[Xeno]

I talked to the independent shop and they told me that value stem seals would leave a huge cloud of smoke coming out of the exhaust. I have not seen anything like that during normal driving nor again moments ago with normal driving. I have an appointment but they cannot do the valve stem seal job. They also mention that some people simply top off the oil faithfully to put off the major repair bill but for how long I do not know.

I then talked to Cooper BMW. He said that if the PCV valve was an issue, I would see the check engine light. He then went on to say that they idled my 2008 X5 for 15 minutes then hit the accelerator and then they saw a lot of smoke.

During this last run with my wife driving, we had to idle for 15 minutes at a vendor. I had her hit the gas and initially a large cloud of smoke came out of the left exhaust. However, it was brief and never saw any more smoke when pressing the accelerator before leaving that location.

Does this mean I have a valve stem seal issue but this is in the early stage and repairs can be put off for a while? I take it that once this job is undertaken that it is all or nothing so the agreed price stands because of all the manual labor involved.

BTW, the two previous big jobs by Cooper BMW were the timing cover gasket and the valve cover gasket. These were done in March 2016.