Corteco VCG

[1000hp]

60k mile Victor Reinz VCG from 2012, valve cover last off 3k miles ago.

The OE gaskets are made by Victor Reinz, Elring, Corteco, and Mahle. There is no such thing as an actual 'BMW' gasket.
At 60k miles and 14 years, your OEM gasket has probably outlasted 90% of OE BMW seals on the road.

[oceansize]

I replaced the Elring on my car a couple of months ago. The Elring was leaking at 5000 miles. It will not last. The difference out of the package between the OE and Elring is easily felt.

[chris719]

The OE gaskets are made by Victor Reinz, Elring, Corteco, and Mahle. There is no such thing as an actual 'BMW' gasket.
At 60k miles and 14 years, your OEM gasket has probably outlasted 90% of OE BMW seals on the road.

No, the VCG is made by Bruss and isn’t sold other than through BMW.

[1000hp]

No, the VCG is made by Bruss and isn’t sold other than through BMW.

Where did you get that information?

Not saying you're wrong, but I'm curious where you found that

[jayjaya29]

Where did you get that information?

Not saying you're wrong, but I'm curious where you found that

The genuine gasket has a Bruss PN on it IIRC.

[1000hp]

The genuine gasket has a Bruss PN on it IIRC.

Interesting👍

At any rate, I don't understand the desire to use OE oil seals from a manufacturer that is notorious for premature oil leaks 😆. If anything I'd try to avoid any gasket brand ever used by BMW when building anything that holds oil.

[6speedS54]

60k mile Victor Reinz VCG from 2012, valve cover last off 3k miles ago.

Once the VR gasket falls apart, I'm very tempted to try a brand new Elring VCG gasket a friend gave me a few years ago. The Elring gasket has some chalky stuff on it similar to what is on new tires (maybe a wax that is flaking off to keep the rubber from degrading), so it might need a good clean before installing it. The gasket itself might not be the problem.

A while ago when kaiv did my VANOS (this was around 2013/14), he installed Elring, at the time I wasn't doing too much DIY and wasn't aware of the difference in the materials. From what I recall it lasted for a while without any leaks. I would say based on my log I put 40K miles on it before swapping to OE. I can see how Buna made gaskets can harden and start leaking, but it's surprising when people say they leak within 5K miles, this has to be an installation problem vs anything else.

[1000hp]

it's surprising when people say they leak within 5K miles, this has to be an installation problem vs anything else.

100% user error during installation.

[chris719]

Where did you get that information?

Not saying you're wrong, but I'm curious where you found that

Yes as jayjaya29 said, the original VCG has Bruss and a PN on it.

[oceansize]

100% user error during installation.

No, its quality control for the Elring VCG, 100%.

[1000hp]

No, its quality control for the Elring VCG, 100%.

I like to put a little slick of dreibond on the "downhill" side on L6s just in case the valve cover itself isn't perfectly straight. But I've never had even the dirt-cheapest valve cover gasket leak on any car in 3k miles, and I've been fixing cars for 20+ years. If your valve cover gasket leaks in 3,000 miles, you messed something up. Period.

[Obioban]

I’d say non OE valve cover gaskets are responsible for ~50% of s54 oil leaks, based on threads on here. Every time the same installer uses an OE gasket, they report the issue as solved.

Not worth the dice roll.

[oceansize]

I like to put a little slick of dreibond on the "downhill" side on L6s just in case the valve cover itself isn't perfectly straight. But I've never had even the dirt-cheapest valve cover gasket leak on any car in 3k miles, and I've been fixing cars for 20+ years. If your valve cover gasket leaks in 3,000 miles, you messed something up. Period.

Nope.

[1000hp]

I’d say non OE valve cover gaskets are responsible for ~50% of s54 oil leaks, based on threads on here. Every time the same installer uses an OE gasket, they report the issue as solved.

Not worth the dice roll.

I dunno man. Maybe they're just being more careful the second time?

I prefer genuine parts when I know that they're better, but OE BMW gaskets seem to all leak about 50% sooner than most other manufacturers seals (not you, Volkswagen).

This (78k-mile) M3 is the first BMW out of dozens that I have owned that did not come with multiple oil leaks, and the original valve cover had already been replaced when I bought it.

I also have two Toyota trucks with 150k+ miles that gave ZERO fluid leaks. I would purchase OE Toyota gaskets/seals in a heartbeat if they ever had to be replaced. But they still haven't leaked anything yet 😆

TLDR: Believing that OE BMW gaskets are good is like believing in Santa Claus, no matter which OE subcontractor you choose.

[Obioban]

I dunno man. Maybe they're just being more careful the second time?

I prefer genuine parts when I know that they're better, but OE BMW gaskets seem to all leak about 50% sooner than most other manufacturers seals (not you, Volkswagen).

This (78k-mile) M3 is the first BMW out of dozens that I have owned that did not come with multiple oil leaks, and the original valve cover had already been replaced when I bought it.

I also have two Toyota trucks with 150k+ miles that gave ZERO fluid leaks. I would purchase OE Toyota gaskets/seals in a heartbeat if they ever had to be replaced. But they still haven't leaked anything yet 😆

TLDR: Believing that OE BMW gaskets are good is like believing in Santa Claus, no matter which OE subcontractor you choose.

I think you’re conflating all BMW gaskets with specifically the valve cover gasket.

We routinely have valve cover gasket leak threads, and 99.9% of the time the problem is that they didn’t use the OE gasket. In the specific case of the VCG, the OE gasket works well and others very often do not.

… and my Toyota experience is that they don’t use many gaskets— mostly just fancy RTV.