N62 4.8 Oil Thermostat Gasket Leak (2007 X5)

[E-series ftw]

Originally Posted by bmwfan0101

The E10 socket in the picture is a 1/4" swivel E10 socket I bought from Amazon and modified it a bit, so it swivels , but not too much

Hope this helps

For ease of removal on the E10 bolts, I used an 8mm 12 point gear wrench.
It fits perfectly on the heads. I actually had to add an additional wrench to it for leverage and the bolts cracked out great. I'm in the rust belt in Ontario Canada, but the bolt heads were in good shape. I used the same method for installation. I used my right hand to hold the wrench onto the bolt head and my left hand for swinging the wrench up and down. Nothing helps your ribcage doing this job though

For the record, I do own Etorx sockets, but I dropped my good one trying to get the rearmost lower bolt out, and it has yet to be found. After some trial and error using 6 point sockets on the one I did get out, I stuck the 12 point 8mm wrench on it and couldn't believe how well it fit.