Re: Oil Leak Wonderments! The Saga Continues (archive)

I replaced the oil pressure sending unit yesterday and cleaned the engine bay, top to bottom. Guess what?? More oil leaking, not from the sending unit anymore, but from around the mating point of the passenger side engine mount to the block. Is there an oil gasket between the two pieces? Bentley doesn't seem to comment. I also noticed a little wetness tracing down the side of the block, directly above the mount, around the head/block union. Oh God! That can't be good. Any advice is always appreciated.

Dan in Bakersfield
87 528e/5sp
143k

Before my rebuild of my 87 528e, I noticed a great deal of oil leaking around the left side of engine. It was hard to tell were it was coming from because the worst drip was at the rear of the engine at front of the bell housing. I cleaned all the oil I could off the engine and found that oil was coming out from under the timing belt cover and gravitating to the rear of the engine. Unfortunate I could not see the exact spot where it came from. I decided to begin tear down of engine to find the culprit. As engine rebuilds go, I eventually did a full rebuild of the engine, 200,000 miles of abuse by original owner. The results of my rebuild was no more oil leaks. The only evidence I could find was a weak spot in the head gasket at the front of the engine due to stetched head bolts. The leak was coming out of that spot especially when the engine was cold, like short distant drives. I know this is not good news for those that like quick fixes, but you may want to take a close look at the front of the head and block just under the cam timing gear. The Origanal manufacture head bolts stretched on the 80s 5 series eta engines. The fix is the new torx head bolt replacements. You must change the head gasket as part of this upgrade.

good luck,

Chet

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