going through lots of oil!

[chase]

I keep needing to refil the oil. Goign to give it an oil change this weekend, but thats not the reason its leaking. There's residue on the underneath of the engine area, and around the valve area.

here are two pics. can anyone tell me a likely cause and solution?

http://www.freewebs.com/vertexinc/oilleak1.jpg

http://www.freewebs.com/vertexinc/oilleak2.jpg

thanks!

[Jordan]

Looks to me like your valve cover gasket is leaking, and perhaps also your oil pan gasket.

[Kavkazia]

How many miles on your motor? Any smoke when you fire it up? Puddle of oil in your intake?

It could be a bad piston rings, valve seals or gaskets, but Im not sure if it would be leaking that much oil from gaskets to be adding oil every weekend.

Change the valve cover gasket, clean around your oil pan well, if oil appears on pan again, change your oil pan gasket, check any leaks from oil cooler, those two in/out line rubber o rings could be worn out and leaking too.

[MattM20]

i have a similar problem. ive had my seals repaired about 6months ago, but now i see some oil dripping from the screws on the top of the oil pan, is that a bad oil pan gasket?

[rward325]

It sounds like a vlave cover gasket and an oil pan gasket are in your near future. Also check the seal around the oil filter housing as well as the check valve there. These are prime oil leak spots on e30's.

[chase]

thanks everyone, going to clean everything and installing new valve cover gasket this weekend.

see what happends, then going to replace oilpan seal. also putting in a new fuel filter...i have a feeling it REALLY needs one

btw.. i popped 200,000 miles 2 weeks ago, its at like 200, 8** now. no smoke when startup or anytime from exhaust.

[Spaz]

m20's are common for oil leaks from the oil cooler mainly, and also from around the oil pan gasket, i know on both of my m20 the oil pan bolts were loose when i got the car, just recheck them, and if that doesn't stop the leak, time for an oil pan gasket.

hope that helps

[MattM20]

m20's are common for oil leaks from the oil cooler mainly, and also from around the oil pan gasket, i know on both of my m20 the oil pan bolts were loose when i got the car, just recheck them, and if that doesn't stop the leak, time for an oil pan gasket.

hope that helps

yeah, bmw actually released a fix-it gasket kit for that. pn 11 42 9 059 338

[mike10562004]

really? i think im going to replace mine friday

[SpecM]

really? i think im going to replace mine friday

wow, this thread was best left undisturbed. Really.