Most liked posts in thread: 2004 R53 (re)Build Thread

I'm going to take it apart to visually inspect and be sure. The lack of power under throttle is significant, something is definitely wrong. The car wouldn't even start yesterday - no crank at all from the starter - until I unplugged the negative battery wire and re-attached it. So something is off somewhere, I'm digging my hole even deeper now.

 

Thanks guys, that helps a lot. Last night I was feeling like any effort in chasing the timing was maybe a wasted effort, but this is all great perspective. I will dig into the timing chain this weekend and just reset it as if it were new. I'll go from there at least knowing for certain that the timing is correct.

thinking ahead to worst case scenario... if I find out that I bent a valve, is that ONLY solved with a new engine, or is a valve replaceable? would that simply entail another valve job at the machine shop only this time a new valve would go in to replace the bent one? If it's another valve job I can live with that - that was $350 so it would be that plus the valve replacement, and I at least know what goes into pulling the head for that work to be done.

Edit: Duh, I just noticed that Lee said "If it is a bent valve you can replace that one valve" so that answers my question! And is good news, if that is in fact the worst case scenario I'm dealing with now.

 

Thankfully the thumb is calming down and healing nicely! No drills or needles or hot pokers. Swelling is way down and pain is mild now.

mini is going back to my mechanic this week. I think I am done with solving it myself. I’m convinced I bent a valve. After all this work it’s crushing that I might have ruined it when putting it back together after finally solving the actual problem. But the plan is to get it running again. I will report back when I know if that will happen!

 

I did have the power steering recall work performed years and years ago, I don't even remember when. Long ago enough that I'm not surprised the "new" system is leaking. Clamps would be nice if that's all it is. That power steering recall nearly killed me twice. The first time it bit me, the power steering went out as I merged onto an exit ramp, at highway speed. With a split-lane barrier fast approaching at that speed, the immediate feeling was as if I had no steering at all. Took all of one second or less to realize I had control, it was just heavy all of a sudden. This was before BMW had admitted the problem, and the dealership was in zero hurry to address it as anything more than a freak occurrence when I called about it. It was normal for months, then happened again mid-turn on a thankfully low-speed curve near my house. More phone calls, car went in, "nothing wrong" reported. Thankfully the recall (which actually wasn't technically a true recall for sneaky legal reasons on BMW's part I seem to remember) was announced shortly after that, pump was replaced and it's been fine ever since.

I haven't thought about that in years. The me of today probably have told them to shove their little car up their rear. Guess I've always been a glutton for punishment from this car. It's like an old pet or family member with questionable habits that are willing to be overlooked out of love and familiarity at this point.

 

Day 3

Fairly short day of work today. We took a detour to a junkyard and pulled the front seats out of an '05. Our drivers seat cloth is wrecked, years of wear finally got exponentially worse and it's torn in two big gashes on the seat back side bolster and the stitching is giving out. Now we have two dirty but very cleanable black leatherette seats to swap in that will clean up the look quite a bit. I'll miss the two-tone space gray cloth though tbh.

Today's work:

• Removed belt tensioner assembly
• Removed crankshaft pulley, idler pulley and supercharger pulley
• Removed timing case cover and cleaned
• Removed timing chain
• Installed Cravenspeed 15% reduction supercharger pulley

Stopped there for today. I need to sort out what I'm doing next, seems I could go a few directions but I think my best move is to get the head back on first thing tomorrow morning so I can get the new timing chain installed easily with the cam sprocket able to go back in place.

Found something odd tonight, unsure what it is and it seems like I should probably worry about it... can anyone tell what this plastic plunger-like piece is? It has two springs, the obvious one on the outside and smaller one inside, so that end presses like a button:



I found this by accident. I looked down at the oil filter housing and it was just sitting inside oil filter housing, resting loose on the threaded side of the housing where the filter and cap would be. I put the filter housing back in last weekend after changing the gasket, so somehow this piece ended up in there since then. It appears to be broken - you can just see three prongs inside the large outer spring, it's hard to tell even in person but they appear to have snapped.

Is this a part of the oil filter assembly, maybe something that the filter presses down into when it's being pressed in? Seems like a speedbump for me to clear.

Another odd thing discovered: When I removed the timing case cover, there was no bolt where bolt number 1 should be (lower-most right corner of the cover). I've never touched the timing cover, and I can't actually think of a time that a mechanic would have either. Bolt 11 was barely finger-tight... do these back out over time from vibration? I'll get a replacement for bolt 1 tomorrow, they look to be 20mm. I'm actually encouraged that this could have been one of the sources of the constant but minor oil leaks.

I think my plan tomorrow is to reinstall the head, get the new timing chain and guides and tensioner in, then replace the timing cover, pulleys and belt tensioner. I'll be putting on the Cravenspeed 2% crank pulley. I can not believe how much lighter it is than the stock crank pulley! Pretty excited about that.

 

Day 5

Done and very happy with the results! Long final day today as I cleaned a lot as I went through the final installations and then the long process of buttoning up everything that had been dismantled.

New pulleys are in, new belt tensioner and new engine mount as well. Everything went back together without drama.

First drive - lots of grinning and chuckling from my son and I! We’re actually amazed at how different and better the car feels. So much pep and zip there that had been long-lost. The 15% supercharger pulley and the lightweight crank pulley are game changers. Kicking myself for waiting this long... I could have done this 100,000 miles ago!

The car has a new lease on life.

Couple of details to sort out next:

• The oil filter drain valve will be here this week. I filled it today with cheap oil that I’ll drain by the weekend and refill with my preferred LiquiMoly. At that time I’ll get the drain valve in and lose the oil pressure light. Only on at idle and low revs as expected.
• Speaking of idle - it feels low or rough. Not intermittent or missing, and not hunting. Just rumbly and a touch uneven. No codes for the obvious like a misfire (I cleared out my old codes for misfire and evap leak and they didn’t come back in tonight’s drives, only about 25 miles so far though).
  I put in the cooler-running NGK plugs that the JCW used, because of the reduction pulley... could that cause it? Like an adaptation issue? Actually just thought of that. I didn’t reset the adaptations... would they anyway after the battery was disconnected for 9 days?
  
• Or, could it be the low oil pressure at idle from the missing drain valve in the filter housing?
  
• I’m going to get it to my mechanic to deal with the broken throttle body bolt, hopefully this week. I want that sorted ASAP. Maybe causing the idle rumbles?

Thanks many times over for following and replying with encouragement, ideas and your experience. This was a MEGA project for me, by far the biggest car project I’ve ever done. The idle is nagging at me but overall this feels like a big success. The car feels fantastic now. And we love the louder supercharger whine.

 

Thanks for weighing in with ideas. I'm really not sure. Bypass valve is interesting... I need to research that more to understand it. Would love to stop buying stuff right about now though...

Couple things happening now. I have the car up to drain the cheap oil and refill with the good stuff now. I also planned to pop in the new drain valve to the oil filter housing. Something seemed amiss when I checked the dipstick before lifting the car and it seemed to be showing a very low reading. But I've always hated that dipstick, it's never easy to read. I warmed up the car and checked again and there is definitely oil on it but it honestly hard to tell if it's low or normal or even maybe high.

Got underneath to take out the drain plug and... there's oil everywhere. Maybe an exaggeration, not nearly as bad as before. But what a kick in the gut. I want to see no oil outside the car. I have some photos, it seems to be all originating from the transmission side.

Visible Oil #1

this is from underneath at the front of the car. This part is attached to the front of the transmission near the engine block. There is visible oil on that mounting point. The oil runs down from there - this appears to be the highest point where I can see fresh oil (I cleaned up the old gunky oil as well as I could last weekend, I'm almost certain this is new).


Visible Oil #2

here I've moved a few inches down and back - looking straight up from underneath the transmission. The most visible oil forming a droplet there is the lower end of the bracket you can see the top end of in the first photo. You can see the oil continuing its way downward through the lower portion of this image.


Visible Oil #3

Directly underneath the transmission looking straight up toward the ceiling. Top half of the image is the transmission, then the seam where it meets the oil pan. Bottom half of the image is the oil pan. Lots of oil! It appears to be the continuous run-off from that high point in the first image, but it's hard to tell and to me it looks like a LOT of oil where the transmission meets the pan/engine. Does not feel good to see it here.


Visible Oil #4

that big fat droplet is what I saw first, that's just near the drain plug. Power steering fan housing is visible in the lower right corner to orient you.


I hope these images post correctly, I would love any input anyone can offer. I know diagnosing this stuff is damn near impossible for any of you via static images in a forum, but I appreciate all the advice so far a million times over.

The mechanic was impressed with everything just two days ago... either they were suffering from situational blindness and missed all this oil mess while focusing on everything at the top of the engine (possible they never got under it since I had them looking at compression and smoke testing and the throttle body / intake) but that seems surprising. I dunno why it would suddenly be leaking this much in the past two days if it was dry when they had it.

The car is up on stands and ready for fresh oil to take it the next 5,000 miles, but now I don't want to put anything in it if I need to re-do the oil pan gasket or worse... much worse... the rear main seal? If anyone can get me in the right direction from that first image where I think I'm looking at the highest point of the new leak maybe I can start there. I'm going to go out and check torque on the fasteners mating the transmission to the oil pan, but I know 100% I torqued those to spec.

For further context since the details never seem to dry up (like the damn oil): When I started it this morning I checked the codes first, because the SES light was on for the first time since doing the work. I pulled a misfire cylinder 2 code and a code for Intake pressure before compressor. Cleared them and cycled through the engine off/back on/KP2, codes never came back on multiple restarts. No idea if that's something else to worry about or what. Saga continues.

 

This might be a better look than all four of those previous photos:



Is this transmission fluid and a leak at the transmission, not engine oil from the engine at all? Stepping back and looking at fresh with the bright lights on it the pattern is clearly visible as starting at the front of the transmission and flowing downward and back.

 

I looked through your thread a bit! Good stuff.

I changed the oil pan gasket while the head was out. I now wonder if that timing was a mistake. After getting the pan back on, I spent the next days with a jack under the pan to raise and lower the engine for the pulley work. I wonder if I stressed the new gasket too much. And I wonder the same about the bits connected to the transmission. The transmission is definitely leaking at that mount going into it on the front side, seeping down the bell housing and then collecting on the pan. Because of all that coming from above, I can’t really tell if it is also leaking oil at the pan to transmission point.

I did find last night that the oil filter housing is leaking a bit. I had that out also to replace the gasket. Great.

 

Thanks for the research/detail on the ATI. I think if I go to a new crank pulley I'll do the PRW. Seems to be the best compromise for what I'm looking for. I'm going to live with the lightweight non-dampened CS pulley I've put on for now, and focus on my other adventures with vacuum leaks! If I solve all that, and then track down my oil leaks, I'll re-focus on how I feel about dampened/non-dampened crank pulleys.