I have left my car at the airport for a 2 day business trip. When I drove back from the airport, while on the highway, I saw a big plume of smoke coming from the back of my car. The engine kind of hesitated but didn't' stall. I was able to drive to a safe place and check the oil dipstick. There was no oil left in the oil compartment. When the engine cooled down I saw black liquid dripping off the exhaust pipe. The car smelled like burnt oil. I spoke to the dealership that services my car and they told me to tow it to avoid any further damage. The dealership identified the problem as a frozen oil separator that created a vacuum lock and pushed the oil to burn thru the engine and the exhaust system. From further discussion with the dealership service advisor and looking into BMW posting forums I realized that this is an issue that has been happening for a while now with bmws in cold weather conditions. I also found out that BMW has released in Feb 2009 a service information bulletin sib 11 08 03 that recognized, that the defective part may fail in cold weather conditions, and recommended to BMW service depts replacement with a new better designed part. However, BMW did not take the step to notify customers who have been or could be affected by this defect. If I knew about this issue in Feb 2009, when my car was under the new vehicle warranty, I would have replaced it at no cost and the engine and exhaust would not have gone thru this nearly destructive incident. I now had to incur this $1300 repair cost and I don't know what else could mechanically incur with this car in the future due to this malfunction.the resale value of the car has also gone down as well. I feel BMW has acted irresponsibly, if not criminally, to not notify affected customers about this defect. It could have been much worse driving in the interstate and having a stalled engine at 60 miles an hour.

- Cedar Rapids, IA, USA