[WBR 3E]

Used this tutorial to fix the leaking gasket on the housing of my ’06 325i yesterday. Dealer wanted over $500, and the local independent shop that has been reasonable on other items gave me a quote of $472, admitting it was a $15 gasket but claiming 3.7 hours of labor, which included ‘significant cleanup’. I used the recommendation of the 6” extension ($6) and universal ($9) with the 8 MM socket (Craftsman offers a nice metric socket set for $10 designed for a variety of bolt profiles, including torx, that worked perfectly with no damage to the bolt head). The bolt on the bottom of the housing requires a 8 mm wrench due to lack of clearance, but it’s the shortest of the three, so a ratcheting wrench is not necessary. I sprayed the bolts with penetrating oil a couple days before the repair. I removed the airbox, but did not drain any coolant or remove the intake manifold. Took about 50 minutes to remove airbox, loosen three bolts, cover electronics with tarps, remove housing and gasket, clean the housing, insert new gasket and replace bolts. I then took a break to purchase degreaser, Simple Green and a $10 garden pressure sprayer; replaced the airbox, and then spent about a ½ hr carefully cleaning the front of the engine, letting degreaser soak, then scrubbing with Simple Green and an old toothbrush, then rinsing with the sprayer. I lost about a quart of coolant replacing the gasket, so I topped that off then went through the coolant bleed process which took about 12 minutes. (Took a few minutes to figure out the ‘insert key and hit start without starting motor’ – I was engaging the clutch so it started every time until I did a little research here on forum discovered that you should not put your feet on clutch or brake, then the motor will remain off and the heater will activate.) So my totals were about $60 and approximately 1 hr 30 minutes of work time. I’ve used this forum many times in the past, along with videos on Youtube, to evaluate the difficulty of handling repairs myself. The BMW is a fantastically well engineered car that is easy to work on so long as you are aware of the ‘secret processes’ like the coolent bleed which are not intuitive and require details such as those provided in this tutorial. Thanks to all who take the time to post to the forum and share their experiences and expertise.