Belverud

My 05' 545i does leak oil. It doesn't seem to burn any oil. Is this something I should repair, or something I deal with and just continue to keep checking the oil? There doesn't seem to be and antifreeze in the oil or burn antifreeze. Anyone else dealing with this? I've read the N62 is known to leak. Thanks

turboawd

valve covers and alternator bracket seals tend to leak.

Belverud

I've read that as well, hoping that is more the issue. At times it is hard to start as well. Not so much of an issue since it has been colder. However, my mechanic thinks it is from anitfreeze and oil leaking into a cyclinder. Overall it runs fine. At times it starts and is missfiring, so I just turn it off and it restarts fine. Just an FYI she does have 162k miles.

BrianTx5

I replaced the alternator seal at 105,000 miles and the valve cover gaskets at 155,000 miles. Now the engine uses a quart of oil in about 7,000 miles.

damian

im in the same boat but did all gaskets and seals at 120k

westsidebalto

I'm curious, what do you mean by "all" the gaskets and seals? Valve covers and alternator? Any other major ones? I need to start doing this...

Margal

I replace all engine upper part gaskets and seals. Velve cover, upper timing cover. Vanos seals, alternator bracket. Oil pressure and air pump seals but lower part of engine is still oily. I know that upper and lower oil pan gaskets need to be replaced also to stop leakage and I am at 125k. I think adding 1L oil at 7K miles with leaking engine is ok. I did not go with my oil that far though and change it at 3k.

H F

I would say the alternator bracket gasket is the 2nd major one out of the bunch , and why why the 545 gets a bad rap . Its just the location of a 10 dollar gasket that really makes the repair a pain in the behind .

The valve covers even atop of the engine are a pain due to limited space . The upper timing cover gaskets can be done with out having to remove the valve covers from underneath the valve cover .

The coolant pipe is another one . Though its on top , you have to remove the intake manifold , its not super hard , its having to remove a bunch of stuff to get to it.

The rear coolant passage cover I would say is the 1st major one ,most work to fix , which requires dropping the transmission and removing the flywheel to get to the back of the block . But that leak is not as regular as the others .

The oil pressure switch its kinda hidden just above the ac compressor and the vacume pump seal . Thats pretty much all the gaskets and seals you have to keep in mind .. The trick is to stay on top of them and not let them pile up , address them as they come ..

westsidebalto

That sounds awful...

That was my first major leak. I was amazed at how much oil was getting out there. I patched that up a year ago and haven't had any low pressure warnings since, though I am leaking in other locations.