E30 Zone

.. just had my 325 Touring at the local garage, as it has been leaking a fair amount of oil when parked uphill.

Mech is a decent guy, had our other car into them in the past. Reckons that he has come across this problem in the past, got it up on the ramp and confirmed his suspicions.

As per my searches on this board confirmed, it appears to be the rear crankshaft seal, however, this chap reckons that the one he has done in the past has been a failure, as the seal has hardened and worn a groove into the crank. Therefore, when you replace the seal, it doesn't seal properly and you are back to square one.

He didn't say as much, but from the general direction of the discussion, he reckons it is not worth doing on a high miler - might as well scrap it, or live with it pissing oil everywhere as it is a gearbox out job - in the region of £220, and the engine is likely to be breathing anyway and this helps the leaks along (did mention tryind Halfrauds stop oil leak product, but no thanks)

Now.

I'm a little bit gutted, as I was expecting something to be wrong, but not this.

So.

Does anyone want to offer a second opinion on this - the car is (well, appears to be) in good shape otherwise, so is it worth giving it a go? Or do I cut and run?

Car is in Bournemouth.

Ta,

Scott.

P.S. That'll teach me not to trust people in future

P.P.S. It'll also teach me to do my homework better when buying second hand!!

you can pick up a lower mileage engine for less than that if your in the right places.

personally I'd live with it if it goes bang it goes bang new engine time, complete 325's are quite cheap anyway now

sorry to hear that bro. if i were you i'd cut my losses. it'll work out cheaper in the long run dude.

I'd lay £Â£ on the sump gasket being pushed out rather than the rear main failed

For the cost of the gasket and a few hours DIY you could fix this leak, you may not but for the costs involved, I'd speculate to accumulate all day long

need to be 45 degrees for oil to literally run outa the rear main dude, is your drive that steep ?

Cheers Ant, first noticed it when I parked on a hill near our house, it is a fairly steep one, and it pissed out. Parked on the flat, hardly noticable (which is why I did't pick it up when went to check it out).

Yup - I need to get under it myself. Might drive i down to the in-laws on the weekend as they have tools and space.

Ant wrote:I'd lay £Â£ on the sump gasket being pushed out rather than the rear main failed

For the cost of the gasket and a few hours DIY you could fix this leak, you may not but for the costs involved, I'd speculate to accumulate all day long

I'll second that, seems to be very common on the 6 pots. The sump gasket hardens and splits causing the gasket to push out from the joint and piss out your oil.

With the oil seal/groove thing, I get this regularly at work (I'm an engineer ) and to fix it without having the shaft reground we fit the new oil seal in a different depth maybe 1 or 2mm deeper to avoid having the seal lip running in the groove.

Cheers,

Iain T

Ant wrote:I'd lay £Â£ on the sump gasket being pushed out rather than the rear main failed

Had the same problem on mine, if you have a go at fixing it you will probably find that the sump bolts under the casting that the bottom of the box bolts to are loose, a couple of mine were on the verge of falling out

Sump gasket!

Id say it is probably the sump gasket myself, for how much it will cost u, y might as well have a go.

Templ8e30 wrote:With the oil seal/groove thing, I get this regularly at work (I'm an engineer ) and to fix it without having the shaft reground we fit the new oil seal in a different depth maybe 1 or 2mm deeper to avoid having the seal lip running in the groove.

Cheers,

Iain T

This is what BMW also do, and i would recommend you tell your mechanic to do the same.

Andrew

Thanks for the advice guys - will have a bash at the sump gasket.

Been looking it up on the internet - do you have any idea what size locknuts hold the steering rack on? Want to make sure I have all the parts to hand before I start out.

Thanks again,

Scott

Replacing the sump gasket has fixed the leak - no oil at all out the bottom of the engine.

For those of you that will need to do this job in future, good luck. It requires a fair bit of patience to get through. This took me an entire day on Saturday, but to be fair, I have not done much work on cars apart from basics like brakes and oil changes, so took a slow and steady approach. I was also working alone.

The sump is very reluctant to come out past the pressure release valve, so ended up with the steering rack unbolted, engine mounts loosened and the engine jacked up a bit. Getting the sump off is the easy part though. The real fun comes when you have to get the oil pump drive into its hole and bolt the oil pump back on working through the 10cm gap on either side of the sump.

After much trial and error, I can recommend the following procedure - lying on your back under the car, support the sump and oil pump with hands on either side, using a grip that allows you to find the hole using your index finger (it's a bit like being 16 again), a bit of a balancing act, but there is no way to do it by sight, unless you have a mate with a mirror. The drive comes out of the pump as well, so you have a bit of play, once all lined up, you can then get the bolts in - make sure they are nearby!

Worth it in the end though - service and timing belt next!