Hey everyone, Im new here so I thought I would share my experience today with a few maintenance repairs.
First of all I would like to start by saying that I just got this car (89 325i sedan) and while there are some cosmetic things I need to change (wheels are ugly as sin), I know that fixing an oil leak takes precedence to everything right now.
I would consider my self mechanically interested, but I do get in over my head at times, and that paired with the lack of a good work space, and appropriate tools, can sometimes make a 2 hour job an all day affair.
That being said lets get into it- when I first got the car I saw a bunch of gunk and oil under the car, not quiet a leak that drips on the driveway, but there was definitely some oil leaking. After a power wash I think I traced the first leak to the oil housing unit. I found some other DIY's and while I thought I had the job down to a simple science, I found otherwise.
Basically my unit looked a lot different that the how-to I read and I would probably attribute that to a early and late model difference int he unit itself.
If you plan on taking on this task I will just say its not awful but it will take some time/patience.
Step one get your tools ready
+17mm socket
+needle nose pliers
+c-clamp (mine was 3", and not big enough but I made it work I would say at least a 7" c -clamp would be best)
+the new parts you need 11429059338(oil relief valve kit) the only part I ordered correctly, which means I will have to revisit this if it continues to leak
+lots of shop towels, oil catch container, funnel, oil filter wrench etc..
Tools
so start here, the big bolt in the middle 17mm, it takes a while but just keep going. There will be a lot of oil leaking, be sure to catch it.
You may want to take the oil filter off before starting..less oil, and easier to get the unit down.
Some people will say you need a c clamp for this part, however I did not use one and I was fine. You will need to take you needle nose pliers and squeeze the metal ring together and off the unit. the spring inside the housing will want to pop out so just keep your finger on it and prevent this from happening.
this is the order of the contents inside.
This is the new and old oil relief valve side by side.
so now the tricky part, time to get the new part with the spring back inside. You WILL need a c-clamp for this. put the clamp over the new relief valve and compress it so that you can get the metal clamp back in its place. This part took me forever...my c-clamp was too small,meh.
Once thats squared away, I went ahead and changed the oil and put on a new magnetic oil drain bolt plug.
after that I decided to change my spark plugs, and boy gapping those NKG V Power plugs was a pain in the neck.....on top of that the original plugs had oil on them so hopefully a valve cover gasket change will solve the problem. I hope my DIY will help someone down the line.
the original DIY was sourced from here:
First of all I would like to start by saying that I just got this car (89 325i sedan) and while there are some cosmetic things I need to change (wheels are ugly as sin), I know that fixing an oil leak takes precedence to everything right now.
I would consider my self mechanically interested, but I do get in over my head at times, and that paired with the lack of a good work space, and appropriate tools, can sometimes make a 2 hour job an all day affair.
That being said lets get into it- when I first got the car I saw a bunch of gunk and oil under the car, not quiet a leak that drips on the driveway, but there was definitely some oil leaking. After a power wash I think I traced the first leak to the oil housing unit. I found some other DIY's and while I thought I had the job down to a simple science, I found otherwise.
Basically my unit looked a lot different that the how-to I read and I would probably attribute that to a early and late model difference int he unit itself.
If you plan on taking on this task I will just say its not awful but it will take some time/patience.
Step one get your tools ready
+17mm socket
+needle nose pliers
+c-clamp (mine was 3", and not big enough but I made it work I would say at least a 7" c -clamp would be best)
+the new parts you need 11429059338(oil relief valve kit) the only part I ordered correctly, which means I will have to revisit this if it continues to leak
+lots of shop towels, oil catch container, funnel, oil filter wrench etc..
Tools
so start here, the big bolt in the middle 17mm, it takes a while but just keep going. There will be a lot of oil leaking, be sure to catch it.
You may want to take the oil filter off before starting..less oil, and easier to get the unit down.
Some people will say you need a c clamp for this part, however I did not use one and I was fine. You will need to take you needle nose pliers and squeeze the metal ring together and off the unit. the spring inside the housing will want to pop out so just keep your finger on it and prevent this from happening.
this is the order of the contents inside.
This is the new and old oil relief valve side by side.
so now the tricky part, time to get the new part with the spring back inside. You WILL need a c-clamp for this. put the clamp over the new relief valve and compress it so that you can get the metal clamp back in its place. This part took me forever...my c-clamp was too small,meh.
Once thats squared away, I went ahead and changed the oil and put on a new magnetic oil drain bolt plug.
after that I decided to change my spark plugs, and boy gapping those NKG V Power plugs was a pain in the neck.....on top of that the original plugs had oil on them so hopefully a valve cover gasket change will solve the problem. I hope my DIY will help someone down the line.
the original DIY was sourced from here:
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