ok so the other day i did intake manifold gasket as well as changed out my ccv, well when i first took out bolts for manifold and lifted it up i heard something fall but couldnt see it, short time later i find this peice laying behind oil filter next to the oil pressure sensor, i know it comes from back of manifold i just dont know where or what its for as well as why it would just fall out being that it was the only one.

 

You can find your engine diagram here, https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/select .

 

I couldn’t find them for you on realoem, but when I had my manifold off a few months ago I thought I maybe saw something similar here. I circled in yellow, too hard to tell with the gasket on though.

 

ya i also couldnt find them on realoem thats the reason i psted here i was hoping someone has seen them before or something lol. but thats for the pic of urs i was mainly trying to make sure it wasnt some highly important peice that would cause issues if i drove without at least until i can take manifold off again to put it back lol. im thinking your right about it going under gasket right there cuz it does look as tho air or a screw of some kind go thru it but i wont know until i open things up again.

 

I was going to say you might have to bite the bullet and remove the manifold again. I also couldn't find that part on RealOEM. I Googled online images of your manifold and there seems to be what looks like that piece but I can't really tell because its in place and I couldn't see the entire piece.

 

Here is a photo from ECS Tuning and I think I see the pieces there. It's the tubes where the air distribution piece sends the air into the cylinders at idle.

https://c1552172.ssl.cf0.rackcdn.com/321403_x800.webp

 

Yep I saw the same photo on ECS Tuning. I couldn't see the entire piece and so wasn't 100% sure but it looks to be it.

 

If that part that dropped to the bottom of the engine when removing the intake manifold is in the ECS picture that is posted, you would have figured out very quickly when looking at the manifold there was 7 more of those parts still stuck to the intake manifold (but you didn't).

Is it possible that someone dropped that part years ago into the engine and it just fell out recently?

 

I was kind of thinking the same thing.

 

If I remember correctly, they have little rubber seals around them so are in somewhat tight. When I initially pulled the manifold off I didn't even realize there were separate pieces there, thought it was all one casting. Then I noticed while removing the gasket that those little guys would move a bit, but none of them fell out for me.