BMW’s three-liter turbocharged B58 inline-six is an awesome engine. Great response, tons of torque, absolutely huge headroom for tuning, it’s easy to see why this motor’s used in everything from the Ineos Grenadier off-roader to the Toyota GR Supra. However, one potential problem with early B58 examples can turn a simple oil change into potentially a $3,000 repair. Here’s what can go wrong.
It all comes down to the oil filter housing. Instead of a canister-style filter like most Japanese cars, BMWs use a cartridge filter that fits into an oil filter housing, which bolts onto the engine. While this arrangement does let you inspect your filter media for debris at each oil change without having to slice through a metal oil filter, it seems that BMW’s had a hard time with making this setup with lifetime durability.
The truth is, BMWs have suffered from oil filter housing leaks for years. In the N52, N54, and N55 straight-sixes found in vehicles like the E90 3 Series, a leaky oil filter housing gasket comes with the potentially catastrophic side effect of contaminating the serpentine belt, causing it to slip off its pulleys, get wrapped around the inside of the crankshaft pulley, and be ingested by the engine itself through the front crankshaft seal.
While BMW did redesign its oil filter housing for the clean-sheet B58 straight-six, it made the filter housing out of plastic. An interesting choice for a part containing hot oil and coolant, but an especially interesting choice for a part containing a cartridge filter. Generally, there are two failure methods for this part. Firstly, the plastic can simply get brittle and crack over time, causing the oil filter housing to leak oil, coolant, or even both. This has been happening to owners of early B58s for a few years now, and one can safely assume the natural lifespan of the part is as little as eight years or so. Of course, situations like that of the 2016 340i owner below where a leaky oil filter housing is one of “over 6 instances [where] coolant was leaking” are a little extreme, but the filter housing can indeed just do that.
The second failure method is related to torquing the cap for the cartridge filter. See, as soon as any oil is introduced to the sealing rings on the cap, the torque spec of 18.4. lbs-ft becomes invalid. Adding that sort of lubrication causes torque values to spike, which can overtighten the oil filter cap. Interestingly, it seems that much of this damage becomes apparent upon removal, turning a normal oil change into an expensive endeavor. As the forum post below states, “After half an hour I was advised that the oil filter housing had broken during filter removal.” Now that’s a nasty shock.
If you’re looking for a standard replacement for a first-generation B58, genuine BMW part number 11428583895 will run you $416.99 from FCP Euro without fresh gaskets and hardware. Add in the hours of labor to get this done, and you’re looking at anywhere from an $1,800 bill to a $3,500 bill for a problem that could’ve been avoided with a better design and better maintenance technique.
Oh, and this is also an issue on BMW models with the B48 four-cylinder engine—models like the 230i, 330i, 430i, 530i, and X3 30i. It’s also not BMW’s only misadventure with plastic on the B58, as certain engine variants feature plastic oil pump housings that can fail over time, eventually leading to catastrophic engine failure. While the B58 is an engine capable of cranking out some serious power, it’s not bulletproof, and it’s important to fix common issues before you go chasing serious power. So, if you own an older M240i, 340i, 440i, 540i, 640i Gran Turismo, 740i, X3 M40i, X4 M40i, or similar, keep an eye on your oil filter housing.
Top graphic images: BMW; ESC Tuning
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They do sell an aluminum replacement for this. As a b58 owner (2021), I see this in my future…
Trust me bro, BMW is reliable now, they nailed the B58 bro, it was the right choice for the Ineos which is supposed to be taken ‘hundreds of miles from civilization, so why would they choose an unreliable engine?’ (as some BMW stan commented to me last week).
It is very reliable considering the clusterfuck of bad engines they put out between the mid 00’s and before the B58 launch. Reliable in a BMW is not equal to reliable in a Toyota. That’s what people miss. BMW will always find a way to add a catastrophic failure to a mechanical part.
The B58 in my G30 is as reliable as the M52 in my E39, which is to say, above average for a BMW.
Does anyone offer a metal replacement?
Asking the real questions.
Yes they do. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t just use one of those instead of replacing the original part.
Absolutely there are aftermarket aluminum housings.
At this point is there a critical part on a modern MB that is not failure prone and easy to replace? That would be a shorter list
I think you mean BMW, not MB, but it’s probably still true.
I thought the same thing, but it’s a good question for either brand, maybe Audi as well? Asking since I’m looking at a 2005 A8L with 225,000 miles for $1500. It’s a very bad idea, but the price is sooo low.
I appreciate the stone axe simplicity of my old BMW R100S motorcycle. The cartridge oil filter lives in a cast in housing in the crankcase sealed by an aluminum cover with three M6 bolts and an o-ring. Easy to use, hard to screw up. Somewhere in the 90s BMW engineering lost their way since the newer Boxers are fragile and the cars have failing plastics right and left
My Suzuki motorcycle has the same setup, and it’s a joy. Even more so than the usual metal canisters that my cars use.
This same issue exist on Jeep and Ram V6 EcoDiesel engines.
And the 3.6 Pentastar.
Thus following the arc of most BMW engines.
Years 1-4: Its awesome!
Years 5-7: Bulletproof..except for a few minor issues
Years 7+: Oh fuck, it’s junk after all!
Oh yeah, we have so many of these on the shelves at the dealership I work at. Along with the stupid plastic coolant flange that always leaks on every B46/B48. It’s a stupid design, there was nothing wrong with the aluminum oil filter housings. Plus they’re in a dumb place now that makes oil changes a lot more of a pain, whether you’re a DIY’er or a professional technician.
Well, I gotta say, my 2007 VW 2.0t FSI has a plastic valve cover that took ’til 170k miles, I think (maybe it was 160k, maybe 180k) to leak, and it has a similar oil filter housing, but it’s also combined with the aluminum oil cooler…joined to the cast iron block. The oil filter housing and oil cooler gasket didn’t leak until around 195k miles and 15 years! The original plastic oil filter housing on my brother’s (was my Mom’s new) 1998 ML320 still doesn’t leak.
I assumed maybe Toyota had some input and resolved this “over frequent leaking from BMW engines” problem, but I guess not. Imo, the only ones worth dealing with are unicorn n54, manual, sport package, E60s. Maybe manual, sport pack, n54 e90-e93s too (but their interiors fall apart super fast)!
Probably the same material as the oft failed Chrysler 3.6 V6 oil cooler/filter assembly.
Hot oil under pressure + thousands of hours of exposure leads to long term degradation. On GMs I’ve had (Ecotec and 3.6 V6) the housing is part of the aluminum block casting and a cheap and easy to replace plastic cap.
I thought 20 yrs ago Europe was mandating cartridge filters instead of spin ons on new designs for ease of recycling but I don’t think this actually happened. Some engines like the Ecotec and 3.6 V6 went back to a spin on design.
Classic German engineering….creating a a complicated and failure prone solution to a problem that doesn’t exist
The torque spec is Gutentight.
You forgot the ‘and charging a premium for it’ part.
Can somebody explain to me why a cartridge style oil filter needs an external housing as opposed to having that housing integrated into the engine casting itself?
Granted, the last time I dealt with a cartridge oil filter was a 82 Suzuki GS450, but that was integrated into the motor casting which mean a simple metal cover with a large o-ring, held in place by two bolts.
Am I the only one who thinks it looks like a penis?
You may want to get checked out by a urologist.
Forget a urologist, J Money needs an exorcist.
No, especially in the photos where it’s pointing north.
It’s got bent carrot disease.
It’s also on the B46 and B48 cars. The housing can fail due to the coolant beating the hell out of the coolant passages within. I replaced a several for that reason when I was working at BMW. In each one the plastic had eroded away like a rock with water running over it.
One customer drove her car an hour to the dealership with a coolant leak another shop couldn’t find. She ended up needing an engine after I replaced it. (It started right up and drove into the shop from the service drive while still hot, but once the engine cooled off, it no longer had compression because she’d overheated it on her way in when it ran low on coolant.)
Don’t let monkeys work on your car. This happens because they crank the oil filter housing down waaaaay too hard. Germans expect procedures to be followed to the letter, and leaks not be ignored. If you can’t abide by that, buy a Corolla.
Why don’t the Germans make cars more tolerant of human error?
Because it’s less efficient!
Seriously, I’ve found that Germans would rather invent a $900 special tool to do a job because it’s 7% more efficient than using a $5 spanner wrench.
Why should they? That’s the American’s job. They aren’t that good at it either anymore though.
GLARES IN STERN GERMAN
Every stupid issue with my BMW was caused by my messing something up because I didn’t know the tricks/procedures/whatever.
You hear in the back of your head, after doing some work and it fires up with an error code or otherwise, “Vell…. Vat deed joo do vrong?”
But David was spot on mentioning that the torque spec goes out the window when oil is present. So the average owner doing it at home would likely not know that. Then again, there aren’t many people that change their own oil these days. Only Autopians and maybe a small percentage of other people.
The spec for these things is literally finger-tight. The sealing is by an O-ring. You turn it on until it doesn’t turn anymore and STOP. But monkeys, be they at quickie-change places or sadly even dealers, don’t know that. And people who should not be working on their own cars don’t know it either. But I would put money on 90% of these issues being from the quickie-oil-change places having touched the car.
Not mentioned in the list of B48 cars is the Mini Cooper S. I think the B38 in the base Coopers also need to be watched for issues with this housing.
I recall reading – somewhere, can’t recall the source – that passenger car manufacturers engineer and design for a 10-year service life. Government fleet auctions consist of passenger cars (not light trucks) that are 10 years old. For many makes, dealer parts availability tend to drop off 10 years after a part has gone out of use. Not all manufacturers, of course, Mercedes and Volvo (among others) have a lot of dealer-available parts for older models.
But in general, car manufacturers simply don’t care if the car they sold you 10 years ago has parts that start to fail.
Lets be honest, 10 years and 150k or so is the design life. No car maker will make money if we all run our cars forever. They make money on NEW car sales, not parts. Once out of warranty you are on your own to some degree.
I say this with my newest car being 11 years old and my fleet average around 200k.
That, and making cars that last more than 150k (without the usual maintenance it takes to do so) would likely drive up costs. It absolutely could be done, of course, but I suppose they have to draw the line somewhere. Even people I know with Corollas have had issues past 150k, and they’re sort of the benchmark for low maintenance cars.
I’ve found it much easier to get parts for my 20 year old German cars than a Ford that’s 10 years old.
I absolutely agree that the Germans (along with Volvo) are much better than the American and Asian manufacturers at maintaining parts availability. I believe many Europeans don’t daily drive their cars, relying on public transport for those needs, and therefore they keep them longer.
I think it might depend on the Ford though – there will be parts for my Mustang until the sun goes out, and I’ve had no trouble sourcing anything for my 15 year old Focus. But I do like those particular models in part for the longevity of their runs…if I had say a Five Hundred, I might be less happy.
You would think they would have an infinite supply of stuff of OBS Ford trucks, but several common things were unavailable back when I owned one. Just had trouble finding a special brake line for a Ranger (weird fitting.) I had trouble finding a heater hose for C-max, again special fitting that had to be clocked correct – first couple of parts I got weren’t clocked correctly – then they were NLA. There are unavailable parts for my 2021 Escape!
Except when the brand is built around simplicity and longevity as a feature. My 16 year old Fit has been beat to crap over 3 prior owners and is a rounding error away from 300k but the only problem I’ve had to fix was from some leftover electronic crap one owner installed and someone else tried to remove.
I think the more catastrophic version of this is fairly rate – at least, it’s not something I’ve seen much of on the 2-series forum. Still, it illustrates why it pays to know the potential failure points with BMW (really any) engines and to pay attention to the car.
As an owner of a G30 who frequents forums A LOT, I concur. I’ve never seen a post of anyone saying “hey, my G30 had the plastic OFH fail”. I’m sure it happens as plastic and engines are a terrible combo, but the article seems to imply this is a catastrophe and it isn’t. The plastic oil pump problem is way more common and way more serious.
Our VW has a filter design similar to this. We’ve had it for almost 8-years and have not had an issue (thankfully).
I appreciate that many German cars/makes have tried to reduce the environmental impact of oil changes (long-life oils with up-to a 12-month change interval and removing the disposable-metal from filter changes), but it is certainly annoying if that effort can cause more catastrophic issues.
Our “other” car has a Gen2 B58, so I’m really hoping this issue is solved…
My 2007 GTI didn’t need a single leak fixed ’til the valve cover at around 160-180k miles and then the oil filter housing gasket and the oil cooler gasket at around 195k…replaced the whole oil filter housing, though I think I could have just replaced the gasket. And also new bolts and thermostat! And the first valve cleaning (was still running fine in spite of the insane amount of gunk in there). The abyss where that all resides makes it not a fun task to perform.
I have 2 Toyota’s that use a cartridge type filter in an aluminum housing. The caps seem sturdy, but do need a special wrench adaptor (of course). New filter elements always come with o-rings. TBH the canister filter is easier and less messy.
Those Toyota oil filter caps break so easily they carry aluminum replacements in stock on the shelf at my FLAPS. And you can’t get just the cap from Toyota, you have to replace the entire housing. Problem is the same, however, cap is tightened too much at previous oil change.
Sounds like the Nissan plastic oil pan… not just a German brand issue.
This sounded familiar. https://www.theautopian.com/how-one-faulty-engine-part-put-millions-of-chryslers-dodges-jeeps-and-rams-at-risk-of-major-oil-leak/
That’s what I was thinking. Although I wonder where is the BMW one located? On a Pentastar I can’t imagine this is a $3k job.
Who knows my jeep dealer charges 200+/hr labor.
Damn, my local BMW/Mini dealer is “only” $165!
The 2.5T in my ’07 Volvo and the 4.0 V6 in my 5th gen 4Runner both use a plastic housing for the oil filter element. No issues with either, 233k on the Volvo and 190K on the 4R.
The Volvo looks like it’s just a plastic cap, the rest of it is aluminum. I’d assume the same with the Yota. The 2.8 duramax in my Colorado has a plastic cap, but the rest of the filter assembly is aluminum. The issue with the BMW is that the whole thing is plastic, not just the cap.
Ohhh, gotcha. On the bimmer the thing the cap screws into is plastic too?
Yes, on both my cars the plastic housing screws into metal. On the 4R a lot of people swap it out with an aluminum cap from a Camry, but I don’t see the point.
Yeah the housing and the cap are both glass reinforced nylon.
I haven’t seen the 2.5T, but the Yamahammer V8 is an aluminum housing with a plastic cap.
These German brand cars seem to have the reliability of 1970’s American-made cars that were good for about 3 years or 36,000 miles before they were nearly dispoable.
Nah.My E90 went well over 200K miles without any major repair issues. Handle these things correctly and failure is not terribly likely (although certainly possible).
I second this, Mike F. I had an E90 that made it past 160K miles before I finally sold it in good working order – sure there were some gasket leaks that needed to be addressed at around 110K miles, but otherwise it was a shockingly reliable car.
I’m glad it gave a long life! I tend to agree that taking care of a car and not abusing it is the key to a long life.
Hey man, if we weren’t into hating on German cars here we would’ve chosen one of the other 300 models from any other manufacturer that use plastic oil filter housings to write about.
That should be to follow the manufacturer’s recommendations.
But of course, the “possibility” is higher, and the issues are much more expensive.
Based on the data, BMWs are among the most expensive brands to keep on the road. If that is worth it for some folks, great, but it doesn’t change the reality.
It depends on the BMW. There are models that are very expensive to keep going and others that are very cheap. I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to delve into which is which in order to buy a car, but the ones that are reliable are up there with anything short of a Honda or Toyota. That said, yes, repairs are more expensive when they do happen.
Based on current data over ten years, the least expensive BMW to keep on the road is the i4, at about $8k. The least expensive ICE is the 530, at around $14k. These are two to three times Lexus models. The XM, X7, X6M, and X5M are over $20k, more than a Range Rover, and only less expensive than Bentley. Hell, even a Golf-R is only $6k.
BMW’s sky-high numbers aren’t due to the slightly higher costs of oil changes and brake pads. They reflect the fact that an unfortunately high percentage of them have very, very expensive failures.
I’ve owned BMWs and loved them. They were always a bit more expensive to fix, but they didn’t break down more than average. Fifteen years ago, that started to change; 10 years ago, it became clear it wasn’t an anomaly, and now it is clear that BMW has gone off the deep end.
Maybe if they still provided the driver engagement on which they built their brand and Porshe still manages, they would still hold some appeal. But their stearin, brakes, and often questionable ride just don’t provide any reason to deal with the lack of quality.
I won’t argue regarding the newer models in general. I do have a hard time believing that the 530 is cheaper to run than the 240. It’s anecdotal, but my mechanic’s experience, my experience, and what you see on the forums indicate that anything beyond routine maintenance is rare for the current generation. People are hitting well beyond 100K miles at this point, without issues. What data are you looking at?
Couldn’t agree more regarding the driving experience, though. My 240 will be my last Bimmer.
I just looked at CarEdge as a quick reference. I wouldn’t trust it to be precise or for low-volume models, but it is a good quick reference for trends across brands and models that sell in decent numbers. For low-volume brands, it can get wonky. For instance, Fiat is ranked high because its only current model is the 500E.
The hardest part about looking at reliability over ten years is that there is no real way to know when buying a new or new-ish car. The only thing we can do is look at the history/trends, and BMW has been nose-diving for years.
An interesting side-note. Ram is shown being right up there with the worst of the BMWs at over $20k.
I guess part of what’s worked for me is that I’ve always bought used cars, so I’ve had some information to go on. The worst of the BMWs tend to show their flaws pretty early on, so a few years of information helps a lot in determining what to buy. Weird that Ram would be in that league. Should be a lot of unhappy truck owners out there.
The question that is very subjective is: Would it be 20% better to drive every day then another brand sedan to make up for the more expensive service and inconvenience? I bet they can be fun (never driven one), but I hate when my vehicles break down.
From just a maintenance standpoint, it can be 2-4x as much, and that doesn’t include the initial purchase price, higher insurance, or much steeper depreciation. The reason they are so often leased is that doing so avoids most of those issues.
I’ve owned a couple BMWs (they would now be classic cars) and I loved them. But back then, the difference in reliability wasn’t as great and there was also a much bigger distance between how a BMW drove and your average mainstream car.
BMW has largely abandoned driver engagement in favor of producing big power to improve its spreadsheet performance numbers—numbers that don’t matter unless you are driving competitively on a track.
That completely makes sense. Years of reading Car & Driver had me convinced that it really was a magical Ultimate Driving Machine. But nowadays the M seems to stand for Marketing.
It is a lot more profitable to sell to people who want to spend money to be seen spending money than it is to appeal to a fickle group of enthusiasts. For the fashion based consumer spreadsheet bragging rights matter, steering and brake feel doesn’t
Very true. Shareholder value matters to corporations over stakeholder values. Forget the ethos that got us here! Make money!
I own both an E39 and a G30. The E39 has been almost bulletproof through its 25 year life. The G30 is also proving itself to be very dependable. German cars, if properly maintained, are very reliable. These “catastrophic” issues are often overblown or taken out of context (e.g. people who never do oil changes, extreme temps, etc.).
I daily an ’06, and it’s going to hit 250k miles this fall sometime. Incredibly solid and reliable car for me!
N52? That’s my previous car. It went over 210K before I got rid of it. According to my mechanic, “nothing ever goes wrong with these things except for leaks”.
Yes, a 330i, so has the three stage intake magic HP gain!
PO took care of the VCG and OPG, so I’ve just had to do OFHG. Super easy job.
I did have to swap in a new radiator as the old one broke when I took off the upper hose. Literally pulled out of the the wall. Luckily an other easy job.
Other than that, the AC compressor has been the only other thing to fail on me. I chose to put in new Koni shocks and M3 control arms, but it didn’t need ’em at the time. An incredibly reliable car that I enjoy driving every day!
You’re not wrong.
Thanks for the reminder why I only admire mechanically over-complicated German vehicles instead of owning them.
This is why 90% of cars made in the last 60 years use a plain ‘ol screw-on oil filter, which is pretty much foolproof technology.
But of course BMW MUST complicate.
The last car I owned with one of those was a 2000XJ. Everything since has had the cartridge style. It has never been an issue.
First vehicle I owned with a cartridge filter was my KTM 690ER. Second is my ’22 Colorado. Really like being able to peak through the pleats and see if there’s any junk in there without having to cut the filter open.
Years ago I owned a VW Jetta, the only German brand car I’ve never owned. It was so full of fragile and leaky plastic pipes, thin hoses, and so many overly complicated designs that I swore those cars off forever.
I liked the underside mount cartridge filter I had on a previous car because it had its own little drain plug that would let the oil out of the filter housing before you removed the whole thing, which meant less mess that removing a spin on filter from the same position. It does however require more steps which of course means more places where the job can get screwed up.
I never use the little plug on mine, just one more step, o-ring, and failure mode.
Never had the drain on the housing it be an issue on mine (and I change or had changed, the oil, every 5-6k miles) – only the gasket where it connected to the block leaked at almost 200k – I replaced the whole housing because the abyss where it lives is not a fun place to be.
The filter kit for my mini comes with a new plug and o-ring for this. It’s filter, plug, o-ring for plug and o-ring for the filter cap.
the E46 had a metal housing/plastic cap. Worked fine.
It was the housing/block gasket that would start leaking on those and if you weren’t real careful, the mounting bolts threads would strip in block with great ease when reassembling.
Plastic failures was main reason got rid of the E46…almost everything that broke was a plastic part. 20yo German plastic…major headache!
GM uses them a lot. Not just for oil filter, but fuel filters too.