N62 4.8 Oil Thermostat Gasket Leak (2007 X5)

[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]

Nice write up, will help many. I did this job with the fender cover in place. Took a lot longer. Make sure you order in the new plastic rivets to re install the fender cover. The old ones are a one time use part. A riveting tool can be used to install the new fender plastic rivets.

[danosll]

Hello everybody,
I just wanted to share my experience as I have repaired 2 this week . both 2007 4.8 but with MAJOR differences. first one went supper smooth no more then 4 hours total. did it from top of motor . removed fans ,top brace , alt and power steering pump. used android camera to help but not necessary. 2nd was a different story took more than 15 hours . the difference between the two . the 2nd has active steering the servotronic torque convertor is in the way and adaptive drive which uses a much larger power steering pump and alot more hyraulic lines, check the link to compare the differances . makes it much harder to access i did second one from the top as well but in hindsight probably would have been easier if i loosened PS rack and moved it a bit to left. RealOEM.com - Online BMW Parts Catalog

[SeanC]

^ that explains my failure trying to do it from the top lol.

[danosll]

I still managed to do it from the top I used ratcheting etorx wrenchs and left the oil lines attached removed thermostat and lines as complete assembly(couldnt access center torx bolt holding lines too close to servotronic torque sensor) . but i really believe that loosening the 4 rack bolts and moving the rack over will make a world of difference. (not necessary with regular P/S)

[Davidf]

Originally Posted by danosll

I still managed to do it from the top I used ratcheting etorx wrenchs and left the oil lines attached removed thermostat and lines as complete assembly(couldnt access center torx bolt holding lines too close to servotronic torque sensor) . but i really believe that loosening the 4 rack bolts and moving the rack over will make a world of difference. (not necessary with regular P/S)

I found the same interference with the steering rack components and left pipes installed on oil thermostat. Combination of accessing the bolts from the front and wheel well worked best for me. I replaced the female torx bolt holding the oil pipe to the thermostat with a conventional bolt...just because that torx bolt made me mad.

Seems I get to do this again on my sons E60 N62 for the second time. Yessir, one lucky dude.

[Xor]

Originally Posted by Davidf

I found the same interference with the steering rack components and left pipes installed on oil thermostat. Combination of accessing the bolts from the front and wheel well worked best for me. I replaced the female torx bolt holding the oil pipe to the thermostat with a conventional bolt...just because that torx bolt made me mad.

Seems I get to do this again on my sons E60 N62 for the second time. Yessir, one lucky dude.

It's much less room to work in E60. I was watching some youtube videos, and if it's nearly close to 7-series, you may need to drop a subframe

[Davidf]

Originally Posted by Xor

It's much less room to work in E60. I was watching some youtube videos, and if it's nearly close to 7-series, you may need to drop a subframe

I done it before and just need to lift engine and cuss a little. No need to drop subframe.

[the_ulf]

Just about to button up this job. 2008 with active steering. It actually sounds worse than it is. Step one: clean and dry the entire area thoroughly before doing anything else. Adds a lot of visibility, that's half the battle. After removing fan & alternator I tightly strapped the PS pump to the lifting lug to keep it well out of the way without having to disconnect anything.
The bottom two bolts of the stat are easy enough to get at. I found that with the wheel off this was the clearest shot at the top bolt:
It takes a very long 1/4 extension plus UJ to get at but it works.
I've not tried pulling it out with the hoses attached, doesn't sound like a bad idea tho. I removed the retaining torx bolt for the oil lines with a torx bit and a small ratchet spanner:

You'll have to just loosen it and do the rest by hand since eventually you'll be jamming the bit against the active steering stuff that's in the way.

All in all a hoist really helped making small work of it but it could probably be done on jack stands. I'd say about 6ish hours for someone who's done it before, plus obviously however long it takes to clean the muck away first.

[Westlotorn]

Just a follow up on our 2008 X5 4.8L. Since replacing the oil cooler Orings, Coolant tube, Intake manifold gaskets, water pump o'rings, all heater and radiator hoses, valve cover gaskets, timing cover gaskets, many O'rings and seals, changed out all fluids, tranny 2 times, front differential 3 times, for some reason it kept coming out dirty but I had the fluid tested and it tested perfect so no worry's installed a new AC compressor and condenser a new front drive shaft and last a new drivers side front wheel bearing. Now a few thousand miles of leak proof road time I am starting to like and appreciate our X5 again. From Thanksgiving till February I was hating this car and the people that made it. I put $2,500 in parts and an enormous amount of labor into these projects but now the car seems like brand new. Runs perfect. Last trip, 1,100 miles it got 20 MPG and we ran hard, 75-85 mph almost all the time with the car loaded heavy, 3 people and a lot of gear. Should a car need all these repairs at 100,000 miles. I say Hell No, a Toyota or Honda would not have needed this, heck my Ford Fusion did not need any of this done but this is a really nice driving car now that it is fixed. I hope to run it another 100,000.
If all these jobs were done in a shop I think it would approach $10,000 rather than my parts only cost of $2,500.
My last fear with this car is that the coolant gasket at the rear of the engine behind the transmission bell housing will start leaking some day. I did not pull the tranny to replace this last gasket.