335i Oil pan gasket replacement

[bigtigga01]

I’ve been meaning to put this together for a while to help others with their oil pan gasket replacement. First I apologize if I leave out some info but I did this last month and it's no longer fresh in my mind. Really I wanted to post pics because that's what I was missing when I was researching this job. Before getting started I drained the oil, removed the engine cover, supported the car on jack stands, removed the splash guards from engine and transmission, removed the belt from the power steering pump, and removed the front wheels. In order to support the motor I bought an engine support bar from HF. Use your tow hook and screw it in the hole under your engine cover. Can’t really use the chain but the support will hook up to the tow hook and hold the weight fine. I wrapped the chain around it just in case but it’s not needed.




Next up I started unbolting everything starting with the strut bolts up top. Then the cross frame support since it blocks some of the bolts for the sub frame and engine mounts. I bought an E socket and bit set which will be needed for the power steering rack, engine mounts, and oil pan bolts.




















Once the sub frame bolts were removed and steering rack pushed out of the way I lowered it slowly for clearance since I still needed to remove the lower radiator hose that is attached to the sub frame by two torx screws.





With the sub frame out of the way I moved on to the oil pan. If you have an auto there are two transmission lines that are bolted to the oil pan in two locations. One in the front and the other is on the driver side of the pan which was a pain for me to get to.








Next up is unbolting the power steering pump from the oil pan which is straight forward so I didn’t take pics. Now all that’s left is the oil pan bolts which are not that tight but the ones on the driver side will require an extension and u-joint. You have to work the pan around to oil tube that’s extends into the pan but the removal isn’t bad as long as you have enough room between the pan and sub frame. Once out I cleaned the matting surface of both the pan and the block with brake cleaner and scraped away any pieces of the old gasket left behind.








I applied gasket sealer to the front and rear of the new gasket on both side and installed on the oil pan. Installing the pan back in was a two man job since I was on my back under the car. There was no way I could have maneuver the pan into position without help from friends. Installing the new bolts was also a pain since you have to do a cross pattern and I couldn’t find the exact torque specs but I’ve been driving for a month now and no leaks. Hope this is helpful to others that will take on this task.

[bimmernupe]

Ok at this moment I have all bolts out and power steering pump detached and the sub frame dropped. How did you get the pan off? It will not budge.

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There were three torx in tranny housing which are not marked blue.

[Pfaelzer]

that's a great write-up - thx for posting.
Is there anything that can be done to prevent the buildup?
Also, I've been hearing a lot about "Oil Catch Can's". Would it be beneficial to install one of those on a 335?

[Pfaelzer]

Uuuhps, posted in the wrong thread - meant to post it in the "intake walnut blasting" thread.

[glopez5]

awesome write up, i've been looking but couldn't find pictures until now. Is there anything you recommend when bringing down the subframe? will 1 jack be enough to bring it down safely?

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also did you have to do an alignment afterwards? any pics of the subframe dropped?

[rydeyz]

One question on this... With an AT, when you pull the two lines to the transmission, I'm assuming those are not tranny fluid lines and that will not affect my tranny fluid level. Is that right?

[ppersch]

You don't have to disconnect the tranny lines, just unbolt them from the oil pan. I just dropped the oil pan on my '07 335i last night and found it relatively straight forward. A couple things I did: a) I left the rack and pinion bolted to the sub-frame, I just took the bolt off the steering knuckle and wiggled the knuckle up off the rack input shaft before lowering the sub-frame. b) On my '07 there is a wire connector I almost missed in back of the front driver's wheel from the frame to one of the suspension arms. I imagine you could rip the wires out if not disconnected.

[nodipstick]

Thanks for the awesome write up bigtigga01! I did mine over a 3 day weekend and it probably took me about 13 hours total over the 3 days. I followed the write up and the other users tips and haven't had a leak since. I did have a clicking/popping sound from the front come in 2 weeks afterward when I turned the steering wheel left or right at a standstill with full load on the suspension. I didn't properly torque the steering rack bolts to the subframe when I put everything back together. I changed the motor and transmission mounts at the same time as a preventive maintenance.

[N52SK]

Curious to know why the strut bolts in engine bay were removed to drop subframe for clearence of oil pan. Isn't the subframe supposed to drop about 4 inches and hang from the struts? If these are unbolted, whats holding it up?

[matreyia]

...I applied gasket sealer to the front and rear of the new gasket on both side and installed on the oil pan. Installing the pan back in was a two man job since I was on my back under the car. There was no way I could have maneuver the pan into position without help from friends. Installing the new bolts was also a pain since you have to do a cross pattern and I couldn’t find the exact torque specs but I’ve been driving for a month now and no leaks. Hope this is helpful to others that will take on this task.

why did you use gasket sealant? BMW does not recommend gasket sealant and I have read other diy who also did not use sealant. Just curious.