Oil filter housing removal DIY?

1-Drain oil.
2-Remove engine fan.
3-Remove belts.
4-make tool for 1 bolt obstructed but harmonic balancer. 1/4 open wrench and a cut torx and a piece of duct tape. (Pictures for reference).
5-Remove oil filter from housing and suck out the oil to avoid mess later.
6-Remove (9) bolts holding housing to front of motor. Keep track of which bolts go where as they are various diameters and lengths. *You could figure it out later if you mess up as it's not rocket science.
8-clean up oil and clean surface of block in order for good ceil for new gasket.(picture examples)
9-reassemble

Note-might as well consider doing Belts/Pulleys/tensioners/water pump & gaskets because you are already there and it'd make good use of your efforts if you can afford all those parts. My oil housing was leaking and I did......Oil filter housing gasket, belts/pulleys/tensioners, M Sport water pump and some o rings associated for around $1300 from ECS Tuning. Already removing the other stuff so it's maybe 2 hours to do it all additionally on top of steps 1-8.

I did this job last weekend. I first tried the method of removing only the water pump pulley, and was able to remove all the oil filter housing bolts, only to discover that the water pump interfered with the removal of the housing itself, so I ended up having to remove the water pump anyway. It's not that much extra work, but wanted to share my experience.

frankc wrote

I did this job last weekend. I first tried the method of removing only the water pump pulley, and was able to remove all the oil filter housing bolts, only to discover that the water pump interfered with the removal of the housing itself, so I ended up having to remove the water pump anyway. It's not that much extra work, but wanted to share my experience.

I was going to try the same thing, haha. From the pictures I've seen it does look like you can wiggle it out, but I guess not!

I did not find any torque specs specific to this procedure or these fasteners, so I assume the standard 8Nm for the M6 8.8, and 19Nm for the M8 8.8 (per TIS ) apply?

[Edit: Corrected bolts to be M6 & M8]

Scrippy wrote

1-Drain oil.
2-Remove engine fan.
3-Remove belts.
4-make tool for 1 bolt obstructed but harmonic balancer. 1/4 open wrench and a cut torx and a piece of duct tape. (Pictures for reference).
5-Remove oil filter from housing and suck out the oil to avoid mess later.
6-Remove (9) bolts holding housing to front of motor. Keep track of which bolts go where as they are various diameters and lengths. *You could figure it out later if you mess up as it's not rocket science.
8-clean up oil and clean surface of block in order for good ceil for new gasket.(picture examples)
9-reassemble



Note-might as well consider doing Belts/Pulleys/tensioners/water pump & gaskets because you are already there and it'd make good use of your efforts if you can afford all those parts. My oil housing was leaking and I did......Oil filter housing gasket, belts/pulleys/tensioners, M Sport water pump and some o rings associated for around $1300 from ECS Tuning. Already removing the other stuff so it's maybe 2 hours to do it all additionally on top of steps 1-8.

Doing this job now, there are a couple of details that could be helpful to add. They are in the TIS, but not here:

After belt removal,
-remove oil filter and suck out or soak up remaining oil in there
-cover stuff with rags down low, disconnects the Oil cooler lines, 2 nuts.
-remove the 3 bolts securing the PS pump, remove the 2 brackets that are securing the PS hoses but DO NOT disconnect the hoses from the PS
-remove the ac deflection pulley assembly. 3 bolts.
-move the PS pump out and move over towards PS. This gives you room to access the 4 torx bolts on the lower left of the OFH. 3x t30, 2x t50?

Edited to add:
DONT FORGET TO REPLACE THE OIL COOLER LINE O RINGS, part number 17212283511.



This thread is immensely helpful, as I’m now in the home stretch. I hope these extra steps help others that may not have access to TIS.

At what mileage and age did your oil filter housing gasket start leaking?

I was planning on doing it preemptively but seeing this DIY makes me less inclined to do it. I just don't feel like getting into the mess of cooking system fluid from water pump removal.

Perhaps I can do it with the belts I plan to replace early next year.

ha9981 wrote

At what mileage and age did your oil filter housing gasket start leaking?

I was planning on doing it preemptively but seeing this DIY makes me less inclined to do it. I just don't feel like getting into the mess of cooking system fluid from water pump removal.

Perhaps I can do it with the belts I plan to replace early next year.

It's kinda fuzzy but I think around 190,000 miles. You can't leave the belts on btw. Honestly even if you could why wouldn't you just change them while there? They're cheap and they really quiet down the car at idle. I would recommend checking the mounting bolts on the PS pump for torque while in there.

Scrippy wrote

ha9981 wrote

At what mileage and age did your oil filter housing gasket start leaking?

I was planning on doing it preemptively but seeing this DIY makes me less inclined to do it. I just don't feel like getting into the mess of cooking system fluid from water pump removal.

Perhaps I can do it with the belts I plan to replace early next year.

It's kinda fuzzy but I think around 190,000 miles. You can't leave the belts on btw. Honestly even if you could why wouldn't you just change them while there? They're cheap and they really quiet down the car at idle. I would recommend checking the mounting bolts on the PS pump for torque while in there.

Sorry you may have misunderstood. I plan to do the belts already. I just don't know if I should do the housing gasket given I don't have a leak. It sounds like more work than I expected for a gasket job.

ha9981 wrote

Scrippy wrote

ha9981 wrote

At what mileage and age did your oil filter housing gasket start leaking?

I was planning on doing it preemptively but seeing this DIY makes me less inclined to do it. I just don't feel like getting into the mess of cooking system fluid from water pump removal.

Perhaps I can do it with the belts I plan to replace early next year.

It's kinda fuzzy but I think around 190,000 miles. You can't leave the belts on btw. Honestly even if you could why wouldn't you just change them while there? They're cheap and they really quiet down the car at idle. I would recommend checking the mounting bolts on the PS pump for torque while in there.

Sorry you may have misunderstood. I plan to do the belts already. I just don't know if I should do the housing gasket given I don't have a leak. It sounds like more work than I expected for a gasket job.

Ohhhh, my bad. No leak then no reason to do it.

ha9981 wrote

At what mileage and age did your oil filter housing gasket start leaking?

I was planning on doing it preemptively but seeing this DIY makes me less inclined to do it. I just don't feel like getting into the mess of cooking system fluid from water pump removal.

Perhaps I can do it with the belts I plan to replace early next year.

Probably around 85-88k? Started as an occasional drop on the garage. Then more. I delay repairs like this until Christmas break.

The job isn’t that bad. Just a bit tedious with part removal. Coolant spill wasn’t too bad, I drained the radiator and sucked out the coolant after removing the Tstat housing. Very little spilled, most of it came from tstat housing removal. Next time I will use a fluid extractor via the expansion tank. I did this when I replaced the tstat last year and hardly spilled a drop.

Also, you can replace most of what you take out for a decent amount of money. All in, I’m about $300 in parts. Shoot me a PM if you are interested in a parts list. I saved by sourcing deflector pulleys instead of buying the whole OE assembly. I’m replacing the gasket, pulleys, belts, water pump, and coolant. This job gave me an excuse to get a pneumatic air bleeder for the refill of the coolant, I’m pretty exited to use that and avoid having to bleed the system manually.

God bless this site and those that have documented things like this, I wouldn’t have done this much without all of this great info.

I found this thread most useful. Thanks to all who have contributed. I did my gasket 2 days ago, will post more details of my experience when time allows.

I did this job while I had the sub-frame off for the rod bearing replacement. With the sub-frame, radiator fan & PS lines out of the way, most everything was easily accessible from the bottom except for the bolt behind the harmonic balancer (car was on a lift).

The car had 110K miles at the time, and the oil filter housing appeared to be seeping as there was a little oil residue below it. Since every BMW I have owned (except the i3 ) has leaked oil from the oil filter console, I figured it would never be easier than now to do the job with the sub-frame out.

Since the right Cam Cover gasket was also leaking, I decided to replace L & R Cam Cover gaskets along with the Valve Cover gaskets. No leaks so far after about 700 miles (fingers crossed). Of course "while I was in there", I replaced all belt idler pulleys (just the pulleys, not tensioners), and installed the Macht Schnell underdrive pulley kit with new belts.

One thing I did to keep track where of the various size/length bolts go in the oil filter housing is to print out a full-page image from post #20, and then punched the bolts through the paper in the correct spot as I removed them from on the housing. This saved some time on re-assembly.

Can anyone describe the leak this caused before they figured out it was the Oil Filter Housing gasket? Right now I have a leak that creates a few drops on the floor, when i got under the car i noticed the front of the oil pan had some drop on 3 of the bolts and trickling down toward the oil pan drain bolt.






The oil pan gasket was just replaced 1k miles ago when the rod bearings were done so that should be solid.

Oil leaking from right side of engine, mine dripped and ran all the way back to the oil pan plug and dripped through the hole in the belly pan. There was also residual on the lower control arm bushings, basically got everywhere. Also, there was a lot of gunk and buildup near the power steering pump underneath the filter housing.

Yes, can confirm as well that oil was dripping on the right side front area of the engine & drops were present on front 3 oil pan bolts.
In my case it got pretty bad at the end and oil managed to creep to the wheel via the control arm and I had more leakage during engine startup when oil pressure was spiking.
But overall I had oil everywhere 🤦🏻

Would something like this work for the last bolt behind the balancer?
Is it a T-30?

https://www.amazon.com/Products-Inc-JSP78936-Diamond-Profile/dp/B01F78UTAA

TX wrote

Would something like this work for the last bolt behind the balancer?
Is it a T-30?

https://www.amazon.com/Products-Inc-JSP78936-Diamond-Profile/dp/B01F78UTAA

That tool looks like it would be perfect for this job. Now only if it were ratcheting..

Yes, T-30.

frankc wrote

That tool looks like it would be perfect for this job. Now only if it were ratcheting..

Yes, T-30.

Thanks, I came across this from Matco, but it's way more than I wanted to spend to get one bolt out.

https://www.matcotools.com/catalog/product/SBIT27/27-piece-low-profile-torx-tamperproof-torx-hex-bits-and-inverted-torx-low-socket-kit/

I'm going to start in on this project.
So far I have:
- the filter housing gasket
- o-rings 17212283511 x 2 (oil lines I presume?)

What else do I need?
I'll probably do the water pump since I'm at 71K miles.
Any parts extra for that work? I already did thermostat and temp sensor about 2 years ago.
New water pump pulley?
I did all new belts in the last year.

A simple parts list beyond what I listed would be appreciated.
Thanks and Cheers!

TX wrote

Thanks, I came across this from Matco, but it's way more than I wanted to spend to get one bolt out.

https://www.matcotools.com/catalog/product/SBIT27/27-piece-low-profile-torx-tamperproof-torx-hex-bits-and-inverted-torx-low-socket-kit/

I stumbled up on this tool - much more reasonably priced but may be a bit too deep to fit:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0062FSAVI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

This one looks a bit shallower:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0748DCVHN/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2XAKEBHVSZ5DO&psc=1

Of course if you already have the T-30 bit, then a generic ratcheting 1/4" box wrench should work (IIRC, this is what I used):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F511TU8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

ha9981 wrote

At what mileage and age did your oil filter housing gasket start leaking?

I was planning on doing it preemptively but seeing this DIY makes me less inclined to do it. I just don't feel like getting into the mess of cooking system fluid from water pump removal.

Perhaps I can do it with the belts I plan to replace early next year.

I did mine at 122k. Symptoms were, leaking oil on passenger front side of engine.

TX wrote

I'm going to start in on this project.
So far I have:
- the filter housing gasket
- o-rings 17212283511 x 2 (oil lines I presume?)

Were you successful with the filter housing gasket change? I seem to have more oil leaking now than when I first started....

It appears to be coming from the oil cooler tubes. I did change the o-rings with the part number above.. Oil seems to be coming out and hitting the power steering belt and going everywhere. Guess I will clean it up again and hopefully I can find the problem.