Quote:
Originally Posted by jzchen
Yes, I think the extra heat from the exhaust warming the air and getting compressed through the turbos makes the engine run hotter. I haven't really heard of the NAs getting overheated much...
FWIW the $90 is total cost. BUT, have you been to Autozone, O'Reilly, or Pep Boys? Autozone, as well as the others, has them on special every 3 months or so for around $30+ for 5 qts and an oil filter. (You can check their ads on their websites for when it is available. They cycle the major brands so it's around 3 months before the next time Mobil 1 goes up. I usually stock up and if you are in the Autozone rewards program every 4 or 5 purchases over $20 gets you some money to spend there as well. I forget if it's $10 or $20.) I usually can't find oil cheaper online anywhere because of shipping costs. Anyways, I sucked up as much of the oil in the oil filter housing as I could without getting burned too much with paper towels, put the new oil filter in, and put about 6.5 qts BMW oil in. I did a reset with the Bavarian tech tool, and it said next change at 16000 mi. It seemed the level was not completely full, so I put the remaining half qt in. The level then went to the top. (From what I recall from the dealer it would say 13000mi. It makes me wonder....)
Searching on realoem shows that both housings are the same. I then took the part number from realoem to getbmwparts. It seems it is good for a lot of engines through 2011, so yours should be the same also. I don't know much about the N55.... You can do a retrofit if you really want to, I think. Dinan has them for the LCIs, and Mtech, at least for '08, last time I checked. Too bad the 15% off sale is up. (It took me about a week because it was my first major project on a BMW, and I was working at night when my son was asleep. I think on the NAs, maybe the N52, you can access all the bolts to the housing without having to lift up the intake manifold, but for the N54 at least, I needed to lift it up. Not sure of the N51. The curvature of the intake pipes is more curved on the N54. (Someone posted a DIY on how to replace an oil filter housing gasket, same as replacing the housing, without moving the intake manifold, but just looking at my N54 I realized there was no way the top bolt was going to come out without moving it.) I could try to verify that the intake manifolds are diffferent if really needed...
I think one of the most difficult parts was putting the bumper back on. I had a lot of times where I didn't know how to take off a part. I couldn't take out the junction box(?) at one point, so instead of removing the intake manifold completely, I could only lift it up. The bumper was a tight fit with the larger Dinan cooler. I actually didn't have the original one so I can't really compare. (It was funny as my dad saw my progress and said I was ruining my perfectly good, almost new, car. It still has less than 5k on the ODO.)
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Oh I know about the local auto stores selling those DIY oil change kits. The only problem is that they only advertise the conventional oil. I'm not sure if they have it for fully syn. oils also or not but ill make sure to check next time around. I usually run 5 qts. 0w-40 and two quarts of the lucas oil stabilizer (full syn.) The oil doesn't seem to heat up much anymore or at least take forever to cool down.
Ill attach a pic of what I am talking about. Its kinda strange that they hold the same part # even if one is completely different from the other. I guess its worth some what of a try if I'm truly that bored but you're right, NAs don't usually overheat unless you drive them over the limit. My car has only overheated twice. Both times the temp warning light came on and I had to cruise at 60 back home on the freeway because my car went into a major limp mode. Whenever I gave it more gas, it'd cut off right at 4k and would bog on me a bit. Now it seems to have went away. Maybe because of the oil change up or the stabilizer. Either way, ill pass on the oil cooler mod until i fully modify my car or drive harder