My CVV (Oil Separator) DIY Journey in Pictures

Tackled this job over the weekend. I bought the kit from Tisher back in December and was hoping to get this one once the warmer weather got here...but then I noticed an oil leak from the valve cover gasket over the VANOS unit. It was sunny and in the 40s so I attacked it over the weekend. EXCELLENT write up and a complete kit made it relatively simple. While not technically difficult, the limited space made things a bit tense at times (I have the scraped up hands and knuckles to prove it

Replacing the CCV did not miraculously cure my leaking valve cover gasket as I had hoped...so just picked up another one and I'll be swapping that out ASAP.

Very nice job!!!!
I know I will get to to this one day. And as suggested I will get it done without removing the intake manifold. If it can be done without removing it, I can do it...

Glad I found this...Now I know which DIY I'm going to use for mine and I didn't know Tischer had a "kit" for this...I had all the parts in the shopping cart on the site individually, which was going to be $170 before shipping. Thanks again

Originally Posted by iskoos

Very nice job!!!!
I know I will get to to this one day. And as suggested I will get it done without removing the intake manifold. If it can be done without removing it, I can do it...

No need to remove intake manifold. Have fun!

Alex, what about the small vent tube that's on the side of the CVV? The one I just got has no cap to it. Does the one I have on my car now come with it?

Originally Posted by Solidjake

Alex, what about the small vent tube that's on the side of the CVV? The one I just got has no cap to it. Does the one I have on my car now come with it?

Yes, the old one has a cap. You will reuse it on the new one. Good luck with the job!

Originally Posted by Starless

Yes, the old one has a cap. You will reuse it on the new one. Good luck with the job!

Ok. Thanks!

Hi there,
I replaced the Oil Separator Valve and put it all back together...several times...now the car doesn't start.
It turns over, but that is about it.
Any suggestions?
There was a small hose on the original which was covered on the new OSV, this connected up to the silver bit of kit above the manifold. I didn't replace this hose, just removed it.
Thanks,
George

Originally Posted by gmshears

Hi there,
I replaced the Oil Separator Valve and put it all back together...several times...now the car doesn't start.
It turns over, but that is about it.
Any suggestions?
There was a small hose on the original which was covered on the new OSV, this connected up to the silver bit of kit above the manifold. I didn't replace this hose, just removed it.
Thanks,
George

In some cars that little port you are mentioning is plugged with a rubber cap, in others there is a vacuum line going from it to the manifold I believe. Did you preserve the origilal set up? ( My kit from Tisher came with a long piece of vacuum line which I did not need). You said you had not replaced the hose and just removed it...Why didn't you replace it?? Are all the electrical connectors plugged back in?
Good luck!

The hose was quite brittle and snapped, I hadn't picked up a new one as I wasn't certain it was required. The replacement OSV was a newer model, insulated, with the small tube capped with rubber on the inside. The original did go up to the manifold.
Would this prevent the car from starting if it wasn't replaced?
I believe I replaced all electrical connectors, several times.
Still no luck.

We have created new Level I & II CCV Oil Separator Kits to help aid in this repair process...

M54 Oil Separator Kits
Click HERE for more information.

Just did this today and it was hard getting the hoses off. I ended up breaking the CVV on it's way out. Thank you for the write up. Took me a while to do all of it but I saved myself some money. Since I was down there I changed the intake elbow. Tackled 2 jobs at once, although my intake boot was still in decent condition, but better safe then sorry later.

Originally Posted by mikevaquez

Just did this today and it was hard getting the hoses off. I ended up breaking the CVV on it's way out. Thank you for the write up. Took me a while to do all of it but I saved myself some money. Since I was down there I changed the intake elbow. Tackled 2 jobs at once, although my intake boot was still in decent condition, but better safe then sorry later.

You are very welcome.
Glad to hear everything went well!
Good move replacing the elbow, I did the same and mine was in a relatively good condition too. But since I'm planning to keep the car for many years to come replacing parts that are known to go bad is not a bad idea at all.

Mr Starless, i would like to say thank you for providing this DIY. I found one of my hoses was cracked on my new e46. Looked up your DIY and ordered up a kit from BMW. They sent me the one suited for extreme weather. I gotta say it was challenging especially with all the padding they put on the winter kit. I flew through the install utilizing your guidance. I installed KN intake at the same time. Whole project took me about 4 hours. My lower intake boot was torn too, so got that replaced as well. So again thank you for taking the time to create such a thorough Walkthrough.

This was a major PITA as Mr.Starless said,I followed his steps and took me 6 hours yesterday.The car could not idle,just dies in a short time, so something was wrong.It was intensive work,so I left it for today to do it again,this time it took me 4 hours.A few tips I have to add.
*The lower intake boot is not easy to remove,tight space,need a long flat screwdriver.
*The #3 connecting line has to be twisted to engage,it was not in my first day.I had to remove protective cover of CCV in order to be engaged, be sure it is attached properly.Test to fit before and see it has to be twisted counterclockwise to fit.
* I need to remove to bolts holding power steering tank
* I also needed to take out the oil filter cover,to get some space for #2 vent pipe.
My car was consuming some oil,but the CCV I did take out was pretty clean,must be something else.
Thanks Starless for placing these pics, I would not attempt to do without them.

Today, I got the codes P1345, P1348 and P1350? Do I have a vacuum leak?Is one of the clamps leaking air?Any advise?

Originally Posted by astor

This was a major PITA as Mr.Starless said,I followed his steps and took me 6 hours yesterday.The car could not idle,just dies in a short time, so something was wrong.It was intensive work,so I left it for today to do it again,this time it took me 4 hours.A few tips I have to add.
*The lower intake boot is not easy to remove,tight space,need a long flat screwdriver.
*The #3 connecting line has to be twisted to engage,it was not in my first day.I had to remove protective cover of CCV in order to be engaged, be sure it is attached properly.Test to fit before and see it has to be twisted counterclockwise to fit.
* I need to remove to bolts holding power steering tank
* I also needed to take out the oil filter cover,to get some space for #2 vent pipe.
My car was consuming some oil,but the CCV I did take out was pretty clean,must be something else.
Thanks Starless for placing these pics, I would not attempt to do without them.

Agreed Major PITA. Did the replacement with my dad this past weekend. My tips would include (not sure if people mentioned this already) making sure to play around with the new parts and see how they fit together - one of the pipes is not a snap on connector, but a "push and twist" connector.

Breaking the old hoses to help "uninstall them" I also used small clippers to cut up the old connections :-) Lastly, using a 3"x4" mirror to line up the throttle body on re-installation.

Another thing was that my MAF was acting strange. Has been for the last year or two. Well, at least I think it was MAF. My car would stall when in neutral during certain conditions depending on weather, temperature, humidity, etc. In the winter, rarely if ever stall (I really don't remember a time). More prevalent in the summer.

In any case, after the PITA CVV diy, car ran ok.. minor tach dipping, but not enough to stall. Decided to clean the MAF with a MAF cleaner from autozone. Car would not start. I think the MAF had enough and just died. When I unconnected the MAF, car starts fine. Which brings me to my last point, if you are dong this DIY and want to clean the MAF because you think it might solve stalling issues, it might be a good idea to do it when the dealerships are open. Or in my case, an extra car is available while a new MAF is being shipped :-)

Now it is weird.After replacing CCV, I got the codes P1345, P1348 and P1350.
I went To Advance Auto Parts and cleared the codes which came back right away.
I let the car rest overnight and like a patient came out off surgery, in the morning there was no codes and the car runs better then ever!
I had never removed even the cover for coils,even the codes are related to misfire etc.

WORLDS CLEANEST PICTURES!!

Nice job Jakie!

^ Lol, I didn't do the write up


Anywho, Alex, I did the CVV on Monday as you know and your guide made it simple to do the job. I ended up putting in the curved hoes first then the one to the vanos.

Dam Jake it seems like you get credit for everything even the stuff you didn't do haha! I was hoping you were going to make a video on this though...

Originally Posted by Nando779

Dam Jake it seems like you get credit for everything even the stuff you didn't do haha! I was hoping you were going to make a video on this though...

I'm probably going to do the job for one of my friends so I'll have her record me doing the job.

This DIY again proved priceless. Many thanks to Starless and LBert for the time they took in documenting this procedure. Hole. E. SH!T.

The big hose clamp on the lower intake boot is someone's cruel joke, and the extra padding on the cold-kit didn't help with fitment of any of the hoses or the separator itself. Hopefully it will help with longevity (though with 99.5K miles on the original, I'm not upset).

I had a horrible time getting the dipstick to re-seat properly. Clean hole, clean Oring, lube hole, lube Oring, try to insert, take it out, repeat. It's in there and it's not leaking, eventually tried the original Oring and got it further into the hole, practically hanging on the thing from underneath. THAT'S supposed to be one of the easy tasks on this job. Terribly tedious job overall, lots of skinned and bruised knuckles, but it gave the chance to clean the MAF, throttle body and ICV, so there's a silver lining.

This type of task makes me think three things:

1) I'm glad I didn't pay someone else for the labor, no matter how much of a beeyotch the job was.
2) I'm glad I did it myself, because there are far too many little corners that might have been cut, mis-routed wires and hoses, etc. I know it's back together as it was from the factory, in every way.
and 3) I'm glad I don't do this for a living.

VCG and Vanos seals next weekend should occur right at the 100K mark. Timely!

Originally Posted by MicahO

This DIY again proved priceless. Many thanks to Starless and LBert for the time they took in documenting this procedure. Hole. E. SH!T.

The big hose clamp on the lower intake boot is someone's cruel joke, and the extra padding on the cold-kit didn't help with fitment of any of the hoses or the separator itself. Hopefully it will help with longevity (though with 99.5K miles on the original, I'm not upset).

I had a horrible time getting the dipstick to re-seat properly. Clean hole, clean Oring, lube hole, lube Oring, try to insert, take it out, repeat. It's in there and it's not leaking, eventually tried the original Oring and got it further into the hole, practically hanging on the thing from underneath. THAT'S supposed to be one of the easy tasks on this job. Terribly tedious job overall, lots of skinned and bruised knuckles, but it gave the chance to clean the MAF, throttle body and ICV, so there's a silver lining.

This type of task makes me think three things:

1) I'm glad I didn't pay someone else for the labor, no matter how much of a beeyotch the job was.
2) I'm glad I did it myself, because there are far too many little corners that might have been cut, mis-routed wires and hoses, etc. I know it's back together as it was from the factory, in every way.
and 3) I'm glad I don't do this for a living.

VCG and Vanos seals next weekend should occur right at the 100K mark. Timely!

You are very welcome, Micah and I had the same experience with the dipstick and that lower intake boot clamp. Ain't it fun? Little thing like these can take a lot of time (and they did) and that's why it took me longer than a reported average of 4-5 hours to complete the job. But you are right a lot of things were cleaned that the shop tech would not touch, etc.

Good comments!

Great DIY guide. I used this and LBert's to do my a couple of weekends ago. Without this, I would of 1) Wasted ~$500 at the dealership or 2)ruined my car trying to figure out what to do my self. Thanks a lot for the guide!