[adil123d]

Hi All,

Found a massive amount of oil in my 123d water expansion tank today.

Checked and topped up my water last week, and it was clear.

Today, the expansion tank has a mix of oil and water - almost purely oil.

Am concerned, and wanted to ask if anyone could suggest what it may be.

Best

Adil

 

[ste815l]

Sorry to say sounds like head gasket or worse cracked head.

 

[adil123d]

Thank Ste

I'll get it to a garage then.

Strange as no oil loss or mayo residue on oil cap or in dipstick.

No performance loss or overheating either.

What would happen if the oil cooler was a bit funny?

Does anyone have ETK of coolant system for the 123d that they could post?

Best

Adil

 

[ste815l]

Start engine up and look in header tank see if you can see any bubbles or pressure. But if you take to garage they can do a check with this solution think if it turns blue it's head gasket faliure

 

[ghepworth]

Potentially the heat exchanger has failed, its built into the oil filter housing both coolant and oil pass though this core, iv seen a few of these fail leaving large amounts of sludgy oil in the coolant system, with no effect to the running of the car, I've worked for bmw since the 123d came into production and i have never seen a head gasket fail on one of these engines.

 

[adil123d]

Ghepworth

Sounds likely.

What should I do to check it?

Heating seems fine so far.

Did you see this many times whilst at BMW?

 

[ghepworth]

Iv replaced 2 or 3 not loads but definitely more then then headgasket failures, there is not really a way to test it as such, other then the head gasket its the only real place that oil and coolant can mix, id advise getting a garage to do a block test to rule out headgasket failure, although if you had a headgasket failure or cracked block/head you would expect to see coolant in your oil turning it a milky colour , not just oil in your coolant, if the head gasket can be ruled out or deemed not faulty by a block test, the heat exchanger unit is really the only other place where oil can leak into the cooling system, and id advise getting that replaced,
I must warn you though it takes a long time to completely flush the cooling system of oil,

Hope this helps

 

[adil123d]

Thank you.

That is useful information.

I have a warranty on the car with WarrantyWise, so hopefully Quintin can foot the bill.

What parts need replacement should it be the heat exchanger?

Best

Adil

 

[ghepworth]

Yes if it is diagnosed as faulty you would just need the heat exchanger and there is a few gaskets, obviously also some kind of flushing agent and new coolant, its situated in the oil filter housing and some may not use the turm heat exchanger for the part they may call it an oil cooler,

 

[ghepworth]

http://s190.photobucket.com/user/ga...shot_2016-02-10-19-41-50_zps8turmteu.png.html

 

[Ry_B]

I've never heard of a head gasket failure on a 123d (or any n47 engine)

Not saying it can't happen but id investigate other causes first

What mileage is the car on?

 

[adil123d]

Thank you Ghepworth.

A thorough and well explained answer - you are a gent!

Mileage has reached 100k.

Best

Adil