My Dad's 2006 E91 320i Touring has an oil issue.. which is confusing and currently stumping the specialist where the car's currently sat....

The servo pump and seal at the back of the engine - common fault it seems. The rocker cover seems to be leaking now and he has tried new gaskets and even some sealant, all to no avail. Current thinking is now that the rocker cover may be warped, but they've talked to BMW who say that would be very unusual. Its at the back of the engine on the drivers side, so is hard to see etc.

Sounds a bit grim to me, but don't want to be a prophet of doom over nothing. Might do some forum searching and see.. but would be helpful if there's any BMW techs on here, or that have seen something similar - suggestions welcome

Thanks,

Steve

Hi Steve, i'm not a BMW tech (not even a mechanic) so take the below with a grit bin sized chunk of salt

It's possible it could be warped, maybe the tech over torqued the bolts that hold the rocker cover on -- they only take a tiny amount of torque it's something like 12Nm, which is what, half, less than half what a spark plug takes, they really only need nipped up and only slightly more. Warping the aluminum rocker cover would be really easy to do so i wouldn;t be sure about it being all that rare.

There's not a build up of pressure in the engine causing oil to be forced out is there? Like if you remove the oil filler cap does it release pressure?

Thanks for the reply. Just hoping its not something more serious or even terminal, seeing as the car's been in twice to try and sort this out. The tech knows his stuff and has looked after a fair few of my cars too, over the years. But yes, as you say - could have just been a slight error with tightening, but with bigger consequences.

Will feed this back... see if can be resolved

Cheers,

Steve

On an old festa I was in a rush to leave and the car needed a new rocker gasket. I changed it and did the bolts up by hand, however overtightened them

Sure enough it was p*ssing oil out around the cork gasket.. Undid it all, cleaned the surfaces and put it all back to the correct torque level and no more oil leaks.

Worth a shot as it's a cheap one to try.

Search the forums on the following website:

www.e90post.com/forums

Unbelieveable community and a fountain of knowledge, helped me out too many times to recall when i had my old E90 3 series.

Edited 10 June, 201016 yr by Graeme B

Had same problem on a Omega changed cover with one from a scrappy problem fixed, put old cover on a table didn't feel warped so never really knew what the problem was.

An omega, not surprised, all to do with the badge on the front

An omega, not surprised, all to do with the badge on the front

Lol Skoda badge snob, seen it all now

Only jesting Graeme, i share the loathing of all things GM after some (very) bad experiences with a brand new and an old car of their heritage.

Yeah Mute, all about the badge haha.