five4life

Let me give you some history. I have a 2006 5501 with 70K, purchased used in March with 65K. I posted in Oct. '11 that it had started using oil. I lost a quart in 2000 miles. I freaked and went to the dealer and they said it was 8 days out of CPO warranty and that the valve seals were bad. $6850 to fix. I got sympathy from fellow BMWers but shit, that's alot to swallow. I got words of wisdom from "Bimster530i" saying take your time. see how it goes, quantify the loss etc. It brought me back to reality. Thank you Bimster.

I have continued to drive and currently the oil loss is 1 quart per 2000 miles. Maybe getting worse. Just visited my trusted Indie and he thinks it is the PCV/EGR valve. He bases this on the fact that there is no smoke from the exhaust. There are no fouled plugs, which would occur if the seals were bad for a cylinder.

He has suggested that I go another 5-6K and if nothing changes then it warrants changing the valve. He said that will be about $2K.

I think/hope that he is right because I really like my car. I also don't know what I can afford to replace it with that would bring me near as much joy.

I recently saw the Bavarian Auto Newsletter that talked about replacing the valve yourself, but I believe that was on an earlier model. My questions are:

1)How hard is it to replace on the 550. I can't find anything on the 550 on the INTERNET, just 540s.

2)Am I "pissing in the wind", being hopeful

3) Is it really $2000 to replace the valve?

Thanks for your input,

luigi524td

Based on many posters, on this forum, oil consumption you described is not that unusual. It seems a lot to me personally but every car is different. As for a dealer saying that 8 days "out of warranty" .. I'd blow a gasket - not a valve seal!

If the BMW Dealership management didn't step in to work out a satisfactory remedy I would have IMMEDIATELY been on the horn with BMWNA and a LAWYER ... though in my experience the latter phone call probably isn't necessary. Many times SERIOUS issues - on out of warranty claims - are resolved quietly to maintain good customer relationships.

FYI, on both my previous 740's that "PCV" valve issue was pretty common; but it was rough idle and stalling were the symptoms - not oil consumption. Guess they haven't engineered a solution for it yet ... maybe in another 10 to 15 years they will

Good luck sorting out this problem.