Theo

+1

MAD ANDY

Hi all,

Took my 55 530d for an MOT on 25th July and during the exhaust test, when the MOT tester pulled the dipstick out, at least 0.5l flooded the engine bay! He quickly replaced the stick and wiped up, but he mentioned he'd never seen this happen before and we put it down to too much oil being in the engine which I thought was strange as I put it in!

Anyway, drove to London at the weekend and back and all was fine even to the point of returning home, then yesterday went less than 1 mile and noticed limp mode was enabled (lack of boost when accelerating) and smoke coming from my exhaust. I pulled over, stopped, restarted, and boost seemed to be back, but smoking continued I gently returned home and revved a few times on the drive and blue smoke continued

Thank god for this forum!

I quickly learned that the dipstick pressure was a sign of the breather being at fault, and the breather could equally contribute to smoke in the exhaust!

Following the excellent pics/guides available, I replaced the breather loo-roll with another loo-roll (my local BMW dealer only had this in stock and mentioned the engineers actually use this one over the upgraded vortex model nowadays due to it being a serviceable item rather than fit/forget so I didnt mind using this one as I intend to replace it regularly!) and at the same time installed a new air-filter. I got my 530d at 48k miles and it now has 84k and neither have been replaced by the looks of it!

After refitting the acoustic cover, I started it up to thankfully see no smoke at all & no error messages, so took it for a test drive but found no boost and the smoke re-appeared Fearing the worst (turbo damage) I returned home but noticed by the time I got back, the smoke had gone again, so checked under the hood to make sure all was still as I left it, then took it back out again - same issue with no boost, this time with a lot less smoke. So returned home to check again - what I did notice was a clicking noise near the ECU & Oxygen Sensor/Exhaust Gas Pressure Sensor, bizarrely it seems to click over and over again then eventually stop, but locking/unlocking makes it happen again :/ I unplugged the MAF sensor & Turbo Boost Pressure sensor but these looked ok, so plugged back in and went out one last time - still no boost but no smoke at all... so just in case, I gave it a good run down the highway at 70mph+ and noticed that if I kicked down, it would hit 3.5k revs and stop, so definitely in limp mode!

Anyway, continued giving it a good run hoping that burning off any oil deposits within the turbo/exhaust/anyway caused by the breather blockage would be burnt off completely... I get off the highway and near to home, I pull over to switch off and instantly switch back on again, foot down & I have boost!! So I get back on the highway, boosting everywhere and it performed flawlessly!

Back home, no smoke, idleing perfectly and fingers crossed for the morning, working perfectly! The clicking noise has also now disappeared so definitely related and no doubt something to do with the Oxygen/Exhaust sensors below the air filter intake!

Thanks all for the great pics & advice I only hope my write up helps anyone who hears the clicking noises!

I'm now concerned regarding the swirl flap issue however & so my car is booked in with http://www.davidpaulofwarrington.co.uk/ who are fully aware of the swirl flap issue and will be resolving for me at a cost of circa £165. This will not include any blanks as they have an alternative way of doing it without screws/glue or blanks - but on the basis that doing it myself would cost a minimum of 6x £8 off eBay or 6x £14 from PMW - I thought the extra cost to have it done by professionals is well worth the piece of mind! (especially after reading one poster who lost the orange gasket and believed it had gone into one of the intakes!)

Thanks and regards,

Andy