Oil filter housing gasket - still leaking!!! What gasket maker?

[widetyres]

Hi,

I've just replaced the oil filter housing gasket on my V8, but it is still leaking. I have ordered another new one, but will also add some gasket maker this time round.

Please can anyone give me some recommendations on what to use? It's a long job, and I don't want to do it again!

Thanks!

[CamasM3e93]

Stupid questions first:

Are you sure it’s the oil filter housing gasket? Other common leaks in the neighborhood include the oil cap and the valve cover gasket.

Did you torque the bolts to spec? If so, how’d you do it? Low Nm settings really require a low torque wrench to set properly. I use a 1/4” torque socket wrench 0-20 Nm and have a visual torque that maxes at 10Nm for such jobs. A 0-100 Nm 3/8” torque wrench won’t torque down to 8 or 10 Nm accurately. You may have under tightened the bolts. Absent that, if still leaking, would go +2 Nm all the way around before plunging ahead on a redo.

i

[widetyres]

Originally Posted by CamasM3e93

Stupid questions first:

Are you sure it’s the oil filter housing gasket? Other common leaks in the neighborhood include the oil cap and the valve cover gasket.

Did you torque the bolts to spec? If so, how’d you do it? Low Nm settings really require a low torque wrench to set properly. I use a 1/4” torque socket wrench 0-20 Nm and have a visual torque that maxes at 10Nm for such jobs. A 0-100 Nm 3/8” torque wrench won’t torque down to 8 or 10 Nm accurately. You may have under tightened the bolts. Absent that, if still leaking, would go +2 Nm all the way around before plunging ahead on a redo.

i

Yes re the OFH gasket - a BMW specialist diagnosed it for me, but it was too big a job for them to do on the day, and asked me to come back in 3.5 weeks. I got bored waiting so started doing it myself.

I have a remote scope and mirror etc and can see that it is leaking now from the bottom left, behind the power steering pump.

I torqued all the bolts to 10nm using a 3/8" Teng wrench, which does ~4-24nm, so a smaller range like you recommend.

Stupid thing is that it is leaking now more than before, so perhaps the torque wrench is off. I will have to check it.

[widetyres]

There 2 x M8 bolts along the bottom edge, and they should easily take 15nm each (according to a BMW torque table I just look at), however, I only did them to 10nm (as per TIS values) - it might be a case of tightening those first and then seeing if it makes a difference. Might work.

[BP709]

Do not apply any sort of gasket maker there. If the job was done properly with a OE gasket it will not leak.

[Redd]

Originally Posted by BP709

Do not apply any sort of gasket maker there. If the job was done properly with a OE gasket it will not leak.

Agree. I had a non-BMW specialist replace my OFH gasket once and it started to leak again a few weeks later. Then I went back to my regular BMW mech to replace it a 2nd time and it has been fine since. Not sure what all he did different from the first shop, but there might be some special process to it.

[amrazM]

you cant overtighten these rubber gaskets. the tightening torque is very specific.

[widetyres]

Originally Posted by amrazM

you cant overtighten these rubber gaskets. the tightening torque is very specific.

Thanks for raising, and of course very relevant and absolutely correct.

Very similar gasket profiles are used on most BMW engines (e.g. S54, S55 etc). Having looked into it, all of those engines employ only M8 bolts for the OFH, and state a tightening torque of 22nm.

This would suggest that the gasket should be able to tolerate more torque on the M8 bolts. I guess that the issue could be that the gasket is torqued differently along it's length, but hey, it's worth a go (I will go less than 22nm though).

If it doesn't work, then I will try to get BMW to fix it under their parts warranty (which amazingly will cover the labour as well should the gasket be found to be at fault - I wish I had known that a few days ago as it would have saved me undoing most the parts again). I didn't do anything wrong - I cleaned the surfaces as much as I thought necessary, and did it all up properly. There is no reason that it should be leaking - either it's faulty, or it needs a bit more torque.