I do all my work haha. $30 (roughly) was the cost of the oil filter housing gasket and new oil filter from BMW.

I just have a thing with re-using oil filters after a repair/service, it's like showering and putting on your socks from yesterday...sure it'll work, but it's kinda gross lol.

I'm looking at this myself, I need to double check it really is the oil pan gasket.

Hoping it's just the OFH gasket!

I currently have an OFH Gasket leak, but no time to fix that yet.
Oil leaks down to the square bar with 3 holes.
So, I got creative, I stuff some paper towel inside this hollow bar until I can fix the OFH Gasket.
This way I don't have to clean the oil stain on my driveway!!!


I took this photo from my other DIY (Fluids replacement etc.), stuff paper towel as shown in the BLUE arrows:

Sorry, I meant to say in the original post that I have already replaced the OFH gasket (original part) myself, so I know that is not the leak.

Thanks for the replies... I am probably gonna have to spend the ~$1800 and have the oil pan gasket done by the shop. I am not gonna do this myself, I am tired of working on this car!!! LOL

- Where are you located? I know some good indy in L.A. area.

- How many miles and how bad is the leak? How much oil on driveway every night?

- How about the ghetto fix I mentioned above: stuff some rag in that square space (BLUE arrows in photo above) and replace the rag every ___ weeks.

CN90, the leak's quite bad. I cant measure it, but there's a nice puddle of oil wherever I park the car, even if just for a few minutes.

I think the ghetto fix will prevent the oil from spilling, but I am lazy, so I just park it over some cardboard in my garage, so that strategy addresses the spill issue for me.

However, I am just wanting to fix the actual leak so I don't have to worry about it anymore. :-)

I am in the DFW area (TX). So I am looking for indy shop recommendations in this area... I got two so far.

In the E39 (1997-2003 5-series) world, there is a trick where:
- People lower the oil pan a bit (no need to lift engine)
- Remove old gasket
- Cut new gasket in 1 or 2 places, then patch the cut areas with RTV.

See the posts by mudbone in E39 forum:

Replaced oil pan gasket - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums

I wonder if one can use this trick for E53 3.0i engine, knowing that the axle goes through the oil pan.

Yes, that "cut oil gasket + RTV" technique was one of the options I was inquiring about in the original post of this thread. So far, I think we have one person who has done it.

This repair seems quite involved, and I will probably screw up something else in the process, so I am leaning towards just letting an indy shop get in there...

jac,

How many miles in your baby?

cn90, there are 200K in this trouble maker's odometer. I have had it since 7 mi on the odometer... I kinda want to keep it for 1-3 more years. But we'll see.