Dandle

That is the one that replaced the loo roll type separator. There is an even newer one on the M57N2 which doesn't have a separate vortex separator.

DavidF

You can call it pedantic if you want to, but calling the seperator a filter is a bit misleading. Filters connotate change intervals. An oil seperator not so much. A filter filters, an oil seperator seperates oil from vapour and the vapour drains back to the crankcase. Cleaning is sometimes required in colder climates when condensed moisture in the crankcase mixes with the oil/vapour and causes sludge.

I am not aware of a modern BMW that uses a filter in any part of the crankcase ventilation system. Old cars did, but they were not closed systems (i.e. vacuum applied to crankcase).

Pointing out that Kleenex is really facial tissue or that Freon is really refrigerant could be called Pedantic because that is really the same thing. A filter and an oil seperator is NOT the same thing. Is that Pedantic enough?

Ragtop Steve

As advised by my local BMW dealer

Mine has the M57N2 engine and this dosent have the filter in side the housing

http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E6...er_head_cover/

But the 525d M57 has one

http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E3...er_head_cover/

Dandle

It does. You said your dealer told you that no E60 D had any filter/separator in the crankcase breather. The normal M57 had a separate loo roll or vortex separator fitted in the crankcase breather(bar the 535d). The M57N2 has a different crankcase breather with the separator built in(same as the 535d always has had). So your dealer is wrong.

1Animal1

Thanks for that - I'm sure you enjoyed writing that as much as i enjoyed reading it....

Let me summarise this for you in one word - Semantics

pmgoliv

Sorry if I'm repeating something that was already answered, but I'm lost now.

In a LCI 530d (M57N2), what should I do with the crankcase breather:
1) Change it from time to time;
2) Clean it from time to time;
3) Do nothing.

Thank you all.

1Animal1

My local dealer says it is a serviceable part, by replacement only on the 530D..... the 535D looks like its not serviceable from BMW's perspective - I'd look to fit the 535D one if i were you.

Dandle

You car has the same breather as the 535d so don't worry about the post above. As for if its a service item I don't know. Looking at the way its been designed I would say it isn't and it should not build up any deposits. That said my car (M57N2 as well) had only covered 40k miles when BMW decided the breather was contaminated and needed replacing even though I argued it couldn't. You can buy the two new seals for it and just pull it off an clean it from time to time. It certainly won't do any harm and you can see if it does ever get oil deposits on it. That is probably the route I would take.

bmwe60525d

OK I hope I get this right....

If you have one of the devices (crank case breather housing) that has a loo paper type filter, the housing sits on top of the rocker cover just above a hole on the rocker cover(yes ?)

If so, vapours from the crank come into this housing and get filtered by the loo paper filter of no filter and the oil is separated from the vapour(?) Once air is filtered or separated from the oil, where does this air go to?

From the REALOEM diagrams of the parts I cannot see too much plumbing to make it obvious hence the question.
Once we know what happens to the filtered air then we can decide/speculate on what the likely impact of removing the filter will be or of not changing the filter or of not cleaning the later housing that does not have a filter.

I have heard that having a blocked filter somehow causes the Turbo to be starved of oil and lead to early failures. How does the Crank breather impact this....

As for the possibility of the vapour from the crank case breather finding its way into the INLET side and the oil being sucked into engine combustion and the car starting to run on ENGINE OIL....this would suggest that there is connection to the inlet manifold. Will there be that much engine oil in the vapour to allow combustion once Diesel fuel pump is switched of by ignition key ?

There must be a BMW trained technician on the forum who can sort this/conclude it once and for all surely from his training or beable to contact the technical support at BMW HQ (as most manufactures technicans have access to this sort of dealer support).

Then we can finally close the topic and all decide should we:

Change filters regularly
Remove filter altogether and treat as filterless housing (below)
Move to vortex filter and clean filter regularly
Change to filterless housing and leave it
Change to filterless housing and clean it regularly

Dandle

The crankcase breather is in exactly the same place on all the M57 (and i think M47) engines. What it is for is to allow the crankcase to ventilate the air pressure inside the crankcase to atmosphere. The crankcase on the M57 works with PCV (positive crankcase ventilation), this means that rather than being at normal outside atmospheric pressure it works by keeping a certain amount of pressure in the crankcase. If you pull the dip stick out when the engine is running it will start to run lumpy, this is because the crankcase is now not holding the extra pressure its designed for as you are letting it out of the dipstick hole.

The breather allows the excess air to escape, the air is then cleaned to remove oil deposits from the vapour and then it travels back down the other side of the breather through a flap valve and breaths out into the air filter housing. This air is then reused by the engine (burnt) to keep the emissions down as the air is still contaminated with oil vapour. What used to happen with the loo roll filter (and can happen with any blocked crankcase filter on these engines) when it got blocked was that the excess pressure in the crankcase wouldn't be allowed to escape. This caused the crankcase to run at a much higher pressure, because the everything in the crankcase was a much higher pressure including the oil system now the oil used to find the weakest point to escape to relieve the pressure. This typically was the turbo oil seals which once popped due to excess pressure would start to allow oil to squirt into the into the intake system where the engine could start to feed on it if hot enough, which means the engine now had it own supply of fuel and would run away without you being able to turn it off. Another possibility of failure with a blocked breather is the main crankshaft oil seal, where the oil can reach a high enough pressure to cause that to fail.

The loo roll filter was replaced by the vortex separator and that has now been replaced on the later engines by the combined breather/separator, so that says to me there must have been issues with the vortex one as well although ive never seen anyone mention it.