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      09-11-2022, 01:59 PM   #1
MrSeabass
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Sudden loss of oil pressure, oil overflowing coolant tank... How screwed am I?

At a gas station waiting for a tow truck, so thought I'd post in the meantime.

Driving down the road, get a low oil warning. Not uncommon but this happened maybe 2K after an oil change. Then a few minutes later, low/no oil pressure warning. Had to u fortunately drive another 2 miles to a gas station (not possible to pull off the road where I was). Oil coating most everything under the coolant reservoir tank and beyond, not sure if it all came from yet but clearly some escaped the reservoir tank lid. And the reservoir tank is a chocolate shake. Puddle.of oil under the car. No signs of blown hoses or other gamage firsthand.

I immediately think 'head gasket' but no overheating, no significant coolant loss or spillage (almost entirely engine oil), and the engine felt no different at all by the time I stopped the car. Any guesses as to what it could be while I ponder the eventual 3 hour tow home? Reception here is awful so photos will have to wait until I get home.
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      09-11-2022, 06:46 PM   #2
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Back home and took the basics out of the engine bay. I have no idea what failed yet

First look shows there's a lot of oil that overflowed the coolant cap and ran down the sides. Very little coolant loss AFAIK. No ruptued hoses anywhere or anything looking physicaly broken. Haven;t lifted the car and taken the undertray out yet as it's late and right noe I just don;t have the patience or emotional stability to lift a car and get under it right now. General observations:
  • I do not see any fluid on either side where the cylinder head meets the block.
  • I do not see any fluids at all on the passerger side, not even loking down onto the undertray. All oil (and coolant loss) happened on the driver's side.
  • I see no fluids from under or around the intake manifold.
  • The oil filter housing gasket was replaces roughly 50K miles ago. The area around the housing is bone dry, there is no evidence of oil leaking out at all, past or present, from the seal housing.
  • There is oil/coolant soaking the coolant reservior outsode and everything within 5 inces of it basically. I I don;t know if coolant came out just the cap at the top (hard to believe but...) or the connections on the side/under it, but it looks like any loss came from there. I have not gone under the car yet so there could be a second source of the leak, but it seems unlikely.
  • Looking in the valve cover after removing the oil filling cap: still looks wet/dark with oil, a faint froth around the cap seal only.
  • Car seemingly entered low power mode when the 'low/no oil pressure' warning came on (or I just lifted off the gas in reaction). Drove to the closest gas station which was1-1.5 miles from the warning, engine did not react in any way that seemed troublesome.
  • It definitely lost a good amount of oil, going by the spray under the car and the puddle it left behind.
  • Have not pulled any codes yet to see what else could have failed, but I can say the car was not overheating at any point.



Right now it just looks like something internal/not able to be seen failed, forcing oil into the coolant lines and out the coolant tank/connections. Lemme know what you think before I start calling around or taking more off the car.




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      09-11-2022, 08:41 PM   #3
deyrag
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Oil cooler internal failure?
In theory oil pressure should be higher than coolant pressure when running so hopefully the lube side of things will be ok. Although once you shut if off residual coolant pressure may have forced some coolant into the engine. I would not run it until you figure out what failed but it looks like a few hundred coolant flushes in your future
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      09-11-2022, 09:25 PM   #4
MrSeabass
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Quote:
Originally Posted by deyrag View Post
Oil cooler internal failure?
In theory oil pressure should be higher than coolant pressure when running so hopefully the lube side of things will be ok. Although once you shut if off residual coolant pressure may have forced some coolant into the engine. I would not run it until you figure out what failed but it looks like a few hundred coolant flushes in your future
Not a chance I'm craking the engine anytime soon. In all likeliness, almost all the oil leaked out.

Does the N55 have an oil cooler? If so I'll inspect it tomorrow if I can get to it.
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      09-12-2022, 03:36 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrSeabass View Post
Not a chance I'm craking the engine anytime soon. In all likeliness, almost all the oil leaked out.

Does the N55 have an oil cooler? If so I'll inspect it tomorrow if I can get to it.
looks like this is an oil cooler heat exchanger failure. The way it works is by interweaving oil and coolant so that they can exchange heat. When they fail, the oils mix with the coolant and vice versa. There is a least one for the X3 and 2 for models that did not come equipped with an oil cooler.

Look at item 9 for the most visible heat exchanger.



Look at item 1 for the heat exchanger that services the transmission.

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      09-12-2022, 07:48 AM   #6
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Morning, took a few more pics.



Here are both of the (assumed) exchangers. I assume the trans heat exchanger can be ignored (for now). The oil heat exchanger is slightly different than in the guide, but as I mentioned it didn't show any *external* leaks, but of course this failure can be internal. I did replace the gaskets once before as it was leaking between the engine and the housing, but I guess I'll be cracking it open again to see.

Also I opened the filter for a quick peek, and it appears to have done its job as a filter as almost all the milkshake was contained to the center/inside of the filter. Lemme know if that helps pinpoint the source of the failure.

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      09-12-2022, 09:22 AM   #7
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Assuming that this is a pic from your X3, the big red square is not an exchanger. Your X3 was equipped with an oil cooler that is air to liquid and it should route to the right side of the vehicle. the OFHG can be the culprit.

I would start with the transmission cooler and see if there is any indication of oil mixed with ATF. If there isn't any coolant, then I would look at the engine circuit and go from there. There are only a few common spots that can cause this. OFHG is one of them and most likely could be it. The other one is the head gasket.

Most likely it is the oil filter housing gasket.
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      09-12-2022, 10:01 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MSport_Jon View Post
Assuming that this is a pic from your X3, the big red square is not an exchanger. Your X3 was equipped with an oil cooler that is air to liquid and it should route to the right side of the vehicle. the OFHG can be the culprit.

I would start with the transmission cooler and see if there is any indication of oil mixed with ATF. If there isn't any coolant, then I would look at the engine circuit and go from there. There are only a few common spots that can cause this. OFHG is one of them and most likely could be it. The other one is the head gasket.

Most likely it is the oil filter housing gasket.
Thanks for the tips; already ordered OFHG kit and will be removing it entirely today. If it's the head gasket, well... guess I'm gonna make a few calls around town I'm still 99% sure it's not the head gasket as it had no telltale signs (no steam excaping, pulsing/surging, literally no signs of the engine operating erratically).

Also started pulling some plumbing out since it needs to be flushed out anyway, there's so much oil in the coolant lines
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      09-12-2022, 11:32 AM   #9
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Welp, think we have a winner. Almost had a heart attack thinking those were metal chunks, but nope, nearly plasticised gasket rubber.





Time to order an inflatable kiddie pool to put under the car so I can hose the diarrhea out of it, take the rest of the housing out, read up on thorough flushing procedures, and get crackin once the parts arrive.
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      09-12-2022, 01:47 PM   #10
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I use the DuPont Viton OFHG which doesn't harden like the stock rubber ones. IMO, it's well worth the extra cost.
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      09-12-2022, 01:55 PM   #11
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Make sure you prime that thing after replacing the OFHG!
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      09-12-2022, 02:36 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pungo View Post
I use the DuPont Viton OFHG which doesn't harden like the stock rubber ones. IMO, it's well worth the extra cost.
Didn't kow that existed, nice call. Got a link to the one that goes between the housing and the cooler? All I see is the one between the housing and the block.
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      09-12-2022, 05:47 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrSeabass View Post
Didn't kow that existed, nice call. Got a link to the one that goes between the housing and the cooler? All I see is the one between the housing and the block.
Sorry, I read OFHG, missed the OFH to Oil cooler gasket. AFAIK, I don't think they make that one in Viton, probably due to the multiple different configurations. I'd go with a genuine BMW gasket for that one.

When you replaced the OFHG previously, did you also replace the OFH to Oil cooler gasket at the same time?
Also I'd check the flatness of both gasket surfaces with a straightedge and feeler gauges to verify they are dead flat.
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      09-12-2022, 06:59 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pungo View Post
Sorry, I read OFHG, missed the OFH to Oil cooler gasket. AFAIK, I don't think they make that one in Viton, probably due to the multiple different configurations. I'd go with a genuine BMW gasket for that one.

When you replaced the OFHG previously, did you also replace the OFH to Oil cooler gasket at the same time?
Also I'd check the flatness of both gasket surfaces with a straightedge and feeler gauges to verify they are dead flat.
Yep I changed both gaskets back in 2019. Flatness I chedked at the time and it was OK.

Also here's the melted and destroyed OFHG now that I removed the housing. Was this shit made of crayons or something, holy hell.

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      09-12-2022, 08:16 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrSeabass View Post
Yep I changed both gaskets back in 2019. Flatness I chedked at the time and it was OK.

Also here's the melted and destroyed OFHG now that I removed the housing. Was this shit made of crayons or something, holy hell.
That's a pretty short lifespan for those gaskets, were they genuine BMW or aftermarket?
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      09-12-2022, 08:39 PM   #16
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Going by my purchase history they were MAHLE branded, so not like it was one of those 'leftover Scrabble tiles' names aftermarket ones. Still seems odd just how rapid the gasket disintegrated acound the coolant channels. Wonder if there was some 'bad' coolant leftover when I flushed the system out a year ago? No clue.
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      09-13-2022, 03:05 AM   #17
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There is a brand that is sold on Baum-shop24.de or Baum BMW here in Germany called ELRING. These guys vouch for it.

Stick with OE or at least ELRING and don't deviate. I can't believe how that gasket failed to like that. seems burned.

Going forward, you do not have to do an intense flush of the coolant circuit. Just used filter water and detergent and run an air purge procedure and keep flushing it until it becomes a decent in color. Once you are happy, use G48 or better specd coolant to suspend minerals that the filtered water may have left behind. Flush about a week later and then maybe 2 weeks from that until most of the oil is out.

I would definitely replace the expansion tank first and go from there.
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      09-13-2022, 06:16 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MSport_Jon View Post
There is a brand that is sold on Baum-shop24.de or Baum BMW here in Germany called ELRING. These guys vouch for it.

Stick with OE or at least ELRING and don't deviate. I can't believe how that gasket failed to like that. seems burned.

Going forward, you do not have to do an intense flush of the coolant circuit. Just used filter water and detergent and run an air purge procedure and keep flushing it until it becomes a decent in color. Once you are happy, use G48 or better specd coolant to suspend minerals that the filtered water may have left behind. Flush about a week later and then maybe 2 weeks from that until most of the oil is out.

I would definitely replace the expansion tank first and go from there.
That's the brand I ordered thankfully, and same for the expansion tank. That much hot oil saturation in that kind of plastic means it was gonna get tossed regardless, and replacement tanks are a dime a dozen.

Today I'll be getting a few gallons of distilled dropped off to flush out what's left after the other 'cleaning' flushes, maybe pull the radiator if it makes life easier.
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      09-14-2022, 06:26 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrSeabass View Post
That's the brand I ordered thankfully, and same for the expansion tank. That much hot oil saturation in that kind of plastic means it was gonna get tossed regardless, and replacement tanks are a dime a dozen.

Today I'll be getting a few gallons of distilled dropped off to flush out what's left after the other 'cleaning' flushes, maybe pull the radiator if it makes life easier.
I have heard of shops having a machine that is placed within the cooling circuit to clean out vehicles that have experienced this problem. It just has filters and separators to clean out the cooling circuit and they work well.

I just do not know what it is called or what shops have them. The ELRING brand makes gaskets out of ACM material which is what DUPONT Viton brand is made from.
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      09-14-2022, 08:42 PM   #20
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Had the exact same thing happen to my E70 X5 8 months after OFHG replacement... I flushed with water and degreaser till clean then flushed with distilled and then refilled... Been good for almost a year now...

Definitely do a prime on the system when done...
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      09-15-2022, 03:46 PM   #21
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The car lives again!

Flushed the coolant the best I could (there's still a tiny bit of floaty stuff in the reservior) and primed the oil, and the car runs like the gasket never failed. I'll put some hours on it, then do another oil/coolant change in a few weeks time, and that should hopefully be the end of it.

Also, who wants a milkshake? Disposing of this stuff is gonna be fun...


Last edited by MrSeabass; 09-15-2022 at 03:54 PM..
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      09-16-2022, 12:21 PM   #22
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