[NorthernDancer]

At a recent tech inspection for a BMW club driving school, the mechanic said my VCG needed replacing. Initially I was a little upset b/c I knew it was "weeping" on right side of engine but not dripping oil and inspection sheet says no dripping only.
Well I agreed to replacement even tho it was not "dripping" b/c I knew it would have to be done some time anyways-why not now in a good BMW indy garage.
HOWEVER, I was curious to see exactly what was going on under the engine cover:
1. engine cover is held down by 4 bolts. It impossible to remove cover w/o removing the whole cowl cover, that 10 inch depth piece (width is 49 inches). Not too difficult but great care is needed ( 1 or 2 "picks") and a very small flat tip screwdriver were used to open the various clips. But firstly the two covers left and right of cowl cover and the whole cabin filter assy must be removed.
2. Once engine cover off it was immediately obvious I am leaking oil into recesses in the cylinder head right next to the first spark plug. Looks like most oil coming from a front centre connection which may be the eccentric shaft sensor ( and a proper VCG kit will include a new seal for this).
3. I did check #1 spark plug and there is no oil down there.
So, the mechanic was right to insist the VCG be replaced (tho technically not required for tech inspection) and I am glad I agreed to it.

I'll let the garage replace the VCG; I recently did rear brakes and brake flush & I'm old and tired now.
My car is coming up on 11 years but only 97K kms and is winter stored. If your car has over 90K kms and/or you see any evidence of oil "weeping" around the valve cover, I recommend removing the engine cover to see if there is any oil leakage under the cover. I'll try and upload a pic here but I'm usually not successful.