My BMW was leaking like a sieve

Jerry Bransford

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Told several months ago during its starter motor replacement that I had a rear-main seal leak in my BWM, ok I'll keep an eye on it. Then the car started leaking like crazy and my power steering stopped working and found the power steering reservoir empty. Add PS stop-leak, it drains itself 2-3 times so I figure it's not a seal. Tearing things apart gets me to an obviously cracked PS hose. My local trusted German repair shop quoted $180 + $70 for parts, no way I can't afford that. $40 for both PS hoses and a couple hours of swearing and they're replaced. The swearing from the hose coupler not coming off as designed since its plastic release ring broke from nothing more than hand pressure. It was locked and I was past the point of no return. :mad: Dremel to the rescue by making a shallow 360 degree cut all the way around the coupler, just had to be careful to not nick the plastic tube underneath. PS steering leak fixed.

So the oil leak from the RMS got dramatically worse right about this time and I'm tired of all the kitty litter I'm using in the garage and on the driveway. >$1000 estimate to fix the RMS since the car's an automatic which takes an extra hour or two... as in 8-10 hours to replace the RMS. No way, I can't afford it. Switched from its usual oil cap recommended Castrol 5W-30 synthetic to Mobil Super High-Mileage 5W-30 conventional which has seal conditioners and the leak was gone in 2 days. I gave the kitty litter back to the wife for the cat to use. $40 plus 7 quarts of oil and a filter to fix to both leaks. I'm a happy man.
 
Funny how those things work sometimes... our BMW used to consume a quart of oil in less than 500 miles. I added an extra 1/4” vacuum line from the intake to the CCV(also the PCV system) and the problem was solved. Oil levels are fine even at 5,000 miles.
 
It's nice to know that in this computerized, electronic-everything, way-too-complicated automotive era the simple fix still works - on some things, at least.
 
@Jerry Bransford you mean you don’t have this tool? 🤣
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