1988 M20B25 exhaust downpipe gasket

[FinalD]

This is really annoying me, I need a gasket on the exhaust as I'm getting a small leak from it which certainly won't impress the MOT tester.
I've bought two gaskets from ebay and neither of them fit. I've looked on realOEM in the hope that I can find the correct part and spend a huge amount at BMW (Cotswolds ), but that shows all M20B25 as being two triangles, whereas mine is a diamond.

Below are some pics of my spare manifold, complete with old gasket, and one of the gaskets (the other one fits just as badly).












As you can see, none of the damn holes line up with the studs, now either I have to completely random manifolds (and exhaust systems) that don't have the usual measurements, or, ebay sellers don't actually know the correct measurements for this.

Anyone know where I can get the correct one from without emptying my wallet?

[pacerpete]

There are two different sizes of facelift downpipe flange . I don't believe it is quite as straight forward as 320 vs 325. As the manifold is off, head for your local Kwikfit or similar and they should be able to sort you out. Only LHD cars have the thee bolt 'triangle' flanges.

There is a noticeable difference between the stud spacing both length wise and width. Measure from the centreline of the studs and make a note of it for when you make your enquiries.

[FinalD]

Cheers for that, BMW being clever as usual.

Unfortunately I don't have a local Kwikfit or anything similar really. I live in the sticks and all the local places would probably just cover it in gasket sealer.

I suppose one option is to contact Cotswolds and ask (whilst providing my VIN) for the gasket, and/or get them to send both and return the incorrect one.

I'll do some measuring up as well though, in theory I should be able to get anyone that supplies them to make one up for me, provided I give the correct measurements.

[B7]

We've all had this issue. you have a 320 gasket there. I have the correct part number somewhere stored.

The confusion on real oem as you say. is that the diagrams don't tally because of cat prepared cars and non cat prepared. All facelifts with the style of downpipe you have are (IIRC) known as Cat prepard.

You need to be looking at this link below (to my own 89 325i convertible)

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?mod ... g=18&fg=10

Item number 5 is what you want. And here the part number is 18301711969 but I'll confirm thats the right one later when I can trawl my invoices on the car.

[capri_rob]

Definately give your local dealer or Cotswold your VIN and they will sort it - I bought one from my local dealer and it was right first time

[FinalD]

Cheers B7 and capri_rob.

I'll chuck a post into the Cotswold section asking for a price and include my VIN, won't hear until tomorrow anyway. If you could find/confirm the PN rob that'd be great.

Typically all the ebay sellers list them all as the same part, aside from £90 items.

[magpie]

there is a difference between facelift and pre-facelift just to confuse matters .

[B7]

Cheers B7 and capri_rob.

I'll chuck a post into the Cotswold section asking for a price and include my VIN, won't hear until tomorrow anyway. If you could find/confirm the PN rob that'd be great.

Typically all the ebay sellers list them all as the same part, aside from £90 items.

The number I quote above is correct for my car. 18301711969

[e30topless]

the new gasket you have there is to fit a pre-facelift M20 B2.5 you need the 1987>

[FinalD]

The number I quote above is correct for my car. 18301711969

Cheers for checking that, certainly ties in with what realoem says too, with it being post 87.

the new gasket you have there is to fit a pre-facelift M20 B2.5 you need the 1987>

Yeah, I figured that'd be the case from most of the above replies. All of the ebay sellers state that the gasket is for all models, they obviously don't know or care that there are more than one version.
What you've said ties in with B7's post of the PN so I'll get on that from Cotswold, it's only £12 from BMW themselves anyway (£15 inc postage) so isn't much more than ebay anyway.

Cheers all!