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This was the first year of the N55 but the oil filter housing looks mostly the same with the except of two coolant lines attached in the front going to what I believe is the intercooler.

The poor thing is leaking oil like crazy, I actually asked him to pop the hood because I heard some belt/pulley chirp and it must be making noise because of the oil on the belt.

Anyway, i'll probably wind up doing it for him and was wondering if anybody had experience or tackled it. It doesn't look too bad from some of the DIYs I found but almost all of them were for the N54 engine.

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2017 Autocross Chief of Tech

2000 E Street Miata
2015 Focus SE EcoBoost 6 speed
2015 Fiesta ST (Wife's ride)
2012 Yamaha FZ1 sorta crotch rocket? All I know is 150HP and 487 lbs is fun!

Paging VK to a thread about a failed part on a German car that doesn't exist on non-German cars.

If this is a oil-to-water type cooler, our old non-German Prelude had one also. I'm not sure what it actually did, other than to make it more complex, but at least it didn't ever leak!

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

At least it isn't a Volvo, right Chuck?

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2001 Honda S2000 - SOLD
2012 Boss 302
2003 BMW 330i

I did after some more research determine is just goes to a oil cooler which makes more sense. The lines though were the same size as the typical coolant lines to a heater core or something along those lines, I figured no way oil lines were that big lol.

Looks like a pretty simple job, but he's going to take it to a shop first to see what they charge labor, then if it's too high for him he's going to hit me up for the buddy rate lol.

So, for future reference it looks like this is a very common place for leaks since they opted for rubber o-rings which harden over time. If the car was equipped with a factory oil cooler then it bolts right on front of the oil filter housing with 3 bolts and a H clamp attaches the lines to the bottom of that to get to the oil cooler down in the passenger front. The o-ring is only like $13 but i've heard to replace the oil filter housing to the motor it runs in the $500 range for labor at most BMW shops. Apparently the BMW manuals call for removing the intake manifold but it's pretty simple to get to the rear bolt with a extension and wobble socket.

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2017 Autocross Chief of Tech

2000 E Street Miata
2015 Focus SE EcoBoost 6 speed
2015 Fiesta ST (Wife's ride)
2012 Yamaha FZ1 sorta crotch rocket? All I know is 150HP and 487 lbs is fun!

This car is only 3-4yrs old, right? Is there no factory warranty, or does this person drive a bunch?

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In need of car.

He bought it used, it's a 2011 with over 60k miles, so no factory warranty left. The price was cheap and I checked it over for him at the dealer before he bought it, it showed no signs of any major leaks. The price was likely less than what most of these go for because of the miles and the paint had been somewhat neglected so it had some etching from acid rain. We cleaned most of that up with some polishing and good sealant and glaze so it looks really good now, he's just had a few small problems like a wheel speed sensor and now this.

_________________
2017 Autocross Chief of Tech

2000 E Street Miata
2015 Focus SE EcoBoost 6 speed
2015 Fiesta ST (Wife's ride)
2012 Yamaha FZ1 sorta crotch rocket? All I know is 150HP and 487 lbs is fun!

A 13 dollar o-ring? Damn! Yet another a reason not to buy a BMW.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

Well, it's not a normal shaped o-ring. I was honestly expecting it to be higher, lol.

This is what it looks like:

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2017 Autocross Chief of Tech

2000 E Street Miata
2015 Focus SE EcoBoost 6 speed
2015 Fiesta ST (Wife's ride)
2012 Yamaha FZ1 sorta crotch rocket? All I know is 150HP and 487 lbs is fun!

My apologies. I was thinking of standard round-type that you can get for less than a dollar at most any parts store like I used to fix the common CAS oil leak on my NA Miata.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

My X5 developed a leak at the O ring for the oil cooler connection in the block. $8 part, 13 hours labor per the BMW book.

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BenchWarmer Motorsports

another one of those damn LeMons heads

just another Chump

we are an Autocross Club Dammit............

So far that's been my experience looking into stuff for my friends 335, the parts really aren't excessive, it's the labor that the dealers charge to fix them that gets ya. Otherwise I think BMWs wouldn't have the bad rap of expensive repair costs.

_________________
2017 Autocross Chief of Tech

2000 E Street Miata
2015 Focus SE EcoBoost 6 speed
2015 Fiesta ST (Wife's ride)
2012 Yamaha FZ1 sorta crotch rocket? All I know is 150HP and 487 lbs is fun!

BMW:
http://www.amazon.com/Airtex-AW6681-Eng ... B00BUHU8R2

SBC:
http://www.amazon.com/ACDelco-252-846-P ... 001KSA9SE/

As an aside, you'll not find a cheaper source or quicker shipping/order filling than BMW Morristown's online parts site: http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/index.cfm?action=catalogcenter&siteid=214320&catalogid=0 fwiw.

If you do pull the intake manifold, definitely borrow one of those walnut shell blasters and clean the intake valves as I've heard (from a BMW PUMA level tech support manager) the direct injected turbo engines (which I think the N55 is) can have significant carbon build up on intake valves.



Hey, said Volvo turns 19 this winter, and it's a sad state of affairs to say at 19 years ownership it's the longest I've ever owned a car (prior record was 14 years for my '72 Bavaria...1980-1994). VK has called dibs on that car for when we're done with it, but if you want to be added to the list, that's cool. But hey, I do still have my 1975 CanAm, so that holds my vehicle record with 40 years of ownership closing in here next June! At least I don't make car dealerships very happy...

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

Thanks for the info. He talked to a local performance BMW shop in Winston and I think he's going to pay them to do it. He was shopping around for somewhere to do the Walnut blast anyway and figured they might make him a deal on the labor if they did both at once. They quoted him $700 to do the walnut blast on the intake valves and fix the oil filter housing leak.

You are right about the N55 being direct injected, from what i've seen online the carbon build up can get very bad. This is a pretty common issue on the 3.6L GM V6 also they use in the Camaros and other cars. I'm not sure how GM goes about cleaning it though, I assume they just use a solvent to do a top end cleaning. I'm sure the walnut blast is much better at getting the tough stuff off.

I suggested if he pays for the walnut blast and is going to keep this car he should get himself a catch can, that should at least slow down the carbon build up.

_________________
2017 Autocross Chief of Tech

2000 E Street Miata
2015 Focus SE EcoBoost 6 speed
2015 Fiesta ST (Wife's ride)
2012 Yamaha FZ1 sorta crotch rocket? All I know is 150HP and 487 lbs is fun!