of valve cover bolts. Leaking sometimes on other parts. Haven't taken my X3 apart yet,LOL, so i'm not exactly sure of their setup. Since they replaced the whole cover rather than just the gasket, i wonder if cover was bent, or is the seal part of the cover. if it has a separate gasket, was the dealer just too lazy to remove the old gasket from the cover. Still kinda early to leak, have a 325i w/ 105k miles and valve cover is just starting to leak.

[Razor1973]

Thanks. Even though my warranty just expired, BMW NA agreed to a goodwill repair and covered the part to replace. The dealer charged me for labor. Total was just above $300.