e82 135i passenger/left side engine mount -- how to reach nut?

[mcv135]

Has anyone needed to replace engine mounts on an e82 135i? Perhaps you needed to remove your front subframe in order to do an oil pan gasket replacement?

How in the world did you reach the top of the left side engine mount, on the "turbo side" of the engine, to remove the 16mm nut from the top of the engine mount there?

For me, the intake air supply pipe for the rear turbo, coming from the intercooler, is in the way and access from below also seems super troublesome. The air supply pipe for the rear turbo appears PERFECTLY placed to prevent me reaching the nut.

I would love to hear how people reached this nut, so that they could continue with the job.

Thanks all for reading. My car is a 2008 135is and I'm working my way through the various results of serpentine belt failure.

[Snertz]

Access from the bottom, remove the downpipes to get to the nut.

Might be able to get to it by pulling just the front turbo downpipe, my memory's a little hazy been a while since I did it.

[mcv135]

I got line of sight to the nut from above by moving the coolant overflow reservoir out of the way, but decided access from there wasn't going to work as it was too far off-axis for even my universal adapter to work. I gave up trying to reach the area from above.

In the end, I removed the nut by inserting a 3/8 socket wrench in there over the top of the downpipes, approaching the nut on top of the mount from the rear. A good amount of gymnastics and contortion was involved and there's basically no swing-room for the ratchet, but I *did* turn the nut off of there eventually.

It was a pain in the neck, but with patience it was entirely do-able. Not a quick process though.

Thanks for your response.

[135i_Life]

A bit late, but just FYI, I reach that nut using a few long extensions connected to a universal joint socket behind a 5" extension, this is just long enough to allow the universal joint to articulate around the outlet pipe and for you to position on the nut.

|long extenstions|univ-joint|five inch ext|16mm socket|

I don't have to disconnect any downpipes or loosen anything to get to it this way and it is fairly easy to do after you do it once. I generally hold a light to where i can see the top of the nut which isn't too difficult from above.

[mcv135]

Update: while I was able to remove the nut from the US-passenger/turbocharger side of the engine, putting the nut back on was yet another challenge. I was able to thread the nut back on there from below, but despite getting my socket back onto the nut I didn't have enough swing-room for the ratchet to tighten it. I'm unsure how I was able to use the SAME ratchet to remove the nut, but I was.

So I moved the coolant overflow tank out of the way, tying it off to the right, and used multiple long extensions and a universal adapter to get a socket onto the bolt and tighten it to spec (56Nm). I must have needed two or three feet of socket-extenders to reach down there but in the end it DID work.

--MCV.