Oil filter housing leak? Broken bolt head? Please help :(

[Vancity128guy]

Hello all, recently I noticed a leak from what I think is my oil filter housing. I am not a at expert by any means. Anyways, I looked closer today and it appears there is a broken bolt head on the housing itself.

I attached some pics so hopefully someone can tell me what this is and/or why it happened, and how expensive it is to fix. In the pics you can see where the bolt head broke off from, and the head itself has fallen into a crevice where there is a bit of oil that has pooled.

For reference my car is a 2011 128i coupe auto, with about 95k Kilometers (I’m in Canada).

Thanks

[Vancity128guy]

Anyone?

[ignote]

The housing gaskets are known to leak. If you are handy you can replace them yourself. Not sure about the broken bolt. Never saw that before.

[HP Autosport]

Photos aren't very clear but that is most likely the cause.

You will need to reseal it with new gasket(s).

[olds350]

That head bolt issue is pretty common on these n52 motors, had to replace one on the wife's 328 with the same engine. It's a easy fix if you have some basic tools. You will need to move the intake out of the way to get the shank of the bolt. There is a kit with all of the aluminum bolts that you can buy. Do search on the interwebs for details, been a few years since I did the work.

One word of advice, one you get the old bolt shank out, make sure you clean out the threads in the hole, otherwise the remaining oil won't allow you to get to the required torque values, ask me how I know...

[Vancity128guy]

Originally Posted by olds350

That head bolt issue is pretty common on these n52 motors, had to replace one on the wife's 328 with the same engine. It's a easy fix if you have some basic tools. You will need to move the intake out of the way to get the shank of the bolt. There is a kit with all of the aluminum bolts that you can buy. Do search on the interwebs for details, been a few years since I did the work.

One word of advice, one you get the old bolt shank out, make sure you clean out the threads in the hole, otherwise the remaining oil won't allow you to get to the required torque values, ask me how I know...

I am not very mechanically inclined nor do I have tools. What kind of cost am I looking at to get it done at a shop?

Also how detrimental is it? I am going through some financial difficulty and doubt I’d be able to get it done in the next few weeks. I have read online some places people being charged 4-6k by bmw. I find that absolutely ridiculous seeing how the car is probably only worth 8. If that’s what it comes to I’ll just have to sell it I guess

[olds350]

Originally Posted by Vancity128guy

I am not very mechanically inclined nor do I have tools. What kind of cost am I looking at to get it done at a shop?

Also how detrimental is it? I am going through some financial difficulty and doubt I’d be able to get it done in the next few weeks. I have read online some places people being charged 4-6k by bmw. I find that absolutely ridiculous seeing how the car is probably only worth 8. If that’s what it comes to I’ll just have to sell it I guess

It's ok not to be handy with tools, but that said, either find a buddy that can turn a wrench and show you how to do the work so you can learn or a local indy that can do the work. You don't need to do all of the head bolts. BTW, this one head bolt has a history of being over tightened at the factory and it's common for it to break off. It will cause oil to leak and it will look like a bad OFHG.

First you need to validate that the head bolt is missing by the oil filter housing. This pic shows the head missing off of the bolt on the wife's car. All you really need to is...

> loosen the intake and just get it out of the way of the bad bolt. Best to cover all of the intakes runners with a rag to keep crap out of the engine
> back out the bolt shank and clean out the bolt hole of any remaining oil.
> install the new aluminum bolt and torque to spec
> install the intake

That's pretty much it. Now, there is a possibility of a broken bolt head under the valve cover and that gets a lot more involved. I never checked for that, but I've had no issues with her car over the last 40k miles so no need for me to dig further.

It's long been said, you really need to know how to do basic work on these cars, otherwise they can hit your wallet pretty hard. It's never to late to learn, all you need is someone to help guide you. Never be afraid to ask for help and have someone show you. I've done that all my live and now I'm an ok shade tree mechanic.

[NorthernDancer]

http://bmwccbc.org/

If you join Vancouver BMW club you'll get access to many strong BMW people who may be able to help you DIY or will recommend a number of very good BMW indy garages in the area.

[Vancity128guy]

Originally Posted by olds350

It's ok not to be handy with tools, but that said, either find a buddy that can turn a wrench and show you how to do the work so you can learn or a local indy that can do the work. You don't need to do all of the head bolts. BTW, this one head bolt has a history of being over tightened at the factory and it's common for it to break off. It will cause oil to leak and it will look like a bad OFHG.

First you need to validate that the head bolt is missing by the oil filter housing. This pic shows the head missing off of the bolt on the wife's car. All you really need to is...

> loosen the intake and just get it out of the way of the bad bolt. Best to cover all of the intakes runners with a rag to keep crap out of the engine
> back out the bolt shank and clean out the bolt hole of any remaining oil.
> install the new aluminum bolt and torque to spec
> install the intake

That's pretty much it. Now, there is a possibility of a broken bolt head under the valve cover and that gets a lot more involved. I never checked for that, but I've had no issues with her car over the last 40k miles so no need for me to dig further.

It's long been said, you really need to know how to do basic work on these cars, otherwise they can hit your wallet pretty hard. It's never to late to learn, all you need is someone to help guide you. Never be afraid to ask for help and have someone show you. I've done that all my live and now I'm an ok shade tree mechanic.

Thanks. What’s the likeliness of the other bolts breaking? And what kind of repair bill am I looking at to get it done

[SamelCamel]

You didn't hear it from me, but on bolts that are broken that have a very low torque, you can sometimes use a slightly smaller bolt with a VERY small amount of superglue on the end. You then just keep the bolt centered and push it down onto the broken bolt end and hold it down tight for 30 seconds. The superglue will glue itself onto the broken stud and has more holding power than the 8ft/lbs of torque on the broken stud. Metal to metal contact is also a best case scenario for superglue to work it's magic. Just don't use too much or touch it to anything other than the broken stud.

Good luck!

-Sam