Oil pan Gasket
 

I am a long time BMW guy and my Son's best friend asked me to help him repair an oil leak. Being a sport I said sure. He has a '97 318ti and the problem was the oil pan gasket. WTF? It took ALL DAY to change! You need to drop the control arms from the frame, disconnect motor mounts from sub-frame, remove rack & Pinion from sub-frame. remove sub frame from car while supporting the engine with an engine hoist and remove the dip stick tube. Then, there's 27 bolts holding the pan to the engine and tranny. It really wasn't all that fun!

Great. I think I have a leak in the oil pan gasket as well. It appears that oil is leaking near the rear of the oil pan where the engine and tranny meet.

Yep. That's why it could be a $700 job in a shop.

Gee whiz. And it would take me all weekend to get to it and change it out if I'm lucky and don't run into any problems. Maybe it's time to pull the engine and tranny and consider the M3 swap? I'm at almost 150k miles, and based on prior experience once the rear oil seal goes, it's only a matter of time before other seals start leaking. I've also been looking at the Bavarian Exchange remanufactured M44 that's been ported, but it's over $5k. So considering the huge difference in horsepower between the M3 versus the ported M44, the M3 engine is probably a much better investment. If I can find an M3 engine all together with the ECU, A/C, Alternator, tranny, etc... can a shop mount it all in one piece from the underside of the car?

Raising this thread from the dead !

I was getting ready to make a post asking if there actually is an oil pan gasket or if its just RTV'd in place.

I used the search feature and nothing came up, but as soon as i started making a new post, lo and behold, it popped up the keyword "oil pan gasket" ... weird.

i have the gasket for sale :biggrin:

The reason i even asked, was becaus ei looked in the Felpro book at work , and didnt see a listing, looked on Bavauto.com and didnt see it, and I even called a local competitor that's AMAZING about having every foreign part I've ever called for in stock. I found nothing, and being after 3 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon, the closest BMW dealer was already closed.

Approximately how much do they "typically" sell for ?

i think i got mine about $20 or so? i have a thread of parts like gaskets and hoses for the 318ti. here's the link:http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=25199

But you didn't try pelicanparts.com Here is the link for the oil pan gasket. 11.75 bucks. Not bad.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/...-1-739-813-M42

My 318ti with 208k miles is also leaking oil from the oil pan gasket.

Based on this post and what my mechanic said about the labor involved, mine is going to keep leaking for the rest of it's days. I can't see spending at least $500 (probably more) to replace this on a car with the miles mine has. Not to mention this job is way above my mechanical ability.

I did put some Lucas oil stop leak in, that seems to have helped. It didn't stop the leak, but it slowed it down.

Ken

I just purchased my oil pan gasket, timing chain cover gaskets and valve cover gaskets. I should have a great weekend when they arrive. I'm getting a little PO at the oil spots on my interlocking brick driveway.

Just wanted to say thanks guys for your inputs and comments about this project because you helped me make up my mind that I could do this myself and save the "arm & a leg" cost. Also, just to give you an idea of my mechanical abilities, I think I might have some now. This was a major plunge for me as I thought I was doing good at spark plug changes before this.

What I did was read and re-read the Bentley over and over, getting the mental process in my mind, this allowed me to overcome my fear of a big project, and also allowed me to figure out that I needed to buy a few things like the gasket sealant the Bentley asks for ( I got 3M from NAPA), as well as get the right tools ready. This probably saved me only a few minutes though.

After getting pissed off at the oil spots collecting on the driveway I started trying to figure out where the oil was coming from. After more than one wipe down and observe test I assumed it was the oil pan gasket.

Since I am in the Army Reserve I have access to the Auto Skills Center where there are bays with lifts and about any type of tool you would need for a super cheap "cost". 7 hours later there is a new gasket installed, and I know the car better now.

Over the next week the car kept dripping oil on the asphalt! My wife made an appointment at the local independant mechanic and he determined it was the oil filter housing gasket. He gave us the gasket and 2 o-rings for free. 3 hours later, my car appears to be drip free!

During this process we purchased new tires for the car so it rides really nice now just because of that. But I did something else that I cannot figure out, and now the car runs really smooth (as compared to before) and seems to have more power. Maybe I twisted an intake hose and stopped a minor air leak, I don't know, but I'm not going to complain!