2003 e39 540i M-tech with M62 , possible oil drip

[mherbert]

Hi - I recently purchased a great car, a 540i m-tech with six speed manual transmission, a one owner car with maintenance records. The car has been running great; however, I noticed in the last week there has been an oil drip/spot ( about the size of a half-dollar coin) in the morning when parked overnight . I have had the car for about four months and driven in 5, 000 miles. Valve cover gasket was replaced 6,000 miles ago when oil change/spark plugs/coils were changed. I found no leaking or seepage around the valve cover gasket.

Does anyone know the cause of this? Thanks for any help.

Mike Herbert
571.217.9033

[pseto]

is it definitely oil and not another fluid?

have you had a chance to look underneath the car?

[adamgeorge]

Did you get your problem found out? I had a friend who had that exact problem. I can ask and see what he found out

[John in VA]

Without getting your face deeper into the engine bay it will be hard to tell! Is the coming from the oil pan gasket? Oil-filled motor mounts? Oil filter housing hoses?
Take a look at this link: http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...ft-motor-mount
Good luck!

[1996 328ti]

I don't know about E39s but my M42 motor had oil coming from the bushings between the oil filter housing and block.
The colder it got, the more oil that leaked.

[John in VA]

Steven,
I was going to mention the oil filter housing gasket, but it doesn't appear the M62 has the same setup as the M5x engines.
The pix from bmwfans.info are too large to post, so here are the links showing the oil filter assemblies.

M62: http://bmwfans.info/parts-catalog/E3...ter_oil_pipes/

M54 - gasket is #6: http://bmwfans.info/parts-catalog/E3...em_oil_filter/

[1996 328ti]

The way I found my leaks was to bring the car to a handheld car wash. Spray liberally with the motor with Simple Green and powerwash it off.
Obviously you need to take precautions.
Once clean it was easy to spot the leak.

From the link above, I'd suspect o-rings. Sometimes it's the simplest thing.

[Alan]

The way I found my leaks was to bring the car to a handheld car wash. Spray liberally with the motor with Simple Green and powerwash it off.
Obviously you need to take precautions.
Once clean it was easy to spot the leak.

From the link above, I'd suspect o-rings. Sometimes it's the simplest thing.

Keep in mind that Simple Green eats aluminum.