Low Oil warning & Smoke in the engine bay under load

[Royal Jelly]

I have an E60 520D BMW, 140k on the clock. I’ve had it a couple of weeks.. Thus far, everything works as it should, however…

I took it for a 2 hour (mostly motorway) drive yesterday and on the way home a ‘oil below minimum’ warning came on, telling me to top up a litre..

I did that, waited, checked, and still showing the same warning, so in went another litre. The warning remained. Part of me thinks it could be the sensor, because if it had lost that much oil so quickly, there would be bits of big end all over the A1. There are no visible leaks under the car.

The abnormality I found is that under the bonnet, under 3000rpm all seems well, but over that, smoke is coming from the drivers side of the engine bay. It isn’t thick plumes, but a clearly visible amount. No mayo on the coolant or oil filler caps, and nothing visible coming out of the exhaust. Anyone any ideas what the issue could be?

I will contact the trader who sold it to me, but ideally I’d like to get some cooperation to fix it up here rather than taking it 120 miles to him..

Just looking for suggestions from the wise here.

[SteveR1979]

Leaky rocker cover dropping onto the exhaust??

[stevemcs]

I'd start with an oil change so you know the correct amount of oil is in there, then get a smoke test carried out to see if there is an air leak.

[JakeT]

With a 520d it will have a dipstick. Use that to check the level.

I’d also change the oil, and smoke test it, and check for leaks of oil and exhaust.

[frisbee]

stevemcs said:

I'd start with an oil change so you know the correct amount of oil is in there, then get a smoke test carried out to see if there is an air leak.

Yes, you need to be careful adding too much oil to diesels, some (all?) can runaway. The oil gets into the breathers and then "fuels" the engine.

[bolide]

I'd check the amount of blow-by - open the oil filler cap and see how much pressure is there when the engine is running & revved