Being owner of a vehicle is important, we often need it to get to work and for a majority of our daily trips. This crucial part of our annual budget recurrently triggers us complications, being aware about oil leaking on your car is one of them… In truth, an oil leak is hardly ever benign and can quickly lead to the breakage of your engine if you don’t find it. If you are aware about oil leaking on your Bmw Serie 3, you have come to the right place, we will first support you to discover the source of the oil leak and, secondly, we will help you to repair it, if it is possible.

fix-oil-leakbmw-serie-3

Identifying the origin of the oil leaking on your Bmw Serie 3

If you find out fluid leaking from under your Bmw Serie 3, the first right move is to check all of your levels (power steering, engine oil, brake fluid, coolant) to see if any of them can quickly be identified as the source of the leak. To limit the risks, it is certainly required to check your levels every 2 weeks to prevent any risk of engine breakage.
In our case we will only be interested in case you identify oil leaking from your Bmw Serie 3, 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 uneasy smell.
It’s not always easy to discover the source of the oil that leaks on a Bmw Serie 3 because of the accessibility of the engine block, nevertheless here are the guidelines to adhere to to discover the source of the oil:

  • Uncover the point where the oil falls, the area from which it spills onto the ground…
  • Go back up the route of the dripping oil to its basis, if the blot is too big, don’t think twice to clean the engine block and drive to have the ability to discover it without difficulty.
  • To guide you, here is a list of the auto parts that in most cases provoke 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.

Whenever possible, fix the part that caused the oil to leak on your Bmw Serie 3.

Now that you’ve found the source of the oil leaking, it’s time to get down to business. Obviously, for a while, you’ll be able to add more oil to top up the level, dependant upon its seriousness, but be aware that this is not a long lasting solution and that the leak could become worse at any time. We are likely to demonstrate you the repairs that we think you can perform on your own with some knowledge, tools and depending to the accessibility that you are going to have on your engine. Whatever the case, you should know that after repairing an oil leak on a Bmw Serie 3, you will have to swap your engine or gearbox oil.

Oil leakage from the drain plug and its seal on Bmw Serie 3

In this circumstance, the methodology is quite easy, you just have to lift your Bmw Serie 3, if it is possible totally horizontal, remove your drain plug, drain your engine oil, swap your drain gasket, tighten the plug to the appropriate torque and check the hot engine to make sure the leak has been repaired.

Oil leaking over from the oil filter of my Bmw Serie 3

In case that your oil leak comes from your oil filter, you will only need to change it. To accomplish this, take a filter wrench, remove the old filter, being sure that the gasket does not stick to the engine, set the new filter and tighten it moderately. Same check, hot check if oil is leaking from your Bmw Serie 3.

Oil leaking from the pressure switch of my Bmw Serie 3

To conclude, if it is your pressure switch that is the reason of your leak on your Bmw Serie 3, you can, depending on its ease of access, reach it and swap it easily. To get this done, set a drain tray under the part, disconnect the electrical wire, remove the part, quickly reposition the replacement pressure switch, clean the whole thing and do a hot test to verify that you no longer have any oil leaking from your Bmw Serie 3.

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

If you want more tutorials on the Bmw Serie 3, go to our Bmw Serie 3 category.