My 2001 540i has 99k miles on it. The coolant has been slowly "disappearing" (1/4 liter every 400 miles, or so) and I have confirmed that the valley pan gasket is leaking and the rest of the cooling system appears in tact. Here are my questions: 1) What's a reasonable price for my indie BMW shop to charge, parts and labor, for this job? 2) What other "maintenance" work should I consider while replacing the valley pan gasket? (Intake manifold gaskets? Other items?) 3) My brother is a former Benz tech. He has a full set of mechanic's tools and is comfortable doing most work on most cars. (He installed the re-built auto tranny in my E39last year without incident.) Is the valley pan gasket replacement something he could likely do over a weekend without running into lots of unexpected problems? 4) Any links or other sources for reviewing this job before my brother and I take a shot at it? (I already have the Bentley manuals for the E39 series.) 5) Any other thoughts, comments, suggestions? Thanks for any feedback.
With new knock sensors, (sometimes required if the insulation is going bad and one bank can only be replaced with one cooling pipe off the car) our shop charges a little over $1k. Without the sensors, it is the same price minus the cost of the sensors. When we do this, we go after the valley pan, rear crossover tube gaskets, cooling pipe O rings, sometimes knock sensors, all intake gaskets, new crankcase breather (vacuum limiter, oil separator, rear cover, whatever they want to call it) and clean all the oil from the intake. We do the rear crossover pipe instead of the water pump because the pump is easy to do from the front, but it is not a bad idea to look closely at it and the T-stat and replace things as necessary. Valve cover gasket replacement costs extra but it is recommended that you check plug wells for oil and replace the plugs if they have been in there for more than 60k, I don't care what the owner's manual says. Not a bad idea to do the plug boots if they are degraded or oily. This job can easily turn into a very expensive "while we are in here" sort of job, so be prepared if you find anything else needs replacement. There are no special tools required to do this, and if you trust your brother with your car, then I'd say go for it. It is an all day job (doesn't take me that long, but this is just a warning for him.) It will obviously take longer if you need to do anything else than what I listed up top. Bentley manual and the forum is about all you need.
I recently performed this work. It took me more than a weekend, mostly because some parts that I changed were special order. While I was in there, I replace something like 10 of the 12 coolant hoses, the water pump, thermostat, a bunch of O-rings, the "PCV" plate on the back of the intake manifold, fuel injector O-rings, intake gaskets, and the Y adaptor in the vacuum line to the brake booster (fell apart during disassembly). The "PCV" plate was unexpected. I found that my intake manifold was full of oil and this PCV device was the culprit. Also, there's a vacuum tube that goes from the front driver's side cover back to the "PCV" plate. Near the front of the engine, this tube has a short rubber hose. I was shocked to find that mine had numerous pin holes but otherwise looked fine. This tube is purchased as an assembly. I chose to re-use mine but cut the rubber hose off (it has crimped on clamps) and replace it with a piece of high temperature silicone hose. http://members.cox.net/rlacm/IntakeIndex.htm has a very good write up on the valley pan change. I followed most of it but, in hindsight, would not recommend his method for disconnecting the fuel injectors from the wiring harness. While pulling it off, I broke one plastic wire retainer. There small and brittle. Maybe another member can suggest a better method. In terms of parts, I found that the dealer was priced better on some and Pelican was better on others. Be sure and ask the dealer for you BMW member discount!
I use a long pick to pull the wire retainers off before pulling the fuel rail. Always replace the PCV plate. Always replace every seal and O ring with new. Do beware of the tee for the brake booster. Some of them are made of dust (I think the later ones are better, though.) I'll look at the writeup later and see if there is anything to add.
Thanks for the insights Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. Your input has been helpful. I had seen the same link describing the procedure and thought it looked pretty complete.
