[Snail]

Hi, I have an 07 e93 328i with 140k miles and while doing a valve cover gasket replacement I found a loose dowel between cylinders 3&4. What do these do, and how to I reinstall it? And how did it get loose?

Using the real oem site I tracked it down to this page and think it's part labeled 4, part number 07119942082.


https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=11_3734

[hassmaschine]

I think that goes on one of the valve cover bolts in the middle, next to one of the spark plugs.

[Snail]

Originally Posted by hassmaschine

I think that goes on one of the valve cover bolts in the middle, next to one of the spark plugs.

Hi hassmaschine, do you mean this? If so I think this dowel/washer or whatever this thing is may be too large to be it. Also the dowel is magnetic unlike the aluminum raised holes between the spark plug holes.

[E92William]

I believe that is one of the things that house the bolts in place on the cover. I'll check it when I get home, I have a junk cover just laying around. I also dropped some bs while doing the gasket change good thing I found it

[Snail]

Originally Posted by E92William

I believe that is one of the things that house the bolts in place on the cover. I'll check it when I get home, I have a junk cover just laying around. I also dropped some bs while doing the gasket change good thing I found it

Awesome, Thanks E92William. I'll check both the new and old valve cover and hope that is it. It was a little bit of struggle trying to remove the valve cover myself, so maybe all the shaking and jimmying may have resulted in it falling off. I only noticed it after cleaning the mating surface for the rubber gasket and after removing some of the engine gunk--looks like previous owners may have either let that oil sit to long or wait too long between oil changes. Really want to get this car back on the road as I've only done 300 miles in the thing!

I snapped a picture of the bolt taken from cylinders 3&4 and it is naked without the washer/guide seen on the bolt labeled "L" which came from cylinders 5&6 which is identical to the bolt from cylinders 1&2. It looks like that may very well be it!

Also wanted to ask while you're here, are the three bolts between the three spark plug gaskets supposed to be steel/iron construction? I figured all would be aluminum to avoid galvonic corrosion with the engine block. I'm replacing all my bolts as reccomended but it's odd that these three are steel construction.

Thanks for checking, hassmaschine and E92William. I really really appreciate all the help and feedback guys!

[Snail]

That's exactly what it was guys, thanks again! I can finally get that cover back on!

[E92William]

That's great! yeah it couldn't have been anything else. I believe these bolts don't even need to be replaced as they aren't the ones for the Early model magnesium valve cover cars. Also a lot of the bolts would be annoying to remove and put new ones in the holes. But even better if you're putting new ones

[hassmaschine]

Those look like steel, shouldn't be a problem to reuse them. But that's kind of an odd bolt, I'd keep the old one as a spare.

[nsjames]

bolts into the head are steel on the plastic n52s, as it doesn't corrode like the magnesium.

only bolts going into the block are aluminum.