2001 bmw 740i engine problems.

Question

I have a 2001 bmw 740i. Since 3 weeks, it has been giving me problems. When the car is idling, it shakes. The shaking is coming from the engine. When i turn the car on, there is white smoke coming out the exhaust but goes away after a few seconds. There is a bit of power loss as per performance but not really a lot. The check engine light is on and after scanning it it says bank 1 and bank 2. The mechanics are hesistant to take a look at it because its a very complicated engine. When i opened the cover where the spark plugs are, there was a bit of oil there...probably the valve cover gasket needs to be replaced. Could that cause the spark plugs to not work properly or can it be something else such as the o2 sensor malfunctioning. Please Help. thanks.

Answer 1

Though it gives the illusion of a major engine problem (rough running,smoke.etc) as stated above, it is almost almost gauranteed to be the oil separator on the back of the intake manifold...very common to go bad on these motors creating a vaccum leak(rough running,check engine lights) and causing oil from to get sucked into the intake manifold (smoke from tailpipes) It is basically the the backing plate to the intake...a couple of torx screws and some vaccums and around 85.00 for the part at BMW.....it will take a couple of runs to get rid of that oil that is in the intake....but a generally easy fix!