N20 Engine Oil Leak Passenger Side

AvgJoe · 12-10-2019, 12:28 PM

I've got a 2013 BMW 328i with 130,000 miles. I'm fairly new to cars and I've noticed I'm not confident about diagnosing issues myself yet so I need some help/confirmation. From the pictures I think it's a valve cover gasket leak since there's oil all over that little platform, you can see there's some oil going down that tube in the back as well. I wanna ask if maybe there could also be some other common leak I don't know about or that I can't see that could go along with this. The car hasn't warned me about low oil levels, the smell of burning oil is faint when I get out of the car and there is a little bit of smoke coming from that side, enough to be noticeable.

JoeyF30 · 12-10-2019, 12:30 PM

Question, is yours an N20 or N26? New timing chain? If not do you plan to do it? When? Also someone just posted their timing chain on their N26 blew at 134k miles.. I have an N26 myself and thinking about dumping it...

Billfitz · 12-10-2019, 01:32 PM

Three common sources of oil leaks are the valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket and turbo oil feed line. Few N20s reach 130k without at least one of these leaking.

AvgJoe · 12-10-2019, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeyF30

Question, is yours an N20 or N26? New timing chain? If not do you plan to do it? When? Also someone just posted their timing chain on their N26 blew at 134k miles.. I have an N26 myself and thinking about dumping it...

It's an N20, I got this car at 107k miles I haven't changed the timing chain. Probably a good idea to check it out thanks for the heads up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billfitz

Three common sources of oil leaks are the valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket and turbo oil feed line. Few N20s reach 130k without at least one of these leaking.

I don't know if it's related but occasionally I get a check engine light "P1290 turbocharger/supercharger wastegate solenoid stop not learned," "Drivetrain malfunction" will pop up on the screen and my car will have significantly less power. Starting it up after a while though the issue disappears and I can clear the check engine light. Thanks for the suggestion on where else I could look for a leak.

Billfitz · 12-10-2019, 05:20 PM

Google 'P1290 turbocharger/supercharger wastegate solenoid stop not learned' and you get results like this:

https://www.justanswer.com/bmw/bm64b...rbo-boost.html

Anything and everything that can go wrong with these engines has happened already to someone who's posted about how to fix it.

12-10-2019, 12:28 PM	#1
AvgJoe New Member 15 Rep 29 Posts Drives: 2005 BMW M3 6SP Join Date: Oct 2019 Location: California iTrader: (0)	N20 Engine Oil Leak Passenger Side I've got a 2013 BMW 328i with 130,000 miles. I'm fairly new to cars and I've noticed I'm not confident about diagnosing issues myself yet so I need some help/confirmation. From the pictures I think it's a valve cover gasket leak since there's oil all over that little platform, you can see there's some oil going down that tube in the back as well. I wanna ask if maybe there could also be some other common leak I don't know about or that I can't see that could go along with this. The car hasn't warned me about low oil levels, the smell of burning oil is faint when I get out of the car and there is a little bit of smoke coming from that side, enough to be noticeable. Attached Images
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12-10-2019, 12:30 PM	#2
JoeyF30 Private First Class 20 Rep 162 Posts Drives: BMW 2013 328i xDrive N26 Join Date: Dec 2019 Location: Iselin , NJ iTrader: (0)	Question, is yours an N20 or N26? New timing chain? If not do you plan to do it? When? Also someone just posted their timing chain on their N26 blew at 134k miles.. I have an N26 myself and thinking about dumping it...
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12-10-2019, 01:32 PM	#3
Billfitz Lieutenant General 8264 Rep 16,108 Posts Drives: '15 328iX GT Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: New Hampshire iTrader: (0)	Three common sources of oil leaks are the valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket and turbo oil feed line. Few N20s reach 130k without at least one of these leaking.
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12-10-2019, 05:20 PM	#5
Billfitz Lieutenant General 8264 Rep 16,108 Posts Drives: '15 328iX GT Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: New Hampshire iTrader: (0)	Google 'P1290 turbocharger/supercharger wastegate solenoid stop not learned' and you get results like this: https://www.justanswer.com/bmw/bm64b...rbo-boost.html Anything and everything that can go wrong with these engines has happened already to someone who's posted about how to fix it.
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