N62 4.8 Oil Thermostat Gasket Leak (2007 X5)

[Entropy]

Originally Posted by Westlotorn

Mine is running with no leaks, now I find the AC unit is growling, could only hear it while in the garage with hood open. Another 2 days and $850. Grrrrrrr.

The mechanical build quality on BMWs is pretty sad. I will probably look outside of BMW once I am done with my E70. I'm sure reliability is one reason BMW was passed up by MB in 2016.

[BustedKnuckles]

Originally Posted by Entropy

The mechanical build quality on BMWs is pretty sad. I will probably look outside of BMW once I am done with my E70. I'm sure reliability is one reason BMW was passed up by MB in 2016.

I feel ya.. I've had an E36, E46 and now my E70.. my 3 series were both great and I drove the piss out of them up to nearly 200k miles with only typical repairs for any vehicle with that kind of mileage. My X is a bit "special". I must say however that all of the woes I have experienced thus far have been with the motor. I've had a couple other issues with it that were "self-inflicted" (me being careless). And a few strange occurrences that only happened once and seemed to have fixed themselves. My door tweeter speaker BLARED static one day while the car was just sitting turned off in my garage. A couple minutes later it just randomly stopped and hasn't happened since. These cars seem to have their own personalities. I LOVE my X but sometimes feel like I'm driving a fancy, expensive, pretty, piece of shit with a luxurious interior and aesthetically pleasing exterior. And some of the engineering designs leave me scratching my head...

I've owned it less than a year though so we will see how things turn out in the long run...

[Entropy]

Originally Posted by BustedKnuckles

I feel ya.. I've had an E36, E46 and now my E70.. my 3 series were both great and I drove the piss out of them up to nearly 200k miles with only typical repairs for any vehicle with that kind of mileage. My X is a bit "special". I must say however that all of the woes I have experienced thus far have been with the motor. I've had a couple other issues with it that were "self-inflicted" (me being careless). And a few strange occurrences that only happened once and seemed to have fixed themselves. My door tweeter speaker BLARED static one day while the car was just sitting turned off in my garage. A couple minutes later it just randomly stopped and hasn't happened since. These cars seem to have their own personalities. I LOVE my X but sometimes feel like I'm driving a fancy, expensive, pretty, piece of shit with a luxurious interior and aesthetically pleasing exterior. And some of the engineering designs leave me scratching my head...

I've owned it less than a year though so we will see how things turn out in the long run...

Yep my E46 made it to 150k with routine maintenance. Your comment about the X being a shiny turd rings pretty true here (primarily only powertrain issues), but I couldn't imagine daily-ing a car without BMW interior anytime soon.

[Westlotorn]

I think the quality is good but you have to know the German Government mandates they use recycled Plastic which affects a lot of our parts as they age.

[indian farmer]

I just replaced the seal in my vehicle . Right hand drive E70 2008. it took me about 1.5 hours from jack up to jack down.

1. passenger side wheel off
2. remove the little plastic bit where the drive shaft is
3. remove the thermostat housing .

I can imagine the difficulty for LHD vehicles

[Entropy]

Well, I was successful. 7.5 hours. Not a fun job. No draining of cooling or P/S system.

[Xor]

Originally Posted by Entropy

Well, I was successful. 7.5 hours. Not a fun job. No draining of cooling or P/S system.

Jealous here, so fast! Good job!

Any issues? Anything was done different? Tips for society?

[Entropy]

Originally Posted by Xor

Jealous here, so fast! Good job!

Any issues? Anything was done different? Tips for society?

No issues, other than I forgot to DISCONNECT THE BATTERY before taking the alternator out!... Doh! It arced on to a hose crimp fitting as I was rotating it. Luckily no damage done... just an oh-$hit moment.

I will add to the steps-list we already have going:

1. Park and jack up front of vehicle.

2. Remove left front wheel.

2.5. Disconnect the negative terminal cable from the battery.

3. Remove the front-half of the plastic wheelwell liner (it's split into two pieces) and lower plastic pieces as well. You will have to knock out the plastic rivets that hold the fender flare on. This can be done with a punch and a hammer. Hammer the center of the rivet in, which allows the rivets to be pulled out. Remove the fender flare and then remove the front-half of the wheelwell liner.

4. Remove the intake components, support beam above the radiator, electric fan (note that the driver-side tab is hinged, allowing it to fold back onto itself so it can slip past the upper radiator hose).

5. Remove serpentine belt, idler pulley, and tensioner.

6. Remove alternator (I also removed the two bolts holding the P/S pump, giving me a bit more room).

7. Take note of the position of the alternator guide nut. You will want to install the alternator with that nut in the same position.

8. Remove oil cooler lines from thermostat assembly (this can be done with long extensions from the wheelwell)

9. Remove the three bolts holding the thermostat to the block. I was able to remove the top bolt and forward-most bolt from the wheelwell. The rear-lower bolt I had to do from the engine bay.

10. Take out the thermostat assembly, clean it, replace gasket. Also replace the O-rings on the oil cooler lines. I used a pick-tool to get all of the old gaskets and O-rings off.

Whatever you do, be extremely careful with the torx-head bolts BMW uses. There is very little socket engagement and they can round-off easily. I purchased new bolts for re-installation (not necessary, but advised). Note that I didn't touch any power-steering or engine coolant lines... no draining necessary.

This would also be a good time to do the front differential fluid, since it is exposed.

[Westlotorn]

To pull my fans out on our 2008 4.8L X5 I had to remove the top radiator hose , slip the fans up and out then reconnect, spilled less than a cup of coolant but I could not slip it out with the hose installed. Is there a way to do this without pulling the top hose off the radiator?
Congrats on doing the oil cooler in ONLY 7.5 hour. Much better than the 13 or more it took prior to this post.

[Entropy]

Originally Posted by Westlotorn

To pull my fans out on our 2008 4.8L X5 I had to remove the top radiator hose , slip the fans up and out then reconnect, spilled less than a cup of coolant but I could not slip it out with the hose installed. Is there a way to do this without pulling the top hose off the radiator?
Congrats on doing the oil cooler in ONLY 7.5 hour. Much better than the 13 or more it took prior to this post.

The fan should just pull straight up. There is a tab on each side that holds it in. On the driver side, the tab on the fan housing that secures it to the radiator is actually hinged so it folds back onto itself so it can slip past the hose.