Oil Leak From Bottom Of Engine???

[BIG 730]

When I went out to the car today i found a small puddle of oil under the engine. On closer inspection its comming from the bottom of the engine block. With the bonnet open, standing on the right hand side (UK car) looking into the engine you have the oil filter housing. This appears to bolt to the block with 4 bolts, just behind these bolts is where its leaking the oil (its not the oil filter or teh mount bolts for it...Ive checked)! There is a row of small 10mm bolt heads all the way round the base of the engine, and the leak is comming from the front 3 bolts, behind the oil filter!

Is this the sump gasket that leaking??

Looks like a HUGE job to sort out, but its making an awfull mess of my drive. I have seen a thing called "STOP IT ENGINE LEAKS" made by "Greased Lightning" that is uppposed to stop the oil leak. I know some people that have used it and its supposed to be great????????????

If anyone else has the same leak or knows how to fix it (or how dooable a job it is) please let me know! Im planning on pouring in some of the leak stop stuff to see what happens...........fingers crossed!

Alastair.

[bimmerboy328i]

I dont quite understand your explanation, but it sounds like an Oil Pan Gasket. I am pretty sure you will have to lower the front subframe to get to all of the bolts.

Do not put that crap in your engine, are you kidding me? Do not use anything like that, your just asking for it to clog up the rest of your motor and kill it.

[kc740i]

i would suggest posting a few pictures so we can see where the leak is that you are talking about then go from there.

[BIG 730]

Sorry its taken so long to get back to you all, been loaded down at work...but.....Ive got the oil leak sorted! After taking the car to the local BMW dealership they told me it was the upper pan gasket, as was suspected by someone (see above), they also told me it would be serious money to fix it! Well, I took it to a nearby specialist and they told me that it wasnt the pan gasket, and it just looked like it was........they said it was the oil filter housing that was bad. I booked it in with them and kept my fingers crossed....and it turned out that one of the "O" rings in the filter housing was gone, and that the filter housing to block gasket was seeping. £140.00 to have all the gaskets and "O" rings replaced along with a full oil/filter change........well, I think that was cheap!?

The cars runing like new.....or it was, till last night when it died in the carpark at work. It had me completely stumped so I phoned the AA (arrived in under 10 mins!!!!) and it turns out the ignition switch has gone..........grrrrr!!!!!! The AA guy put a jumper wire over teh ignition switch effectively hot wiring the car, and it ran fine all the way home. Im off to get a replacement switch tomorrow.....got no idea though how to get at the wiring plug thats half way up the steering colum, that'll be fun!