So i changed my motor mounts and almost had a disaster....

[Dominick]

well not with the motor mounts, took about 1 hour with 2 people (wanted to take our time).

But i get to my friends house and open the hood to let the bay cool down. and to my amazement, my oil cap is missing. :shock: i check the oil and its barely under the bottom line.

But the engine bay wasnt near as dirty as i thought it'd be. I noticed the car running funny the day before and i remembered i heard something fall from the bottom of the car. So i now know what fell. But i dont know how the cap got loose.

But finished the mounts filled with oil and got a new cap and the car feels soo much better.

The car feels better on corners (i guess the engine is sliding around anymore), and it eliminated about 40% of my shifter slop, car idles smoother, but not as smooth as i'd like.

My old mounts looked pretty good, but i decided to change them anyways. So i suggests everyone to check up on them, its too easy to change out not to.

Tips
-the 4 bolts are 17mm (2 on each mount)
-when one new mount is in, only bolt the bottom bolt, not the top (when you have the raise the other side, if the top bolt is on, it will raise the car and not the engine.)
-two people really make the job quick
-when done, recheck then recheck to make sure the bolts are tight, they come loose
-or get self-locking bolts

Good Luck

[JHZR2]

you didnt notice really odd running and idling? Thats a lot of unmetered air that can come in through the oil cap. Im kind of suprised it didnt set off a CEL.

You might want to disconnect the battery for a while, so the ECU can relearn how it works. It may have been doing some funky compensating, etc to make up for theoil cap being gone.

JMH

[Dominick]

the idle was a tad below normal, and burned a lot of gas

but i just changed oil from 10w-40 to 20w-50 to stop smoke out the exhaust

[500ke30]

did you upgrade to the e12 mounts. Just a suggestion from myself.

[Dominick]

no, i used stock e30, i learned too late

[Beej '86 325es]

I don't think it's that big of a deal to have the cap off that long. I once forgot to put mine on and it was sitting on the shock tower for a week before I got in there again and noticed it was off. No oil splashing or anything.

[KenC]

did you upgrade to the e12 mounts. Just a suggestion from myself.

Why're the e12 ones better? (Which series and year is the e12, by the way?)

[KenC]

I don't think it's that big of a deal to have the cap off that long. I once forgot to put mine on and it was sitting on the shock tower for a week before I got in there again and noticed it was off. No oil splashing or anything.

Doesn't it cause a monster vacuum leak?

[MR 325]

Guys, if you can't tell your cap is off by how bad the car is running, that's bad.

[BS87]

Guys, if you can't tell your cap is off by how bad the car is running, that's bad.

Pretty sure i could tell, but the 288 cam might make it a bit harder :P

[parkerbink]

Mine idles really roughly when it is off.

[LowR3V'in]

Guys, if you can't tell your cap is off by how bad the car is running, that's bad.

Or you don't have the breather hose connected.

[elemental]

Um. my car dam neer dies and sometime dose when the cap is off, it causes and monster vacume leek, you might allso whant to think about changing your oil who knows whant kinda crap you sucked in >.. proly not anything major but you never know but hey that is funny

[AdamF 88iS]

E12 530i mounts are said to be stiffer than E30 mounts. You just have to grind off one of the locator nipples, they have 2 and E30s only have one.

[NC325iC]

haha he said you have to grind off nipples