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Mystery Oil Leak Solved
Hopefully this post will help others. I have been having a slight oil leak for a while now - about 1 qt every 2K miles. BMW said that this was within normal limits, but I never had it before so I was skeptical. But I could never find out where it was - there was no oil puddles and nothing in my bed pan or engine bay. Well, I replaced my coils and spark plugs the other day and there was oil in my #2 spark plug sleeve. I assumed it was my valve cover gasket, which pissed me off because I had it replaced last year. On a whim, I decided to check the torque on all the valve cover bolts and found the the one right next to the #2 sleeve was loose - very loose - as in the bolt head was 2-3 threads above the cover. I think the people who replaced my valve cover gasket forgot to tighten it. So, I did, and my car has been leak free since. So, if you have a small mystery leak, I would recommend checking your valve cover bolts before diving in to a full valve cover replacement. Remember to tighten them when engine is cold and only to 7ft/lbs. Yes, 7ft/lbs. They are fragile aluminum bolts and will snap easily at anything higher. Problem solved for me! Hopefully for some of you too...
Best regards, Chris
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