Sunny warm day and a BMW

What finer way to spend the day than by lying on pavement underneath a fine piece of Bavarian engineering? Figured it was time to give the wifey's E36 328iC an oil change. Wait! What's this dark drop which dareth to intrude upon my blissful solitude?

It seems the bottom of the A/C compressor is wet with motor oil. the car drips, but only a little. The source of the leak appears to be a protuberance jutting out of the side of the engine just ahead of the front-most exhaust outlet. Can't be sure, but it may emanate from still higher at the cover gasket.

There also seems to be a little fluid on the other side of the front of the engine, I'm guessing the power steering pump.

Yay!

Anyone wish to commiserate or share experiences with similar leaky BMW's? This particular one is a '97 with but 72000 miles on it. Nice car.

The valve cover gasket is almost certainly leaking at this point, if it hasn't been previously replaced. Make sure you replace all the little o-rings on the cover bolts while you're at it.

The PS pump might be leaking, but the lines to and from the reservoir, as well as the connections to the reservoir, are the more likely culprits.

02Pilot wrote: The valve cover gasket is almost certainly leaking at this point, if it hasn't been previously replaced. Make sure you replace all the little o-rings on the cover bolts while you're at it. The PS pump might be leaking, but the lines to and from the reservoir, as well as the connections to the reservoir, are the more likely culprits.

Yeah, it appears to be leaking at the hose connection at the bottom of the pump.

My experience is old BMWs leak oil...it's only when the drips stop that you're in trouble.

I spent last weekend under the E36 cutting off the old P/S clamps on putting on stainless steel hose clamps. According to the forums, that stops the leaks in most cases, the factory clamps lose their clamping function over time. They're also a pain to remove, don't believe the forums that you can just pop them off with a screwdriver. They're German, real stainless steel, and aren't going to be removed without a good fight. I spent a bunch of time under there with a Dremel, which worked well. Just some tough angles and places to reach.

I also noticed that my P/S reservoir is missing the gasket on the lid, I'm going to pick one of those up at the local dealer and see if that helps. If that doesn't stop the leaks, my next step is to replace the reservoir (which also contains in internal filter).

That's really the only leak I've had, and it hasn't been a major one. Come to think of it, I also replaced the backup sensor in the transmission when I got the car, that was leaking a bit as well.

I've owned many older vehicles, and for it's age the E36 is remarkably leak-free.

In reply to dj06482:

Look really carefully at the PS reservoir cap - when I had my E46 it sure looked like the gasket was gone when it was there but just squished so flat it was hard to see.

Well, it was pretty dark before I got back out there. Since we're on the subject, where is the PS reservoir? I couldn't find it, and there's no reference to it in the owner's manual.

Should be above the alternator, smallish black reservoir with a black knurled cap.

I was on the ground near my M3, if that counts.
I was finishing a carb install in my V8 RX7. The old Holley was filling all 4 barrels with fuel. It sounded like a water feature when it started overflowing down the sides.

Anyway, I was changing out the oil/gas mixture after installing an Edelbrock.

As a bonus, my neighbor's outside cat luvs me. He snuck up and scared me and I banged my head on the bumper. He then proceeded to rub his head all over me and then curled up beside me.

E36's frequently leak ps fluid where the hose is crimped onto metal. Mine leaked the whole time I owned it, but never bad enough for me to invest the time or money to fix it. Just topped it off regularly.

pigeon - Thanks, I'll have another look!

funny.. my 96 Ti leaks there too.. the ONLY leak the car has after almost 140,000 miles of being driven

I vote PS hoses too. I know many people that have bought new hoses with the best of intentions, looked at the clearances and work required and decided to buy extra PS fluid instead.

My E46 has that lovely burning smell as it heats up, but it goes away. I assume this means it's only leaking some oil... it also smells like PS fluid some times, and the reservoir is kinda oily-damp a lot of the time.

I guess it's time for a valve cover gasket, o-rings, PS lid gasket, and some hose clamps, eh?

My Ti is leaking oil from the transmission (manual) drain plug. I've tried two different types of thread sealant to no avail. Anyone have a suggestion?

Spent a couple hours Saturday replacing the PS bottle and lines on my M3 while I was doing an oil change. Has been leaking since I bought the car 3 years ago with only 49k miles (60k miles now)....I need to drive that car more...

It wasn't as bad as it looked. Pull the air box to get access to the top and do most of the work from underneath the car.

Entropyman wrote: My Ti is leaking oil from the transmission (manual) drain plug. I've tried two different types of thread sealant to no avail. Anyone have a suggestion?

Hey me too! :) lol

I recently read the original drain plug will leak if reused (umm...don't they all get reused??). Anyway there is supposedly a newer version that doesn't leak. I have to look into it.

I guess that the transmission fluid was supposed to be lifetime. I have a new plug on the way, I'll report results after installation.

FYI, the PS reservoir also contains the filter. It is worth changing out the whole unit if you're doing the lines and the car has more than 100k miles or is more than 10 years old.

Well, the reservoir is easy enough to find in daylight, even if it is in a rather hard to reach place. I see that the cap says "ATF oil only" or something to that effect. The level was about at the lower of two lines, and the fluid was.... clear! A brief bout of googling finds that the spec is for Dexron/Mercon III ATF. Isn't that the clear red stuff? What was the factory fill? Did the PO put the wrong stuff in there?

To make matters worse, there seems to be a slight squeaking coming from that area of the front of the engine. Gee, I hope I don't need to replace the stinking PS pump anytime soon.

Sigh.

I took a quick look yesterday and things looked clean after tightening everything up with the new clamps the past weekend. The top of the reservoir also stayed clean, which I was thrilled to see. I checked for the gasket on the PS reservoir cap last night and sure enough it was there, seated in at the very bottom of the cap. I also made it a point to really tighten the reservoir cap. I'm going to see how things hold up (as well as give a better check from underneath when I have the car up on jackstands/ramps), if all is well then I'll probably flush the fluid. Next time I have to flush the PS, I'll most likely just replace the reservoir.

+1 on the advice to pull the air box in order to get better access, I did that was well. Makes topping it off much user! Actually, it's really tough to get at the reservoir cap with the airbox in place (I just did this last night).

Factory fill is ATF, which should be red/pink when it's new.

This arrived in my inbox today, coincidence?

http://www.ecstuning.com/marketing/PowerSteeringRingES54447/

I ended up getting a spare reservoir seal at the local dealer. $4.45 with tax, anywhere online would have killed me for shipping on a $2 part.

DJ

Entropyman wrote: My Ti is leaking oil from the transmission (manual) drain plug. I've tried two different types of thread sealant to no avail. Anyone have a suggestion?

New drain plug with teflon tape is still leaking. ATF seems to be eating every sealant I put on this thing.

Well, I'm digging up this slightly old thread. I checked the fluid level again recently and found it at the lower mark on the stick. While the fluid is clear, not red like ATF, it has a distinct "blackness" to it, and a mildly burned smell. I've got some clamps and crush washers from BMW and am draining the old fluid as we speak.

My question: Should I just presume the power steering pump is borked and replace it, or just proceed with the fluid change at this point?

Wait... you have sun?