Oil leak front of engine N54
 

I have a serious oil leak over the front of the engine on a 2008 535i turbo engine. I have changed


1. Oil filter housing to block gasket
2. Oil filter housing to radiator lines gasket
3. Looked at o ring for the oil lines to the radiator and they are not leaking at the engine or at the radiator.


What can it be?

what about you valve cover?

Not valve covers either. Did Check. The oil seems to be below the head gasket area. Covers the entire front, the belt tensioner area, as well as part of the Alternator, and air intake from the turbo to the air filter housing.

Strange.

I had oil on the front of mine as well but it was the oil filter housing causing it. Luckily it was only the portion of the housing in the front cover so didn't have to replace the block side. The housing and the two lines are the only thing I can think of that are up in the front. Did you also change the housing front cover seal?

Oil Filter Housing is very common leak for this vehicle and the Gasket must be replaced. There are a few DIY guides on the web for this if you are handy enough.

Yes, I changed both those oil filter housing gaskets and they were leaking. But, they are not leaking anymore. Something else. Headgasket?

I am stumped.

I put the car on a lift, removed the under trays, and cross plate, clean off the oil let it run in idle for 1 hour and no leaks.

It must be leaking only under load. What could it be? Turbo leaks?

Could you have possibly fixed the issue with the filter housing and are just seeing remnants of oil? I know I had a leak from a car and had oil drips from every crevasse of the car showing up on the driveway for months after the problem was repaired.

Not possible. I washed off the residue, let the car idle for 2 hours and revved at 2000 rpm for 20 minute. No leaks. But it leaks under load while driving. All over the front, dripped onto the AC pump and power steering pump. Onto the air hoses. Down to the plastic underpan and on to the ground.


Stumped....

This is a stretch, but I've been wondering what could leak while driving, meaning an increase in oil pressure not related to engine speed (since you had no leaks when you let it sit at fast idle). One thing that comes to mind is the PS system. Just idling, the PS has no/low pressure. Start turning the wheel as you drive, pressure builds. And it's hydraulic oil. Check to see if the PS reservoir is down. If down, check for cracks, loose cover, damage to PS lines. And the system is right next to the oil filter. It's a stretch, but worth a check.

Stick a light and a GoPro in the engine bay pointed at the general area and take a drive.

Have you tried dye yet. Perhaps clean it up and then add the dye start checking with the black light. A friend of mine tracked down a small leak that I had using this. I remember it didn't take much dye at all and this stuff really glows.

I like the GoPro idea because it gives an excuse to buy another camera.
The power steering pump is also a good idea.

The last accessories belt got shredded into little pieces and some of them stuck under all the pulleys. It is possible that some of those seals (front main seal, PS pump seals) got ripped.

This is a known problem caused by a shredded serpentine belt. Sorry you didn't mention it sooner. One result (seems you got lucky here) is to force pieces of the belt past the main seal into the oil pan. Result is to clog the oil pickup and destroy the engine.

Was the belt wrapped tightly around the pulley shafts next to the seals? Did you have to pull pieces of the belt out from the edge of the seal? Did you remove all the pieces of the belt that failed?

Seems reasonable to me that such a situation can cause a damaged seal to leak under high rpm's.

OK, at least I know what the problems are. The front seal is leaking. And the steering pump is also doing its part. The pump is $1400 ...


I did pick out all the bits and pieces of the old belts. But, no telling what is hiding behind those pulleys.

Sorry it's a pricey fix -- I assume the serpentine whacked the PS pump seal as well? But make sure you check the hoses into the pump for leakage just to make sure your replacing the right problem.

Make sure your mechanic drops the pan and cleans everything out when he does the main seal job, including any crap that might be in the oil pickup.

Good luck.

Oil leak
 

Hello, i want to change my oil filter housing and cooler gaskets. I have e60 n54 and I couldn't find anything instructions how to do it. If you know any link, pls post it. Thank you verry much!

have you seen this?

No, I haven't. Its very helpful. Thank you!

did you found the issue? Im having the same problem now

Check both the hose that goes from the oil filter housing to the oil cooler. You referred to this as the radiator which it does looks like. I had driver side one with a pin hole that squirted oil out. The hose was saturated with the oik though....
GL

Did you ever find out what was the problem? I am having the same issue.

Same problem and still no clue where the oil leak is coming from
 

Well, I have the same problem and I already did extensive troubleshooting. My serpentine belt is spraying the leaked oil around and since the sprayed oil is everywhere, it is hard to say where the leak is coming from. I already removed the fan along with the serpentine belt and cleaned the engine front with brake cleaner and compressed air 3(!) times. I also added UV dye to my engine oil after the first cleaning and now I know that:

1. No leaks from 2 oil filter housing gaskets - both replaced and all bolts torqued to the specs. Cleaned the area and the black light shows no traces of oil whatsoever near the oil filter housing.
2. No leaks from the 2 oil inlets and hoses coming from the radiator to the oil filter housing (o-rings replaced, 6mm hex bolt is tightened properly)
3. No leaks from the front seal - when I removed the crankshaft belt pulley there was no oil residue in the area.

Any ideas?

Are you 100% sure it's oil?

It is possible you have this same problem as played out in this thread:
https://5series.net/forums/e60-discu...-152865/page2/

BTW, this is urgent. The N52, N54 and N55 all have a crankshaft pulley that is very very close to the engine block. If the serpentine belt comes off, it sometimes gets wedged between the pulley and the block and the engine continues to turn and the belt comes apart and pieces of it get pulled into the engine through the front main seal. At this point you either junk the car or get a new engine or spend a lot of time and money cleaning the engine. You can surf for this and see that this is a real possibility.

Yes, it is my engine oil. As I mentioned, I did added UV dye and now my engine front glitters light-green particles when I point my UV flashlight there.

Thank you for pointing me to that thread. Seems like a very similar problem. Though if I remember correctly my engine oil cooler radiator base was pretty clean the last time I removed the fan. I mean I doubt it is leaking and the fan is spraying the oil around. It feels more like the serpentine belt is doing the main job of spraying oil. Anyway, I'm going to pay extra attention to the oil cooler radiator - planning to remove the fan and inspect everything again this coming weekend.

Also, talked to a fellow mechanic and he thinks I should not exclude the old crank seal as a culprit. Honestly I don't think it is my case but I'm thinking to replace the seal anyway as preventive maintenance.
@twh. thank you for pointing out that it is an urgent problem. I've read multiple horror stories already about how the serpentine belt is eaten by the engine. Really would like to avoid this scenario. So determined to find the root cause and get it fixed. I own my 2008 535i for more than 7 years already and it is in immaculate condition. This oil leak problem is driving me crazy but once fixed it will be a happy marriage again :)

Wow, it's been 9 years since this first posted. The neighbor with that car has moved away but I still remember what happened.

His serpentine belt got shredded and wrapped itself around the crank shaft pulley and ruined his front main seal. I bought three different seal pullers to replace the seal and the only thing that worked was a factory designed seal puller that took six weeks to get here. You cannot do a seal replacement any other way. What a poor design. I have lent out the tools a few times for other DIY posters to replace their N60 front crank seal.

After working on that car, it's stupid designs, and the difficulty of getting to the twin turbos, and the direct injection fuel pump, I have lost all interest in owning a modern BMW. The very large ugly looking kidney grills of the last couple years sealed the sentiment. My work truck is a 2006 BMW 530ix station wagon, non-turbo, port injection.

Hey folks, found it and fixed it!
Just to follow up on my "mysterious oil leak" story, decided to still replace the front main seal, ordered the replacement toolkit from amazon. It worked just fine, managed to pull the old seal and install a new replacement one. Again, I did not see any leaks or oil residue around the old main seal and I could not imagine how the oil would leak and get sprayed around if the leak is in that area. Also inspected the auxiliary radiator and did not see any leaks there. Cleaned the engine front again with brake cleaner and compressed air, gave it a ride and... got the same result, oil is sprayed around. Was quite upset and thought about giving up and scheduling an appointment with the shop and ready to pay more $ for this endless oil leak search. Still, the next day decided to have another look at the oil traces and what seemed suspicious is that my oil cooler return hose (the one on the right if you look at engine) was moist compared to the oil cooler flow hose (on the left). I removed the auxiliary radiator again and inspected the return hose, and here we go, I found the bloody leak! A tiny hole on the back side of the hose right where the fabric wrap hides it. See the attached photo and a small cut in the orange circle.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/5series...d2f8f8ca81.jpg

Ordered a new hose (had to shell $149 + tax for it), replaced it and now I'm a happy camper again!
Looking back I should admit it was a hard case. How that tiny hole developed itself? Not remembering that I did something wrong or pierced it accidentally. Plus it was really hard to find the source of my problem because the radiator fan and serpentine belt did a good job in a cover-up mission for this criminal. Anyway, thanks everyone for chiming in and helping!

@yelcab2, while I totally support your sentiment about the ugly kidney grills in modern BMWs, I can just partially agree about the stupid design. I worked on a few other cars and I could say I've seen worse. After replacing both turbos on my N54 and recent carbon buildup cleaning I'm determined to keep my 2008 535i for as long as I can. Great engine (yeah, after all the typical issues I had to address), adequate steering/handling, rear-wheel drive, and a 6-speed manual, please tell me which other car I should trade it for? :)

Hood stuff. Glad you got it figured out and came back to conclude the issue.

Good work on the fix and even better to report it. As for your BMW sentiment, oh well, we are all different. I would not recommend Audi either so if you are a German car fanatic, I really don't know what else to buy.

I'd say stick to what you know unless you're thinking about going American or Asian. I work on Audi and Mercedes and if you know like I do BMW is by far the best to work with. If anything if you do buy a German car stay away from air ride. They have too many issues and don't last long before having to replace a piece of the system. Quality has diminished over the years

I'll take your word for that, but there are SO many times I have to scratch my head when working on my E61 that I could only conclude that the BMW engineers were sadists with a fetish for annoying home wrench-twisters. Drop the exhaust system, tranny crossmember and huge heat shield - to add fluid to the transfer case? The water pump and thermostat are WHERE? Take half the car apart to totally remove the tailgate hydraulic pump because the fill port is on the BOTTOM of the reservoir? ;-)

Yeah, I'm not always thrilled with my "new" (2011) Mercedes GLK either, particularly after spending a good 10 hours to swap motor mounts (drop the exhaust, pull axles, etc.) but it does look like most "normal things" are more accessible and easier to work on... but maybe my sample size is too small to get a real feel for both companies.

I hear you guys and I owned quite a few Audi's and I can compare as well. My worst car from maintenance perspective was 2003 Audi Allroad, constant issues with air suspension. The best one - 2010 Audi A4, probably because it was a simpler one with 2.0t engine. Still I feel like my 535i is the best car I've ever owned. I did a lot of maintenance on it but most of the time it was pretty straightforward except the oil pan gasket replacement and the turbos ) After all we went thru together I'm not parting with her, it is a happy marriage with some bumpy rides but it is part of life, right?

I have maintained Audi A3, S4, BMW M3, M5, M6, 540, 530xi, 330, Mercedes 380SL, 450SL, C280, G-wagons, Porsche 930, 965, 964, 911SC, Carrera, 996, 997, Turbo.

All I can say is they all have a lot of issues unlike my Lexus. I avoid first generation direct injection before they found out the carbon deposit problem. I avoid all Audi with timing chains in between the engine and flywheel. I avoid all Mercedes because there are no documents supporting DIY. I avoid all BMW with turbos because they put them in places that normal persons cannot get to.

I do own and drive Porsches because I can maintain them myself. If not, you need deep bank accounts. My present project is to rebuild my 997 engine with its famous bore-scoring problem.

This is a truly respectable list of cars, @yelcab2! One day I will join a Porsche club, I hope :) Good luck with your 997 project, these cars are still valued pretty high nowadays, look at this beauty here :)