2004 525i with M54, Been leaking oil on driveway for a bit, got around to tracking it down and found that my oil filter housing is leaking a good amount of oil. Has anybody done this job? Does not seem too bad, however I can not find the torque specs for the housing on this model. Thanks in advance for any help or input

 

help?! maybe I did not give enough info, specifically I have a leak in the oil filter housing gasket between the housing and the engine, and I am going to replace it. Found write ups for M54( E46...etc) on this but wanted to make sure about specs, also the alternator is a bit different as far as mounting than E46. I was wondering if anybody had the torque specs for the housing as well as the alternator. Did a search on this site but came with nothing, can anyone shed some light on this?

 

The torque setting for the filter housing in 25Nm, this is hand tight ONLY.

 

I have the N52 engine, but the oil filter housing looks the same. Your oil leak is most probably from a kinked or otherwise damaged O-ring. The "tightness" of the oil filter cap isn't really preventing the oil from coming out. That is, as long as the oil filter cap is tightened to seat down against the aluminum oil filter housing, then the O-ring is squeezed between the oil filter cap and oil filter housing - this is what is preventing the oil from coming out. In my case, the BMW tech kinked the O-ring and I had oil leaking.