der Mumienwagen; E91 330i Touring

Looking well Sam; it's nearly run in now

That's not good news.

Might it be worth getting the sump off then tapping the thread to M13 rather than replacing it?

My 330i seems to be leaking from the sump gasket, but for now I just keep topping it up!

I've given up completely now trying to be popular with my missus, because regardless of what I do, she always finds something to be disappointed about!

Relationships eh?(or kids!). Who'd have them?!

First of - that sucks, unfortunately from experience.

I had a Golf where the sump plug had been drilled and retapped on the car (before we bought it).

I realised when the sump plug stripped the threads again. When I replaced the sump, there was a perfect round piece of swarf sitting in the oil pickup strainer. No idea how many oil changes had failed to clear it.

I was lucky that it was easy to remove, easily available and quite cheap to fix - obviously a trickier decision in this case, but I think I know what I'd do... and it wouldn't involve a drill.

EDIT - There are ways to reduce the risk of swarf getting in as well, e.g. using vaseline or wax or similar to try to catch it.

Cheers both.

Looks like I’m going to try and change to an M13 bolt. I’ve bought a kit which should work; it includes an M13 tap and a series of slightly larger plugs and washers.

Amazon eventually delivered my sump repair kit this evening and I had just enough daylight to have a crack at it. Amazon’s finest Chineseoum…



I covered the tap in Vaseline to catch the swarf. Once I run the tap though the sump drain hole I dropped 3 or 4 litres of random 5W 30 oil from half used containers and I couldn’t see any swarf of metal flakes in the catch can.

Feeling confident I torqued up a new M13 x 1.5 bolt with a washer, using my new Halfords Advanced torque Erin h which was loads better than the one I had been using.

I chucked a coupe of litre of fresh oil in the car and let it sit for a bit to check that the sump was sealing and there were no drips….there weren’t. Happy days.

I then chucked in just over six litres of Petronas oil and it started fine.

I’ll check the sump drain in a few days time to check it’s all ok. It needs a good clean too because it’s a bit messy from the last one leaking. Draining the last of the oil tonight was a bit messy because of the wind too.

Definitely…I was fighting the light tonight so no chance for pics etc.

I’ll have a look under the car this weekend and soak the area in brake cleaner. That way I’ll know after if it’s fixed or weeping.

Looking promising Sam - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Fingers crossed indeed, when I get back from work tonight, I’m going to have a quick Look to make sure the plug is dry….ill be able to relax then. Might even treat the old girl to a quick wash.

Slightly more successful day with the 330i finally getting round to doing the spring detail. I had a supervisor this morning, who kept a close eye on my from puppy prison in the garage.



When I started, it looked like this (it was on the jack so I could wash the under tray after the oil spillage last week).



Soaking in Garage Therapy Zero to break down any of the old wax still left.



It was rinsed and washed before being soaked with fall out remover.







After it was washed and dried again and I was happy that there were no more tar spots etc, it was time to break out the DA. I used a Koch Chemie heavy polish with a heavy cutting pad to start with.



Part way through my DA stopped working but luckily I remembered where I’d put the spare motor brushes. A few minutes of faf later and I was good to go. I then went over the car with a Koch Chemie fine pad and micro-cutting paste before wiping the whole car down with panel wipe. I then applied a layer of Fusso Coat which was later topped of with a layer of Kiwami Extreme.

Glass done, interior vac’d etc. I did have a set of new centre caps but they might have ended up on my Z4 the other week. Luckily the centre caps that came with my 261’s are in ok shape and much better than the ones on the car, so they were popped in. The willingness to spend another £48 on centre caps is low at the moment, so these will do.



I need to remove the wheels at some point to clean the wheel arches and do the inner sides of the wheels but I ran out of time / motivation. The car scrubs up well considering it’s ticked over 172k recently.





















Pretty please with the paint overall now. It’s pretty much swirl free, it’s just deeper scratches and chips now. I’m basically fighting against its previous life where it was used as truck and its age.

The sump repair appears to be holding up too. The oil on the under tray is too clean to have come from the sump, so it’s the spilt oil still making its escape.