Oil breather advice urgently needed

[Rayman]

Hi I have just change my oil breather( old toilet role type) for the vortex type on my 2001 x5 3.0 diesel. I got a new housing with the vortex bit separate in the box & 2 gaskets. My problem is when I come to put the vortex bit into the housing it didn't want to stay in, so I placed it in the manifold & put the new housing on over it.I want to know will that be o k, or should I strip it down again & use a bit more force to make it clip into the housing. Do these two parts clip together or are they a loose fit.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Regards Ray.

 

[Solo Man]

That is a good question. I did mine (on my E39 530d and X5 3l d) about three and two years ago respectively and i changed only the inners. Had no problem or worries that they were loose inside. Why did you not put it in the original casing or was it loose in it as well? I, for the life of me, cannot understand how the vortex one works as it has no "filter" in it and except for the "vortex" effect, i cannot see how it can "filter" the oil, so, i would imagine it does not really matter if the filter is slightly loose inside. My 2c as they say!

 

[Rayman]

I had a chat with tech guy at a BMW dealership. He recons that They are a loose fit they put the vortex part in the engine & put the new housing over the top, just what I did so no problems. As for your other question the old type is not a filter it is a breather, the idea is it traps most of the crankcase fumes then they go back to oil droplets & drain back int the sump.the old toilet roll typ tend to clog up & cause excess back pressure ( blow turbo seals, damage turbo) the votex let's engine breath more & never clogs up.
They have now gon back to the toilet roll type as they had some custermers complaining about excessive oil consumption with the vortex type.
You can fit the vortex type & forget about it.
If you fit the toilet roll type they now recommend changing it every inspection. ( it is now part of the service) I am just going to keep a close eye on my oil level & if it seems o k over a few months I will leave the vortex in.
My next plan is to bypass the egr valve.

 

[Solo Man]

I have the vortex type in both my 3l diesel vehicles and have done 50k km with the E39 530d since changing to vortex and have to add about 250ml every 5000 km which is nothing really. On the X5 i have done 30k km since the vortex and i never have to add oil in between services. E39 has 240k km on the clock and the X5 230k km's Both are on 5w/30 synthetic oil Castrol Edge Btw, the X5 belonged to my brother and he did not nurse it. Pulled a very heavy trailer with it, drove at h..h speeds and was always in a hurry. But, he looked after the car. Did have to replace the gearbox at 140k km. Still running the original turbo.

 

[Rayman]

That's good to hear. By what I have read the gearboxes seem to be it weakest link ( that's auto boxes )