Being owner of a vehicle is vital, we most of the time need it to get to our job and for most of our daily trips. This essential part of our annual budget recurrently triggers us surprises, being aware about oil leaking on your car is one of them… In truth, an oil leak is hardly ever harmless and can quickly lead to the breakage of your engine if you don’t notice it. If you are aware about oil leaking on your BMW 5 Series, you have come to the right place, we will first support you to locate the origin of the oil leak and, additionally, we will help you to repair it, when possible.

fix-oil-leakbmw-5-series

Identifying the origin of the oil leaking on your BMW 5 Series

If you find out fluid leaking from under your BMW 5 Series, the first move to make is to verify all of your levels (power steering, engine oil, brake fluid, coolant) to see if any of them can quickly be identified as the origin of the leak. To limit the risks, it is really vital to verify your levels every 2 weeks to prevent any risk of engine breakage.
In our case we will only be interested in case you notice oil leaking from your BMW 5 Series, as far as engine oil is concerned, the liquid will be quite viscous and in shades of brown to black and if it is gearbox oil, it will be rather in amber tones and will have a strong annoying smell.
It’s not actually easy to locate the origin of the oil that leaks on a BMW 5 Series because of the space in the engine block, nevertheless here are the simple steps to follow to locate the source of the oil:

  • Uncover the point where the oil falls, the area from which it leaks onto the floor…
  • Track down the path of the dripping oil to its start, if the blot is too large, don’t hesitate to clean the engine block and drive to be able to track down it more easily.
  • To assist you, here is a list of the parts that mostly induce oil to leak from a car: the drain plug and its seal; one of your crankcase gaskets; the oil pressure switch; the oil filter; the transmission drain plug; the transmission sealing rings.

When possible, repair the part that brought on the oil to leak on your BMW 5 Series.

Now that you’ve determined the origin of the oil leaking, it’s time to get down to business. Naturally, for a while, you’ll be able to add more oil to top up the level, determined by its degree, but you should know that this is not a long lasting solution and that the leak could intensify at every time. We are likely to show you the repairs that we think you can undertake on your own with some expertise, tools and according to the accessibility that you are going to have on your engine. In any case, you should know that after repairing an oil leak on a BMW 5 Series, you will have to swap your engine or gearbox oil.

Oil leakage from the drain plug and its seal on BMW 5 Series

In this situation, the process is quite easy, you just have to lift your BMW 5 Series, if it is possible perfectly horizontal, remove your drain plug, drain your engine oil, swap your drain gasket, tighten the plug to the perfect torque and verify the hot engine to make sure the leak has been repaired.

Oil leaking over from the oil filter of my BMW 5 Series

In the event that your oil leak comes from your oil filter, you will simply need to replace it. To get this done, take a filter wrench, remove the old filter, being sure that the gasket does not stick to the engine, place the new filter and tighten it moderately. Same evaluation, hot check if oil is leaking from your BMW 5 Series.

Oil leaking from the pressure switch of my BMW 5 Series

Finally, if it is your pressure switch that is the cause of your leak on your BMW 5 Series, you can, according to its accessibility, reach it and swap it easily. To make this happen, set a drain tray under the part, disconnect the electrical wire, remove the part, quickly reposition the replacement pressure switch, clean the assembly and do a hot check to verify that you no longer have any oil leaking from your BMW 5 Series.

For any other type of leak, we suggest you to go to your repair shop because the repair requires too much expertise and tools to be undertaken serenely alone.

To discover more tips on the BMW 5 Series, take a look at the BMW 5 Series category.