[Derek10]

Hi all, i recently joined this forum because this has been driving me nuts. I own a 318i with the n46 engine and it's the first bmw i've owned so i don't have a lot of experience with these cars. The past few months the car has started smoking as soon as i start it up. It gives off a white/blueish smoke and smells like engine oil being burned. After a few seconds at idle the smoke almost completely disappears but comes back as soon as i accelerate or turn on the ac or turn the steering wheel. Oil consumption as gone up and the car has a bit of a rough idle; you can see the rpm needle jump up and down. I've replaced the CCV valve but it didn't help. CEL is on but no major codes. The car every once in a while has a long crank but starts. I thought it might have been the valvestem seals but I've checked the sparkplugs and they are not dark or wet but light gray/white surprisingly. I've also done a compression test and all except cylinder #2 are ok. The others measure around 186psi but #2 barely gets up to 100psi. Is this maybe valvetronic related? No coolant loss or milky oil. Car has 90k miles and always had castrol oil, changed around 7k. Any ideas what to check? i was planning on doing a leakdown test on #2. There is also a light ticking sound when i put my ear against the valvecover. It sounds like it's coming from the middle of the engine.

[gaze2]

Have you tried letting the car idle for 10-15 mins then flooring it? I think that is a way you can test if the valve stems are leaking, at least on n52. I doubt the oil leak is valvetronic related, you say there is a CEL is on, but no major codes, what does that mean? This forum is NA based, so I dont think there are a lot of people experienced with the n46 here, as it was never sold there.
My n52b25 burned a quart every 300-400 miles, I changed the PCV and now it burns around 5 times less. The symptoms were massive smoke and even engine almost choking after going downhill or on flat road with little to no throttle for some time and then flooring it. Did you change the CCV with all the hoses and plugged them in properly? Out of three on the n52 two were leaking and one was broken in half in my case, but then again I did not get significant smoke on start up and there were no codes, so I doubt its the hoses.

[Derek10]

Have you tried letting the car idle for 10-15 mins then flooring it?

No i haven't, what should i look for when doing this?

Did you change the CCV with all the hoses and plugged them in properly?

Yes I've changed the ccv and all hoses. They appear to be plugged in correctly. The car uses about 0.5l every 400/500km.

As for the codes it gives one for the ambient temperature sensor, the sensor shows -40 but it's a pain to get to so I've left that for now. It also gives a code for the 02 sensor and it also had one for cylinder 3 misfire. After wiping the codes, the cylinder 3 misfire didn't show up anymore.

Out of three on the n52 two were leaking and one was broken in half in my case, but then again I did not get significant smoke on start up and there were no codes, so I doubt its the hoses.[/QUOTE]