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Replaced oil pan gasket

221K views 334 replies 70 participants last post by  pamora 
#1 ·
I did it! I changed my oil pan gasket w/o dropping the sub-frame or lifting the motor. I had to cut the gasket to get it in.
I ran the motor for a little while yesterday. NO LEAKS. But time will tell!!
I’ll keep you posted whether it leaks or not.
It was not that difficult of a job. It would be much easier on a lift instead of rolling around underneath on a creeper with only a couple of inches of head room.
I spend most of the time studying where to cut the gasket in order to (1) be able to get it in and (2) have it in a position where it was accessible enough to get a good dose of gasket maker around the cut lines.
 
#158 ·
Macgy,

You only need apply it where the pan is actually leaking. Clean the area very well with brake cleaner first. As I said, I over-applied it; however, who really cares, as no one will see it except you. The product sealed a gas tank on an Alfa Romeo that I owned and showed no signs of failure after several years.

Jason5driver,

What did I "do" to my car specifically? Your reaction makes it sound as if some permanent damage was done to the car; quite the contrary, it is preventing damage and is 100% reversible upon disassembly of the pan. I recommend everyone carry a tube of this product in the glovebox; it will stop virtually any leak that is likely to occur if on a trip or in a remote area.

As I said, this stuff is NOT epoxy or JB Weld; once you break the bond you can pull it right off with your fingers. It's a perfectly sound solution to not only keep oil off the floor, but keep it from slinging all over the bottom of the car and ruining other rubber components until one is ready to tackle the entire repair.

You are right - do it right, do it once - when other front end components are sloppy enough to warrant dropping the subframe, the gasket will be replaced in the truly proper manner - with oil pan removed. The main reason I insist on dropping it completely is I'm not going to let my old gasket disintegrate into my oil pan with no room to properly clean it out.

BTW, I work as a Mechanical Design Engineer and pride myself on being absolutely fastidious with a very high attention to to detail. I can also appreciate a no-brainer fix when it's staring me in the face. I thoroughly cleaned the whole underside of the car last weekend during the subframe bushing/oil filter housing/vanos/inspection II service. Four days later completely sanitary under there :thumbup:
 
#160 ·
Macgy,

You only need apply it where the pan is actually leaking. Clean the area very well with brake cleaner first. As I said, I over-applied it; however, who really cares, as no one will see it except you. The product sealed a gas tank on an Alfa Romeo that I owned and showed no signs of failure after several years.

Jason5driver,

What did I "do" to my car specifically? Your reaction makes it sound as if some permanent damage was done to the car; quite the contrary, it is preventing damage and is 100% reversible upon disassembly of the pan. I recommend everyone carry a tube of this product in the glovebox; it will stop virtually any leak that is likely to occur if on a trip or in a remote area.

As I said, this stuff is NOT epoxy or JB Weld; once you break the bond you can pull it right off with your fingers. It's a perfectly sound solution to not only keep oil off the floor, but keep it from slinging all over the bottom of the car and ruining other rubber components until one is ready to tackle the entire repair.

You are right - do it right, do it once - when other front end components are sloppy enough to warrant dropping the subframe, the gasket will be replaced in the truly proper manner - with oil pan removed. The main reason I insist on dropping it completely is I'm not going to let my old gasket disintegrate into my oil pan with no room to properly clean it out.

BTW, I work as a Mechanical Design Engineer and pride myself on being absolutely fastidious with a very high attention to to detail. I can also appreciate a no-brainer fix when it's staring me in the face. I thoroughly cleaned the whole underside of the car last weekend during the subframe bushing/oil filter housing/vanos/inspection II service. Four days later completely sanitary under there :thumbup:
M500E
how's the seal holding up, I am interested in your method as a temp solution. thanks
 
#166 ·
I didn't cut the gasket when I did an m54-powered 325. Just brace the engine from above, disconnect the motor mounts, loosen the subframe bolts and let the subframe drop until the struts catch it and you can snake the gasket by the oil sump. The steering coupler doesn't even need to be disconnected.

See my post earlier in this thread.
 
#174 · (Edited)
Folks, I just completed the gasket replacement but had to drop the subframe. It's actually easy once the engine is lifted with the $60 brace from harborfrieght. Yes, it's easy and I see no need for taking shortcuts which I believe would in the end turn out to be a very difficult process given the tight space in the oil pan area. I had to unmount the powersteering pump (without disconnecting the hoses) and disconnect the driver side stabilizer link and control arm (easy to do and all in less than an hour).

The rubber on the old gasket was very brittle and very hard to remove such that I just can't imagine this job being done without dropping the subframe far enough. I had to put plastic paper over the open oil pan to prevent the brittle rubber from dropping into the pan while doing the difficult cleaning process.

I changed the engine mounts while at it.

After the job I treated myself to mugs of nice cold beer as there were no leaks after a long test drive.:D

E39 528, 170k miles.
 

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#175 ·
Folks, I just completed the gasket replacement but had to drop the subframe. It's actually easy once the engine is lifted with the $60 brace from harborfrieght. Yes, it's easy and I see no need for taking shortcuts which I believe would in the end turn out to be a very difficult process given the tight space in the oil pan area. I had to unmount the powersteering pump (without disconnecting the hoses) and disconnect the driver side stabilizer link and control arm (easy to do and all in less than an hour).

The rubber on the old gasket was very brittle and very hard to remove such that I just can't imagine this job being done without dropping the subframe far enough. I had to put plastic paper over the open oil pan to prevent the brittle rubber from dropping into the pan while doing the difficult cleaning process.

I changed the engine mounts while at it.

After the job I treated myself to mugs of nice cold beer as there were no leaks after a long test drive.:D

E39 528, 170k miles.
Great job Musa, congrats.
 
#177 ·
From memory when I did the job is was 20Nm torque. Not sure on the ft/lbs. I know that my torque wrench didn't go down that low and if you're doing it in-situ, there's no space to swing a torque wrench anyway.

If you fit a torque wrench in, then do the ones you can get to and get a feel for how snug. But 20Nm is just tight without overdoing it - you're driving a steel bolt into an alloy block so be careful. You can always give them a tad more torque if you have a weeping gasket but fixing stripped thread is a nightmare.
 
#178 ·
I saw "brc5" update in bimmerforums:

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/foru...-oil-pan-gasket-replacement-illustrated/page3

So I take the liberty of quoting him here:

brc5 said:
I did this job myself. I dropped the subframe but didn't disconnect the swaybar which was a mistake, as the subframe would not drop far enough. THe problem was that while the front of the subframe dropped down a long way, the rear didn't drop as far, probably because of the torque of the sway bar. I did undo the swaybar nuts but it didn't come away from the body.

After investing about 10 hours at that point, I got the $hits and decided to use the cut/seal method. That was 20,000km ago, and the spot where I did the cut/seal is as dry as a bone. The cut/RTV method might not be perfect, but it does work, there is no doubt about that.

You're smart not to crawl around on your back - this would be the toughest DIY job I have ever attempted. All just to prevent oil drops.

Then the RMS started dripping a bit as well, which it still does. I am not fixing it!

The quote I got to do this job ran to over $1,000.
 
#180 · (Edited)
mikeson,

I have a basic rule for such low torque.

Let's say the bolt torque is 13 ft-lb, in the Physics 101 world, it means that a force of 13 lbs is applied at 1 foot away from the axis of rotation (which is the center of the bolt).
I know what I am saying below is not scientific but this has worked for me for 25 years:

1. During install, tighten the bolt until it stops turning.
Use only one finger and place it at 1 foot on the wrench.
"Imagine 13 lbs weight" (a bit more than 10-lb bag of potatoes), and apply it.
The reason that I use "one finger" is to avoid over-torque.
I have a 15-lb dumbbell weight at home and I know that at 15 lbs, my finger "gives way", i.e., there is no way that I can lift more than 15 lbs using my index finger.
The single finger is not strong to do that.

2. Another tip is:
- Finger-tighten the bolt until it stops.
- Turn it another 30-45 degrees (about 1h or 1.5h on the analog clock).
 
#183 ·
Yeah I updated that bimmerforums thread because there seemed to be a lot of 'don't even try doing the cut/RTV method, it will never work' type of comment. Which in my experience is pure BS - it works just fine. I would prefer to have slipped the gasket on. I looked at the photos that musa showed, and I seem to recall the oil pickup being in some sort of baffled tray or something - there was no way I was getting the gasket around it. But as I stated, I don't think I got the sway bar off properly at the time. I think if you have a lift you'd feel more comfortable about pulling down on the swaybar with more force, or undoing more suspension parts.

Incidentally I had a wheel alignment done on the car about 6 months ago when some new tyres went on, and the front was just about perfect still. So it would seem the operation isn't a great risk of putting the wheel alignment out, which I believe is what it states in the Bentley manual.

Annoyingly I do have what appears to be a rear main seal leak at the back of the sump. I did get under and torque up the couple of bolts that attach the pan at the rear in case they weren't tight enough and that is where the leak was coming from. Or maybe I damaged the gasket in that area when I put it back on. Whatever- I'm not doing it again and it's maybe 10 drops on the floor over 12 months and a bit of moisture at the rear, compared to 10 drops per parking when I originally had the dried, brittle pan gasket originally.

I now have a major power steering hose leak though, which I'm planning to attend to shortly when I can allocate the funds towards all the various hoses. I have tried a new reservoir and the cut/shut hoses methods, but it seems the hoses are just shot and leak PS fluid everywhere.

Meanwhile, the garage-mate sits there, never having leaked a single drop of fluid onto the garage floor in 8 years of ownership. There really does seem to be a wide difference in quality in cars coming off the same assembly line, or maybe it's just how they are treated over time.
 
#187 ·
Can someone explain the basic premise of this whole concept?
You have an oil pan with a bad gasket.
This method allows you to NOT remove the oil pan to replace the gasket.
How? Do you remove all the oil pan bolts and then somehow slide out the old gasket?
If so, what is holding the oil pan on now? Friction? Why doesn't it fall off since the bolts and gasket are removed?
Next how do you slide the new gasket into place? You just jam it in? Then you replace the pan bolts and done?
 
#189 ·
Have had my oil pan gasket done with out droping subframe or lifting the engine, two cuts on the gasket were needed in order to slide right in. Its been nearly one month since it was done and up until now i havent had anymore leaks. Thanks to the guys here that help me tackle this work down. :)


Sent from BimmerApp mobile app
 
#190 · (Edited)
I started this job this afternoon on my '01 530 but stopped until I have more time. It took me at lest 30 minutes to loosen the bolt above the rack and pinion (passenger side). I could barely get an open ended wrench on the bolt. Im seriously considering following Musa' s approach. I have a lift but wanted to avoid dropping the subframe if possible but now Im having second thoughts.

For those that didnt drop the subframe,did you have any difficulty gaining access to the pan bolts? While I got the pesky bolt out it will be a PITA putting it back.
 
#191 ·
I replaced my oil pan gasket using Musa's method and it worked great. It is very tight trying to remove and replace the bolts but it is better than dropping the subframe. I have over 10000 miles on the new gasket now with no leaks. It still took me all day but better than all weekend. Be careful not to let any of the old gasket fall into the oil pan. I rigged up a small tube to my shop vac and was able to suck out all of the old gasket that fell into my oil pan. Good luck.
 
#194 · (Edited)
Mudbone have a few questions on procedure

First thank you for coming up with this. My 2000 E39 528i 120k seems to be leaking at the front left corner. Might try to just tighten bolts first but probably will need the gasket?

So what is the procedure on how to do this? What parts have to be removed first before taking down the oil pan to get to the gasket?

After you cut the gasket are you putting sealant all over the whole gasket or just at cut areas?

Last I know you used Permatex with copper, is that correct?

Did you use a genuine BMW gasket? Is there any other seals other than a new oil drain plug gasket?

Last what is the correct Torque spec?

Thanks for answering my questions
 
#195 ·
...My 2000 E39 528i 120k seems to be leaking at the front left corner...
I had the exact same symptom: oil on the left front corner of oil pan. Thought it was leaking oil pan gasket (the subject of this thread), but it turned out to be leaking OFH gasket (which is a much easier job).
I posted the DIY for OFH gasket in forum.

PS: For your other questions, always stick to BMW gasket, and RTV only to those cut areas.
 
#196 ·
cn90 thanks for replying.

Yes I also just finished doing at one time, OFH gasket, Vanos oil line, CCV system replacement, Dip stick O Ring, Power steering High Pressure hose, clean out ICV, new throttle gasket, upper small vacuum lines. Then took car for a ride and noticed the oil drip forming on the left side corner of the oil pan. (see picture) it was on the metal tab of the gasket. I was hoping it was all from the OFH and the leaking Vanos line but it looks to be from the Oil pan gasket too. I wonder if I could just clean it good for now and put some sealant on it? If doesn't appear to be coming from the front crank seal? Going to clean the area good today and check the torque on the bolts near it.

Could you look at my previous post above and comment on my questions if you've done the Cut Gasket procedure?

Thanks
 

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#198 ·
Cn90, Mudbone, or anyone that has done this procedure on 528i , just curious how hard is it to get the gasket back in place once you get it out? I was just under the car and it seems like there's not much space with the steering rack in place. Any pointers on what to do first to make it go easier?

Thanks
 
#199 ·
Couple points...

1. You need to review this thread in detail.
The main debate is:
a. Do it by the book: you have to drop the subframe etc., time-consuming, you are talking about 8-10h.
b. Do this mod, which is the main subject of this thread: drop the oil pan only a bit, just enough to get the old gasket in. The new gasket needs to be cut, and the cut areas patched with RTV.

2. Another thread. Note: according to this thread, there are 3 Torx bolts at the engine-trans area, not 2 as mentioned elsewhere:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/foru...9-6cyl-oil-pan-gasket-replacement-illustrated

3. I just came across another thread, very nice trick by jeremy339. Read it carefully. The idea is to raise the engine by placing a wood block under the TRANNY, right at the engine-tranny area, but under the TRANNY itself:

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114577

If you do it this way, you will need to undo the engine mount bolts so the engine can be lifted upward, detail on engine/trans mount bolts below:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=539957
 
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