Valve cover leak -- but no crack?

[B///MWGuy]

Hi,

I recently visited an indy shop near my residence because I found oil leaking inside the sparkplug well.

I got the valve cover gasket changed from the same indy a year and half ago, so the shop owner was puzzled why it would go bad so fast. But I asked to do the same job again for the same price (They first didn't remember me, so they asked for $450, but I was prepared and showed my previous invoice that showed $350 and they agreed to do it for that price -- more on this later)

Well, they called me later in the day and told me there was a crack in the Valve Cover (which costed me $800).

Knowing that there is a PCV recall with my 2009 X5 30i, I wanted the original cover back so I could examine it and see if it has to do with the recall.

When I got it back and returned home, I examined the cover, but I found no crack at all... But when I visited them again, they said they saw it leaking through smoke test of some sort.

TLDR, did I get scammed because they didn't want to do gasket change for $350? Can there be leaks without having a visual crack in the cover and fill the sparkplug well -- and that can be detected through some sort of smoke testing?

Thanks

[B///MWGuy]

Can anyone give me share some opinion please?

[jandref321]

I’m not sure they would even do a “smoke test.” My wife’s 30si did get cracked at 70k ish miles though...the dealer replaced the valve cover gasket but over torqued the bolts and cracked the cover. The valve cover gaskets around the cover and around the spark plugs are rubber and wear over time. You can easily get a leak without a crack.

[Tek32]

If your valve cover was leaking significantly enough to fill your spark plug wells due to a cracked valve, you will get a CEL with that. Typically Lean mixture faults are triggered with cracked valve covers. I have smoked checked the crankcase system for lean mixture faults and found cracked valve covers.