[limeiying147]

hey, i exactly had the same problem like u. also ,the oil leak position is also the same position with ur car... i went to the dealer, and they told me i had to pay 800 to fix it.. i didnt do it... so how about u ,did u get it fixed? how much u paid and which part do u change? do u just change the gasket or the seal inside ? or u changed the whole oil filter... i am watiiting for ur reply... thanks for reading.

Originally Posted by e36mmm

Hey guys,

Luckily without any further damage, I have noticed a very small leak of oil on top of the oil filter housing last week when I was topping up my washer fluid. I cleaned the area first thing to not stain the unit with oil marks and to see if it would re-occur. After the clean up and four days after, I took it out today for a 15 minute drive to monitor any sign of leaking. As I arrived back home and let the engine cool down, I popped the bonnet to see if there were any more oil leak coming through and ...... there it was!

First problem I've come across since I bought it 15 months ago. It appears to be a common problem with all e9x. My dealer quoted me $460 for two hour inspection of the unit! PLUS brand new oil filter housing of about $350+ which will total up to $800+. What a joke!!

If it is the seal inside that went bad, which I'm hoping it is, I'll consider myself lucky because this piece costs $20-$30 at the dealer. I can not see any leaks on the bottom of the unit nor on any other parts of the engine. I've arranged a bmw specialist to have a look at the leak tomorrow and if it's what he's assuming it to be (oil filter housing seal) it's going to cost me a quarter of what the dealer is quoting including labour. Fingers crossed!

I took this photo right after that short drive of monitoring the leak to show where the oil has leaked from the housing and how much it has leaked. The leak appears to be running from the gap, where two halves of the oil filter housing on top lock into one another and the oil runs towards the area where you see tiny drip of oil. Doesn't run towards anywhere else that I can see.

It's only a little bit of a spill but damn the car's only on 75000 kms and I've heard some owners had to change the seal at even lower kilometres such as 25,000-55,000kms! Such a damn shame! Beware of this problem e9x owners and future buyers.

I'll post updates tomorrow and for the mean time, feel free to share your thoughts on this matter.

Kind Regards,

Boris

[IMG][/IMG]

[kaitan]

I'm currently having this problem too but it's n54 with 120k on the clock. I'm about to send my car in for my every 10k interval service. Anyone having this problem on a n54 lately??

[tonyyy]

just checked mine, looks like mine needs replacing to!

what is the exact part that needs replacing?

[kaitan]

Originally Posted by tonyyy

just checked mine, looks like mine needs replacing to!

what is the exact part that needs replacing?

The oil filter housing like someone mention above is about $300.

[tonyyy]

so its the whole housing that needs replacing?

not just the gasket or o ring?

have you done yours kaitan?

[Kiwi Peter]

Originally Posted by tonyyy

so its the whole housing that needs replacing?

not just the gasket or o ring?

have you done yours kaitan?

Just the Orings, yep about $300
2 x orings
coolant
oil top up
labour
clean up

[Testercles]

Mine looks exactly the same as in the pic. No idea of the service history of the car. n54 140km.
Also, why would the coolant need to be played with if it's only around the oil filter n stuff? Isn't that completely separate?

[Mayuri Krab]

Mine seem to have a small stain there as well, my car is at ~83,000km.

It also seem to uses about ~500ml of oil (according idrive) every 10,000km-12,000km.

[Testercles]

For comparison purposes I called Adelaide BMW for a quote and the SA said yeah there's two gaskets in there, for $400 we'll fix that up and do an oil service at the same time.
That seems like exceptionally reasonable value coming from a stealership.

[papitosabe]

sorry to bring this back from the grave. But I'm having a similar issue on a z4 and came across this thread. My question is, if the oil is coming out where the housing meets the oil cap,where you screw the cap on, why would the issue be the housing gasket??? If it was the housing gasket (not the round gasket that goes on the oil cap), the the leak would not be where the picture is. The leak would be where the housing gasket is (which you can't see in the picture), and you'd have to remove the housing to see it. The gasket is under the area of what you see in the original picture. I hope that makes sense.....or am I missing something?

I have a suspicion the dealership fixed the issue with a new $2 seal/gasket (the top one in the picture below), and the "specialist" and bmw walked away with a nice chunk of change.

In my case, I think I put the large round oil cap gasket in the wrong groove. But I think I'd tried both grooves in the past and had the same issue. Except the oil "streamed" out where the round gasket is. I need to check tomorrow, hopefully, my clutzself put it in the wrong groove. I doubt I did the same groove 3 times with 3 different gaskets though.

[e36mmm]

Originally Posted by limeiying147

hey, i exactly had the same problem like u. also ,the oil leak position is also the same position with ur car... i went to the dealer, and they told me i had to pay 800 to fix it.. i didnt do it... so how about u ,did u get it fixed? how much u paid and which part do u change? do u just change the gasket or the seal inside ? or u changed the whole oil filter... i am watiiting for ur reply... thanks for reading.

Mate most likely it is the housing gasket inside that wears out and causes leak. I only had to change the housing gasket inside and have not had any other issues. Knock on wood I can look at my receipt folder and find out where I got it done. Part was about 20 dollars through bmw from memory. I think it was taken care of at the dealership as all my maintenances are done at dealer.. I'll need to double check that pricing for installation..