[Moel]

So ladies and gents I hope everyone is well. Bit of an alarming one. I have an M235i (2016/17)

Recently two strange things have occurred.

Strange thing 1. Had to top up my oil with a litre twice in about 7 weeks (I think)

Strange thing 2. Received a low coolant warning twice in 2 weeks.

So, took a look under the bonnet in the daylight today and noticed two things, firstly coolant seems ok
Secondly, around the oil filter housing is oil, there are flecks of oil in the soundproofing & the air box and another box have got oil meeting dust on them.

I will upload pictures shortly, a little light reading suggests a few things on the forum

The cars done around 70k miles, is 8k from its next oil change. I did change both filter housing o-rings when I last changed the oil, so opinions required on is it just the o ring needs replacing?

Am I due more trouble

Has oil leaked onto the expansion tank pipe and that’s causing my coolant loss?

I have read about valve gaskets and that’s slightly scary, so would love to know what I’m potentially facing here.

Alex

[overcoil]

oil filter housing gasket. https://www.2addicts.com/forums/show...housing+gasket

[EBM235]

Agree with post above. Had the same issue on my car and was corrected by replacing the oil filter housing gasket.

[overcoil]

for the low coolant, I'd closely look for small seam cracks in this pipe https://www.2addicts.com/forums/show....php?t=1553680

[Moel]

Thank you chaps

Car won't be moving until bits have arrived,

Have ordered new OFH gaskets and the intake plenum gaskets as well

Presumably I need to do a coolant flush, and an oil change post fix?

[Moel]

and on the note of the coolant flush, i've found a couple of videos, i can see that from an m135i video I have to drop it out from the water pump underneath the car.

I can also see how to bleed the system, by holding the accelerator pedal down for 10 seconds.

But this is going to sound really stupid, how do I get 4.5 litres of coolant back in to the system? Because i haven't seen a radiator cap (which is where i'd normally put it...i'm a bit old school in that way)

Other things i've seen involve the words 'vacuum system' which sounds expensive.

[overcoil]

Originally Posted by Moel

Thank you chaps

Car won't be moving until bits have arrived,

Have ordered new OFH gaskets and the intake plenum gaskets as well

Presumably I need to do a coolant flush, and an oil change post fix?

If your doing the job yourself or having an ALL MAKES NON SPECIALIZED garage dong the work ---- the oil filter housing gasket is a very sensitive job, what I mean is you need to be very careful and clean (if your doing it yourself !). I could be wrong, but I think I read of people doing the job themselves and then having major failures due to dirt entering the engine while the housing was off.

[Moel]

Well one month on and we are nearly at completion...

A litany of fun things.

So seals arrived, realised i didn't have a T30 to remove the oil cooler lines
Ordered T30 & an E12/10 ratcheting wrench

Took engine apart, removed bits, removed seals, cleaned everything
Put back together. (also used glove to cover intake pipe to prevent ingress of anything there)

Applied too much pressure to the t30 bolt for the cooler lines, heard the horrible 'ping' noise of bolt shearing...gently unscrewed it and whilst the shear was the consistancy of blu-tak the bolt did remove correctly.

On removal of the oil filter housing and oil cooler takeoff unsurpringly coolant and oil pissed all over the serpentine/drive belt

Read about how the belt should be replaced as if it slips it will get sucked into the engine.

I've now replaced the belt. So next up is fluid change, for which i have two questions.

1) Coolant, i will be popping off the hose on the electric water pump and draining from there, on refilling can i empty the coolant in, and then the de-ionised water run the bleed procedure and it will mix? Or do i need to pre mix prior to filling

2) As pointed out there can be cross contamination when doing this job..i have a feeling a bit of coolant may have ended up in the top of the oil cooler lines. I also noticed the cooler has I presume a thermostat in it based on the rod and spring. Do i need to get the car up to temperature, allow the cooler to circulate the oil, then drop the oil and replace it?

[Moel]

Well that’s a bit of a shitter...minimum oil level warning came on...time to open the bonnet again...sigh

[overcoil]

curious where the oil is going.

[sree]

Originally Posted by Moel

Well that’s a bit of a shitter...minimum oil level warning came on...time to open the bonnet again...sigh

If all else fails, perhaps try the UV oil leak finder method?

I haven't tried this myself but found it over on a similar N55 thread: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1697807