2001 BMW X5 Cracked Head at 56K miles Please Advise

I was driving 35mph in a neighborhood area when smoke started coming our from under the hood from coolant squirting from a crack in the radiator expansion tank. Of course I stopped immediately. Dealer says oil in the coolant and coolant in the oil. They remove the head and no visable crack but pressure testing reveals a crack. They say the engine got up to 300 degrees! I can only think the engine got hot before the crack developed. I asked if the is a audible warning and they say no, only warning would be the gauge.

Please advise with questions to ask dealer.

My 2001 X5 did the same thing. Although I had 117K miles, this shouldn't happen. Did you have to pay for a new engine?

This is a year old...

The same this happened to my 2001 X5 at 94k miles, and I agree this should not happen. Initially my dealer wanted me to pay $10,000 to have the engine replaced. But after pressing them for a better explanation of the cause of the problem, they said someone had poured oil into the expansion tank and they flushed it out. I am not satisfied with thier explanation. How did you resolve your problem?

My problem did not get solved to my satisfaction. The dealer said that they would split the cost of the repair with me, but then proceeded to rip me off by saying that my share was $6K for replacing the head.

My 01 BMW x5 just turned 56k and now I am in the same boat as you guys. Wjat the Hell is going on?

Please describe what happened to you and how the dealer dealt with it.

What caused your head to crack?

It has now developed into a slightly more interesting story.
I only drive 6 miles at a top speed of 50 miles an hour and an average I would say of 35. Well 5 miles into my trip home we starting smelling oil. Assuming it was the car ahead of me (couldn’t be my BMW) drove the last half mile. Get home realize the smell was from me. Pop open the hood and there is oil everywhere. Call the dealer his first idea was cracked head. I am outside of warranty but the dealer was great they paid to have it toed and to take a look at it to see what happened. Get a call from the dealer the next day. The car was a quart low but they have No Idea why. No signs of the head being bad, all valves and rings look good, everything seems fine. I asked for a second opinion so they towed it to the largest BMW dealer in the state were they agreed they have never seem anything like it and everything seems fine. No sign of were the quart of oil could have come from. That’s bad news to me. Since the dealer was going to cover the cost of the repair even though I am out side of there written warranty period. If anyone has an idea of what could still be my issue I could pass on to my dealer that would be great.

You might try posting on the Bimmer.org message board. Lots of knowledgable folks there.

Ok well there have been issues in my side of town of Crank Case Venting Tube Assembly Frezzing up causing oil so blow out of the oil cap.... there was a Service Info at my store saying that this has been happening in cold weather ... we reaplace the crank case venting tube assembly and perform an oil change with Mobile 1 oil cleaning out all moisture in the system