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Oil Change and Oil Pump Bolt Check

I�ve been watching the RoadFly E38 forum comments about loose oil pump bolts on 740s. Although I had not heard about problems with any 750s, I decided that the extra $25 or so for a pan gasket and half an hour or so of my time would be well spent if I checked my engine.

The first question is where to locate the floor jack. There is a bump, presumably designed for this purpose, on the subframe right between the front wheels.

Here is the floor jack with the jacking pad in place.

The next question is where to place the jack stands. I put them right on the snap in plastic jack pads on each side. If your jack pads have fallen off, you should be able to pick more from your dealer for about $7 or $8 each at your favorite dealer. I understand that without them, you may hear a whistling noise inside the car as air rushes in and across the holes when you are driving.

Here is the oil pan fully visible after the plastic streamlining cover is removed. It is held on with a bunch of quarter turn fasteners that are easily unlocked. Removing it is simple. First drain the oil, then remove the electrical connection for the oil level sender, then remove all of the bolts at the perimeter.

The oil is being drained into a bucket and the electrical connector is unplugged.

The oil pump is very visible once the pan is removed. The pan looked clean with no loose bolts at the bottom. However, there was a small fingernail sized chunk of metal lodged in the pickup!

Here is another shot. Unlike most other cars, the oil pump pickup is very strong and it successfully prevented the ingestion of the metal in question.

I set the chunk of metal in the pan to photograph it. It had started to rain lightly and the little bumps and discolorations in the oil pan were caused by raindrops.

Another shot with the metal chunk flipped over.

Another angle.

Here is the metal chunk cleaned up and compared to a dime. The grid marks are half an inch apart. If you look closely, it looks to have been pinched in between something.

Here is another shot with the metal chunk flipped over. I�m not sure what kind of metal it is, but it is nonmagnetic. It is remarkably light, weighing hardly anything. It is so light that it feels almost like it isn�t metal. I have no idea of what this could be. I�ve looked over all visible parts of the inside of the engine and can see nothing wrong. The engine runs fine.

Here is a shot looking straight up at the oil pump. The plastic cover is still in place.

Here is a similar shot with the plastic cover removed.

Here is a shot from the front. One of the bolts that have been found to be loose on 740s is visible at the 10 O�clock position. There is another one hidden behind the chain at 2 O�clock and another at the rear of the pump.

Another angle. It is apparent that BMW put a lot of time and effort when designing the engine.

The top part of the oil pan forms a windage tray that is very well designed so that it moves oil away from the crankshaft and back into the pan. It is visible right behind the oil pump.

Here is a shot looking up. The crankshaft weights are visible through the windage tray slots and the rods and cylinder are also visible. The pipe coming down from the top is the dipstick tube.

Here is another shot with the engine rotated so that the rod bolds are visible.

Here is the oil pan, all cleaned up with a new gasket.

Here is the new filter, drain plug, O ring and copper washer. Be sure to use the new copper washer on the drain plug and the new O ring on the filter cover.

The filter drops into this housing.

I like to pre-oil my filters to avoid dry start conditions. I pour most of a bottle of oil over the filter and let it soak in thoroughly before I put the filter cover on.

Here is the cover with a new O ring installed.

See M.Wong�s Car Domain page for additional information on oil changes and resetting the service lights. Mark W.Wong�s Car Domain, Page 6

Please browse to the following pages:

1 Introduction
2 In the Beginning
3 From the Front
4 From the Side
5 From the Rear
6 The Interior
7 The Audio Video System
8 Both of My 750iLs
9 May Puget Sound Meet
10 June Puget Sound Meet
11 July Puget Sound Meet
12 Engine and Drivetrain
13 BMW Club Concours d'Elegance
14 BMW Advanced Driver Training
15 BassLink Install
16 Oil Change and Oil Pump Bolt Check
17 Quad Rear Brake Lights
18 Phone Install
19 Jets
20 Strong Strut
21 Eisenmann Exhaust
22 Sway Bar Upgrade