04 E83 Loud bang and smoke

[ponton]

04 E83 Wife started car this morning and as soon as it caught there was a bang like a gunshot. Little smoke under the hood, smelled like something electrical. I started car and it ran but there was a light banging noise and rpm's were all over the place. I shut it off in less than 15 seconds. This is a new one on me, any ideas?

[Stück]

Sounds like a intake backfire, blowing lose a vacuum hose.

Tow it to the dealer...

[turbovrGTI]

i did see an e53 x5 blow its intake manifold apart last week when it was a colder morning...you wanna talk about COOL. haha

[ponton]

That is exactly what happened. Got it to BMW today and the manifold had exploded.

Dealer says the crankcase vent was plugged causing excessive pressure. I believe him but don't understand how it would cause an explosion.

[PixMan]

Covered under warranty or not?

[EURO M3 CSL]

wow subscribed.. got any pictures?

[bimmer_boyis]

Wow that's impressive, never seen an m54 manifold break. They usually just smoke like hell or hydrolock when the seperators freeze up. Make sure they get you the cold weather one as a replacement. Also forgo the new dipstick tube. Its not that different and is way expensive.

[thejlevie]

I've seen an S52 manifold blow a big chunk out of the bottom on a backfire. We were mystified as to why the engine wouldn't run and couldn't see the gaping hole underneath the manifold.

[bmwdirtracer]

Saw this, too, M54 X5; mine was easy to see, tore a 1"x 20"rip just above the seam of the manifold. I agree. turbo, it was cool, in a perverse way. And we don't get cold, here, it was just a wierd intake pop (but loud).

Not supposed to happen, with modern Fuel Injection; but it sure does make me like aluminum manifolds. My old beast has popped at various times (piggyback fuel management and a radical cam), but never blew anything up.

[jellezee]

Ponton,
Did replacing the CCV fixed the problem? Was it covered under warranty?

This morning when I started my X3 2.5 2004 (55K miles) in my garage (40 F) I had the same problem. A very loud explosion and smoke came out from the engine. When I opened the hood I saw that the intake manifold exploded and the fuel injectors were ejected from their cavities. I think the engine backfired and I can think of a number of reason why this could happen (valve stuck?, ECU failure?)

I don't think a blocked CCV can cause an explosion of such magnitude (correct me if I'm wrong) so I'm guessing this is something bigger. I was suspicions of the vacuum system because I had the valve cover gasket replaced due to oil leaks and I asked the dealership to check the vacuum system and they said everything was fine. Before this happened I was noticing some hesitation during the engine start up and small variance in RPMs when idle. This can be casued by problems in the vacuum system but no engine codes were ever shown or stored.

Can anyone help with this problem? What do I need to ask the dealership to fix and check? Can this explosion cause damage to any other parts/components? Thanks.