[guerve]

I did this job on my 2007 335i automatic with 115,000 miles on it this past weekend. My oil pan had been dripping for the past year and I'd need to put in a quart every 1200 miles. This past week the car took a dump and dropped about a half quart in my garage overnight. So I went ahead and bought the parts and got to work.

Because I'm a novice at wrenching, it took me about three days to finish the job (maybe 20 hours of labor). The difference between mine and OPs write-up is that the power steering pump is mounted to the oil pan and needs to be removed. In order to reinstall the pump, you need to have someone with a t60 socket and a breaker bar torque the tensioner pulley to release tension on the belt so you can route the belt back on the power steering pulley.

Unfortunately after I put everything back in place and refilled the oil, the car was still weeping oil between the bell housing and the oil pan. I'm assuming that the slow leak that I've had this year was the oil pan and the gusher this past week was my rear main seal giving up the ghost. I've replaced the oil filter housing gasket and valve cover gasket within the past 15000 miles. It could just be my shoddy workmanship but I'm not seeing any oil leaking from above. Also, I thoroughly cleaned up the underside of the car to verify that the oil pan and everything forward of the transmission is dry. Strange thing is when I shove my finger in the little capped hole in front of the bell, I'm not feeling any oil?!?!

I've called my local BMW indy shop and was quoted a price of 1200 for the RMS. I'm going to pull the trigger on this one because I'm done. Plus, from what I can see on the Bentley manual it looks like I would need a butt load of specialized tools to do it. Maybe I'll get lucky and the oil is coming from the turbo lines. I'll update after I get the car back whether I'm golden or if I've driven the car off of a cliff.