[smaglik]

This post is regarding the N52 engine in my 2007 X3. I bought it almost 2 years ago, and have put about 32k relatively trouble free miles on her (sitting at 108k). Manual transmission, lots of fun.

Saturday evening, the car started smoking. I popped the hood and figured it was a valve cover gasket. Being that I am temporarily in Portland, OR for work, without my tools and more importantly, extra vehicle, and with a pending road trip tomorrow evening, I took her to the shop this morning, Pacific Motorsports. Regarding the shop, I seem to have stumbled upon a true gem. I haven't gotten the car back yet, but it seems to be everything you'd want in an indy mechanic.

So, the VCG and replacement VC (one of the PCV regulators was loose, and of course, you can't just get that part) are going to set me back 800 something, not all that bad considering the VC is 430 of that.

But, while in the engine, the tech noted a rather odd oil leak on the righthand side of the crankcase where a coolant pipe meets the block, and apparently that is aluminum bonded to magnesium. It's not a critical leak at this point, but he said that when he worked at BMW and customers brought that in under warranty, they would replace the engine. Insert f-bomb here.

There is a TSB associated with it (110809 09/01/2009 Engine - Oil Leak R/H Side Of Engine Crankcase), but I've had no luck searching the interwebs for more information, or more importantly, any type of work around fix.

I am supposed to get a copy of the TSB tomorrow when I pick up the vehicle (I will u/l it) along with photos of the leak, and the tech is going to look into any type of work around fix, but I wanted to post this up here to see what, if any, group knowledge is out there. Thanks!

[knux11]

update?

[smaglik]

Nothing. Just still driving it. Going to have my local guy look at it in a couple of weeks, let me know how much it's actually leaking.

I don't post much on this forum, but it looks like my problem isn't a common one, given that no one has chimed in.