06 325i Gaskets, and Passenger Mat sensor

[m2b1969]

New to the site and to BMW's. Owned for 8 months now a 2006 325i. Took it to dealership this past week to have an illumination looked at that I never saw before. That part was great because it is for emissions inspections; don't have that here in Tulsa.

However, during the visit the service guy stated that the passenger mat sensor was bad; they want $1800.00 to fix it. I fell over in coronary; and after they revived me I said what else. They proceeded with you need to replace valve cover gasket $1209.00 and your Oil housing gasket $719.00; after a secondary coronary and revival; I simply stated no way. Then they hit me with window regulators on rear windows seem to be going bad; I knew the window piece when I bought the car; which was part of the reason for the deal on it. I can change those I'm sure too. By the way they want at the dealership $525.00 each.

I looked up the parts for the oil housing gasket and valve cover and videos; seems pretty easy and the parts are $11.00 and $30.00 respectively and I sprung for the bolt kit too for another 25 bucks. Are there some good writes ups on these here in the site? Any help with that would be greatly appreciated. Also I purchased the parts through Auto Hausz IYO's are they pretty good suppliers; or whom do you recommend for future purchase's.

For the mat sensor: Seems I could do the mat sensor myself from what I've read thus far; but I found parts from $186 to $694.00. How do you know what is actually the right part for an 2006 325i and are there any good write ups on how to do the job that maybe I didn't see? One last thing on the mat sensor I looked up that 06 325i was part of a recall for mat sensor; BMW sated that my particular VIN was not part of the recall, but the NHTSB recall never said any particular VIN only the year models; anyone familiar with that recall as well?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[pruettfan]

Originally Posted by m2b1969

New to the site and to BMW's. Owned for 8 months now a 2006 325i. Took it to dealership this past week to have an illumination looked at that I never saw before. That part was great because it is for emissions inspections; don't have that here in Tulsa.

However, during the visit the service guy stated that the passenger mat sensor was bad; they want $1800.00 to fix it. I fell over in coronary; and after they revived me I said what else. They proceeded with you need to replace valve cover gasket $1209.00 and your Oil housing gasket $719.00; after a secondary coronary and revival; I simply stated no way. Then they hit me with window regulators on rear windows seem to be going bad; I knew the window piece when I bought the car; which was part of the reason for the deal on it. I can change those I'm sure too. By the way they want at the dealership $525.00 each.

I looked up the parts for the oil housing gasket and valve cover and videos; seems pretty easy and the parts are $11.00 and $30.00 respectively and I sprung for the bolt kit too for another 25 bucks. Are there some good writes ups on these here in the site? Any help with that would be greatly appreciated. Also I purchased the parts through Auto Hausz IYO's are they pretty good suppliers; or whom do you recommend for future purchase's.

For the mat sensor: Seems I could do the mat sensor myself from what I've read thus far; but I found parts from $186 to $694.00. How do you know what is actually the right part for an 2006 325i and are there any good write ups on how to do the job that maybe I didn't see? One last thing on the mat sensor I looked up that 06 325i was part of a recall for mat sensor; BMW sated that my particular VIN was not part of the recall, but the NHTSB recall never said any particular VIN only the year models; anyone familiar with that recall as well?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

I had an 06 330I that had the mat sensor fail, it was prior to the recall but I ended up getting a refund a couple of years later. I am almost 100% sure your car will be covered by this recall. I would call BMW customer assistance and discuss it with them, I strongly suspect you will be fine. The sensor requires programing so its not really a DIY job so I would pursue the recall. Both the oil housing gasket and valve cover are DIY jobs that anyone with a decent set of tools and some basic skills can do. There are plenty of tutorials out there on both jobs. I would prioritize the oil filter housing gasket, that needs to be replaced every few years. The valve cover is more involved so if your looking to get comfortable with DIY the oil filter housing is a good test.

If you don't want to go DIY you should find a good independent shop, they charge much less on labor and the techs will probably look for ways to save you money. Feel free to PM me with any questions, your car is almost identical to what I had and I was able to keep mine going till 215,000 miles on almost exclusively DIY work which saved me a fortune. Sold my car a few months ago when my M2 came in and its still going strong. Guy drives it 200 miles a day.

[m2b1969]

Thanks for the information; I will pursue the recall on the mat sensor; The Housing gasket and valve cover seem pretty straight forward. I'm pretty mechanic savvy; I've done everything on my jeep; and 7.3PS and F150 all the way to complete engine rebuild. However, just don't know anything about Bimmers; that is why I figured I'd start with this 325i and it had a heck of a deal on it. Thanks again for th information; BTW one other question are the Bently manuals any good ? I have found those but the excerpts don't seem to give a good feel and would like an opinion if you have them or have had them? Thanks again

[vm]

Also you are in the M3 section of Bimmerpost. You'll usually get better answers in the e90post section.