X3 F25 N55 - Oil sweat?

[PLV]

Morning all,

I am about to replace the belt tensioner on my X3 F25 N55, as it has started to make the annoying rattling noise. I then noticed that there is a significant amount of oil 'sweat' and dirt around the area, as per the pic below.

Any ideas what could be the cause? I will give it a good clean this weekend, and then try and trouble shoot/diagnose properly, but just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and know what it could be...
She did have an oil change by BMW earlier this year - and I don' recall her being this dirty when I did the plugs and air filter around that time, although admittedly didn't really look down that far inside the front of the engine...

Many thanks for any pointers...

Hope it's nothing serious...:tiptoe:

 

[gavsadler]

It’s not oil sweat, it’s horsepower sweat

 

[PLV]

:smilebounce: I know she's a beast...

 

[Chris335]

i have a similar thing on my 335. mine is worse and has started to leak form the same place. BMW said it is the seal, and it could even be the filter housing starting to warp. not sure how that happens though.

 

[PLV]

Sh*t. I hope it's something simple once I clean it up and check. I'm thinking maybe it is the seal after they did the oil filter at the time of service. Will check. Hopefully a seal shouldn't be too pricey. If its the whole housing... then that won't be too cool at all!

Good luck with yours man!

 

[PLV]

Ok, so after waiting long enough... and having gotten all the necessary parts, and finally having some time on my hands... I had to get round to fixing the noisy belt tensioner. When I wanted to start with it, we realised that the oil leak was still present, and could not be ignored any longer, so had to get the parts and do that too.

Nick ( @Osiris ) was awesome, and assisted with all the work, which took us the better part of the day, as the X3 was fighting with us all the way...

Nick - I owe you man - you a legend. I can't thank you enough for your help and your encouragement to just keep at it and get it done! You the man!

Anyway... back to the X3...

The next couple of pictures will tell the story... of 5 hours of fun...

Effectively, we had to:
- Remove the engine cover
- Remove the Air filter
- Loosen the intake to be able to get access to a bolt for the oil filter housing
- Remove the coolant pipe that connects under the oil filter housing to also get access to a bolt
- Remove the oil filter housing (here it was blatantly obvious that the reason that the gaskets failed was due to over-tightening of the bolts. They were on WAY too tight)
- Clean the hell out of it (copious amounts of prepsol plus brushing away)
- Then replace everything the way it was, with proper torque
- We then realised that we had to remove the fan to get access to properly remove and replace the belt tensioner (which was done relatively easily)
- Afterwards - we prepsolled and sprayed the front of the engine down and she looked perfectly clean!

All seemed perfect - except we knew that the water coolant hose that connect just under the oil filter housing had perished (and the O-ring was aged badly)... and indeed... the result was a coolant spill...

So as soon as BMW opens on Tuesday - I will be off to get a new hose and fit it.. and then the X should be all good to go!

Nick - thanks again man! Rep points coming your way!

:thumbs:

 

[osiris]

Thanks for the mention man and always happy to help! It Was actually a fun day. :thumbs:

Unfortunately that damn hose had to bring all our good work to its knees.
A bad design on BMW's part! That part connects directly to the engine block right under the oil filter housing and takes serious punishment in the form of heat so it should by all rights be made from metal not a perishable plastic.

Should have taken photos of me having to lie across the engine bay to get to that damn end bolt for the intake manifold! :roflol:

We will sort it out on Tuesday though that's for sure! Then this beast should be awesome and reliable once again!

The exhaust note of that car is really awesome! :thumbs:

 

[Clint@MMS AUTO]

Nice work so far Gents... :bravo:

once bmw opens, should be good as new in no time...

 

[gavsadler]

Glad you guys came right, looks like a proper job to replace that oil filter gasket.

 

[supertramp]

Love the gloves ........... Nice to see "True Fanatics" :smilebounce:

 

[osiris]

Love the gloves ........... Nice to see "True Fanatics" :smilebounce:

Got them from Clicks :fencelook: but they damn awesome to work with especially if its oil changes etc! :smilebounce:

 

[sash]

Great work guys

 

[PLV]

So, the pipe is on backorder from Germany... :fencelook:

But the O-ring is available. So I reckon I will do a temp fix with the new O-ring and see if it holds up in the meantime.

mgwaiting:

 

[Danny2]

So, the pipe is on backorder from Germany... :fencelook:

But the O-ring is available. So I reckon I will do a temp fix with the new O-ring and see if it holds up in the meantime.

mgwaiting:

its only the O-ring that leaks. Don't think you need a new pipe

 

[NAS325ci]

Nice work guys.. if oil was leaking on the belt change that belt for piece of mind.

 

[PLV]

Thanks. I’m just trying the new O-ring as soon as I get it this afternoon. Will keep the pipe and do it properly at a later stage if this works for now...

Had to fix the perished part of the pipe first with some Pratley Steel Quickset thanks to Nick again for helping with that!

And the old O-ring which definitely got messed up after the install. It was already stuffed, but in tact last time. So obviously the O-ring was the cause of the leak...

Wish me luck for later!

 

[PLV]

The new O-ring arrived this morning. Installed, primed the coolant and took her for a spin. All seems ok!

I’m a real dumbass... I almost topped up with the prepsol instead of the distilled water (similar container)... :hammerhead:

But luckily, with the 50/50 Sasol Concentrate Coolant and Distilled Water... and the new O-ring... all seems fine so far!

And no belt tensioner noise. What a pleasure!

:tiptoe:

 

[gavsadler]

You would have unlocked 20wkw if you filled up with Prepsol :biglol:

 

[PLV]

:roflol:

 

[osiris]

Nicely done at least that’s sorted now. Just keep an eye on it for a few days to make sure everything is holding up.:thumbs: