Quote:
Originally Posted by juicen335
First post on E90, Whoohoo!
I have this very same problem right now on my 07 335 with 50k miles. This thread will help me tremendously. Can any comment on how long it took them? Just curious. Thanks.  |
I have a 335i MT with oil cooler. Took me about 8 hours. Not difficult, just VERY tedious.
1. The oil coooler makes it much more tedious than the post above. Be prepared to spill a bunch of oil when detaching the oil cooler flange from the oil filter housing (13 mm bolt lying between the oil cooler lines, on a flange that is on the bottom of the oil temperature unit).
2. Also, a bit of a struggle with the intercooler removal (to permit draining coolant) because the intercooler has these torx screw with really shallow heads that are difficult not to strip - the screws are very tightly held in the plastic frame supporting the radiator and intercooler. You cannot drain the coolant without removing the intercooler (contrary to post above - there is not enough room to remove the rad drain screw with the intercooler pushed back). Here is a good video on how to remove the intercooler:
3. I found the manifold a real struggle to pull back from block far enough to access the hidden OFH mounting screw - you REALLY have to pull and wiggle it off the block and think that you may break something in the process. I had bugs drop into the block when I pulled it back (had to vacuum them up - it is an area that collects debris).
4. I had to use a universal joint (with 2 extensions) on the lowermost bolt (the one facing the passenger side of the car) with a torx socket, to avoid stripping it. If you strip this bolt, you will never get it out, so be VERY careful with it and use the right tools!!
5. I applied engine shampoo to the OFH and area the night before the repair and hosed off thoroughly - made the whole process MUCH less grimy and messy (highly suggest this).
6. Finally, I cannot beleive how much road gravel (from winter driving) and bugs are caught around the intercooler - be prepared for a lot of rotten fallout!
Rad. drains about 4 litres of coolant (~1 gallon of 50/50). You lose about 500 mls of oil in the process of R&R the housing/oil cooler lines. Never found any torque values of the manifold nuts and bolt - tightented fairly snug with a small 1/4 inch ratchet (did the tightening in 3 stages, going through the entire nut and bolt set in sequences). Re-used the manifold gasket (would have been very hard to replace this because the mainfold is so hard to pull far away from the block). You will need to use a whole can of brake cleaner (to clean the housing once off the car don't use water based cleaner for this because you will trap water in the oil cooler thermostat housing) and you SHOULD replace the cooolant hose o-ring that impedes access to the OFH screw facing the passenger side of the car.
Advise investing in torx screw socket set and torx driver set - you can easily strip torx bolts using regular sockets (contrary to above posts). Not sure if the whole day was worth saving $1000, or not. Hopefully only have to do this one in the life of my car. It is an idiotic design and should have a fail-safe gasket that never needs replacing - the gasket is a joke; flimsy 50 cents worth of silicone rubber and poorly designed - shame on BMW.