Coolant loss after oil filter gasket replacement

[ndindynd]

2009 335i. About a year ago I had a leaking oil filter housing, replaced at the local bmw shop. A while ago I notice that my car is again marking it's spot and took it back in. They gasket was again leaking, replaced under warranty. It took an extra day because the techs got behind. About a week later I hop in the car to go to work and the low coolant warning pops up. I've never had to add a drop since I bought the car, no biggie I think and I filled a more or less empty reservoir. About a week after that I hop in and again, low coolant warning. That's odd I think, and once again the reservoir is empty.

So in the 2 weeks since the gasket I've gone from never having to add coolant to having put in over a gallon. It's not burning any, at least not nearly enough for that kind of loss as i'm not smoking out everyone behind me at a traffic light. I'm also not seeing pooling underneath. I live in Florida so I'm guessing it's too hot to really collect and drip but it most be going somewhere and likely under pressure.

I pulled up the instructions on the gasket and I see they're supposed to remove a couple coolant fittings, drain some fluid, and then remove the intake manifold to do the repair. My assumption is the leak lies in a botched reassembly after the techs got into a rush. It's just as assumption of course. I've never worked on the bmw engine, but every toyota,ford, jeep etc engine I've torn down had had coolant running through the intake.

Anyway I called the dealer today and was told "All I see we did was a oil filter gasket, that wouldn't affect your cooling at all." I explained what I found for the method and they asked me to bring it back in. The lady on the phone is just the lady on the phone, I don't expect her to know every nut that gets turned on a repair.

Anyway the ?'s are, am I correct in the removal/install of the cooling parts and intake could cause a leak? If so how likely is the fudged gasket install to be the culprit?

[Codes2]

2009 335i. About a year ago I had a leaking oil filter housing, replaced at the local bmw shop. A while ago I notice that my car is again marking it's spot and took it back in. They gasket was again leaking, replaced under warranty. It took an extra day because the techs got behind. About a week later I hop in the car to go to work and the low coolant warning pops up. I've never had to add a drop since I bought the car, no biggie I think and I filled a more or less empty reservoir. About a week after that I hop in and again, low coolant warning. That's odd I think, and once again the reservoir is empty.

So in the 2 weeks since the gasket I've gone from never having to add coolant to having put in over a gallon. It's not burning any, at least not nearly enough for that kind of loss as i'm not smoking out everyone behind me at a traffic light. I'm also not seeing pooling underneath. I live in Florida so I'm guessing it's too hot to really collect and drip but it most be going somewhere and likely under pressure.

I pulled up the instructions on the gasket and I see they're supposed to remove a couple coolant fittings, drain some fluid, and then remove the intake manifold to do the repair. My assumption is the leak lies in a botched reassembly after the techs got into a rush. It's just as assumption of course. I've never worked on the bmw engine, but every toyota,ford, jeep etc engine I've torn down had had coolant running through the intake.

Anyway I called the dealer today and was told "All I see we did was a oil filter gasket, that wouldn't affect your cooling at all." I explained what I found for the method and they asked me to bring it back in. The lady on the phone is just the lady on the phone, I don't expect her to know every nut that gets turned on a repair.

Anyway the ?'s are, am I correct in the removal/install of the cooling parts and intake could cause a leak? If so how likely is the fudged gasket install to be the culprit?

I've not done this, but will soon.
Maybe when they drained some coolant (per instructions you read) they did not top up after.

If it continues to empty, then that is not the issue.

[jeff91121]

Did you add coolant or water? If you added coolant, even if you didn't and had a 50/50 coolant water mix before the issue you should see coolant somewhere pooling in the plastic pan under the engine or at the very least see a significant amount of sticky blue residue or white powdery residue where the coolant water mix has dried/evaporated.
I've done the OFHG replacement myself and the upper radiator hose connects to the housing so there is coolant flowing through the housing. I would take it back to BMW and tell them what is happening. I would also make sure nothing crazy is happening and make sure there is not coolant in your oil or oil in your coolant, check the oil filler to make sure there is not creamy residue visible. I know it is hard to see but try to see if there is oil in your coolant reservoir. The oil should float to the top of the reservoir.
I would ask the techs to check the coolant hoses, especially the smaller hose that returns coolant from the head to the water pump. This hose has an integrated plastic fitting that bolts to the head and is prone to failure. Mine failed catastrophically in traffic one day and I had to get towed home. I can't remember for sure but I think this hose needs to be removed also to access all the bolts to remove the OFHG.
So in short, yeah the coolant system is definitely involved in the OFHG replacement.