E30 M3 oil leak

Fair enough well explained. I did notice a little white goo stuck to the top of the inside of the upper sump when I changed the gasket and thought oh no! the head is possibly on its way out. This would appear to back that up. Anyway am going to give it a thorough clean tonight just to make double sure first!!

Just out of interest, the vertical facing hose on the idle valve, did have some oil in it, how can this be and what is the purpose of this hose?

kermitt wrote: This looks really bizarre, it appears that the oil is leaking from the wiring harness that runs along the side of the block containing the wiring for the oil pressure switch and oil temp switch. Does anyone know if oil is supposed to travel along these because having moved the rubber boot aside, in amongst the wires is full of dirty oil. Presumably this should be dry as a bone?? What else travels along here that could contain oil?

It should all be dry.

Just thinking out aloud, but if you had a small split or fracture of the pipes going to and from the oil cooler, that plumb into the oil filter housing then under pressure these may have the effect of spraying oil onto the side of the block giving the appearence that the leak is from the side of the block/head.

The only things carrying oil on that side are the pipes to/from oil cooler, filter housing and filter, oil seperator and ICV although this is more vapour than actual oil flow, then the block and head themselves.

Go over it all very carefully using talc as when the oil hit the talc it should show the origin of the leak, if the origin is from a solid piece such as the block then it's spraying up from somewhere.

having talc'd the areas there is definately nothing coming from the cylinder head itself.

However I think it may be possible that the hose at the rear of the cylinder head to the oil seperator may be leaking and where it is leaking onto is the wiring harness underneath just where it begins to travel horizontally along the block.

I have a gathering of oil on the block underneath the rubber boot on the harness which has cracks and tears in it. This is then dripping down behind the starter motor.

Also it would appear that the oil must be travelling along the harness and exiting where the wires all breakout as there is another gathering of oil on the bracket which holds the ICV to the block just below the mounting nuts.

This I beleive is then dripping from the bracket down on to the block. This is where there is a major mess noticeable. Unfortunately I do not have a camera to take pictures with.

If I take the relevant hoses is there a way to test them for leaks so I can find out the culprit?

Could I run water from a hose through them?

Having now removed the top hose I noticed the seperator was full of white goo so have cleaned this and the hoses out also. Weird thing was I was sure I could smell petrol. Funny thing was though having visually checked the hoses there were no cracks apparent.

 

 

Reading this post i noticed you had white goo in your sump when you changed the gaskets. I have just changed my sump gaskets and noticed the same white goo in the sump. Possibly an S14 trait? I have experienced the rocker cover breather splitting and leaking oil everywhere.

Just found this too and it backs me up!

http://www.dtmpower.net/forum/e30-m3/54903-s14-oil-pressure- switch.html

can anyone share of similar experience?

have just purchased a new one from my local factors, gonna sort this one out tonight hopefully.

Upon recollection, yes but it was only the temp. sensor I had changed, a good while ago now though.

I could not rememeber which was which before as the sketch from real OEM does not show both sensors at their locations.