[impudence]

While driving my 2015 x3 i28 I've started smelling burning oil in the last few days. When I removed the engine cover it was a complete horror show. There is oil everywhere. The front of the engine is caked in oil. The passenger side is covered in oil. Most worrying of all there is copious amounts of oil in and around both the front and back plugs. I'm including the best pics I can. I assume the valve cover gasket is bad, it seems the oil filter gasket may be bad as well. But that doesn't really explain all the oil around the plugs and injectors? Is there something more serious going on that I'm not understanding? Car is throwing no codes and running smooth as ever. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Ivan67]

Valve cover gasket is the most common source of oil leaks in that area.
How many miles on it? Our X3 was starting to leak around 85k miles, but didn’t look as bad.
Good luck,
Ivan.

[pungo]

From the looks of those pics, the oil has been leaking for a long time.
Do you have a vacuum when placing a plastic bag over the opening for the oil filler cap on the VC?
Completely degrease the engine, then see where it starts leaking from.
I agree, it's probably leaking from multiple locations.

[Dekero]

I agree with Pungo (Which is rare) but I'd take it further and go ahead and replace

The valve cover
The valve cover gasket
Ofhg gaskets
The drive belt
Tensioner
And any Idler pulleys
And while there if anyone makes one I'd install a crank guard to protect against belt ingestion.

And I'd use easily 10+ cans of brake cleaner to clean that mess up while there.. paying specific attention to the entire front of the engine so your belt doesn't shred due to grease/oil...

[Opie55]

As others have said, because that oil is caked with dirt much of it has been there for a while. If for no other reason than that dirt will get everywhere, I'd wash that engine off good before any repairs. And if you wash it and then check it every day for a few days, you'll see better where it's from. But almost certainly its' from where others have said.

[impudence]

Thanks for the replies. I cleaned all the oil and dirt off. Mechanic says the valve cover seems to have warped and has caused leaks in multiple places. Getting everything replaced as well as oil filter housing gasket for good measure.