mwaku

Well I noticed I had a leak around the valve cover gasket as smoke would come out and through the cabin when I had the air con on, and if not, just puff out from underneath the hood - from dripping onto the exhaust etc. That has stopped, but happens when I'm on a incline, the smoke would come puff up assuming cause the oil was flowing backwards and leaking down.

I've checked under the car and I've got oil all along the bottom of the car, from the front to the mid section of the car.

Would this still be the leak from the valve cover gasket, or could this be from the transmission? I recently just changed the solenoids on the transmission at a workshop, and I can only presume that they didn't retighten it correctly, which is causing a leak.

I changed it about 4 months ago, but I haven't got any warnings/errors pop up on the iDrive indicating low oil from any of the two, engine or transmission.

Has anyone got a better idea, right now I'm just trying to rule out that it's not the transmission and just get the valve cover gasket replaced - but don't know how this would cause oil to appear soaking the bottom of the car.

txag_530i

You need to remove the plastic covers from under the car and see from where the leak is coming. Transmission fluid will be leaking out of the pan gasket, oil drain plug, or the fill port.

Oil on these cars seems to leak from everywhere. You'll have to use some brake cleaner (or other solvent) and clean everything up. Sometimes leaks from the oil pan are pretty obvious. After a couple of days check the leaks from the top of the engine on down.