I was replacing the oil filter housing gasket, vanos line and alternator today on my M54 when I accidentally stripped the threads of the engine side when installing one of the oil filter housing bolts and am now unable to properly tighten the bolt. The bolt itself seemed to be okay. It was the one in the left side when looking from the drivers’s side towards the engine, the lowest one. I believe there was also a dovel pin in that hole. In other words, the bolt is not in the area of the actual gasket.
I quit for today and will continue tomorrow and my question is now that is the only option here to make a new thread with Helicoil or similar or do you think it would be stupid to let it be or would it just 100 % lead to a oil leak? What I’m wondering is that how critical the lowest bolt can be when the gasket seal is considered or is it just for mounting the filter housing to the engine? And if I could get away with just using Loctite on the bolt to make sure it doenst fall off.
Any tips are welcome and use the torque wrench.