Oil Pump Bolt In My Oil Pan!!!

[Spasso]

Thanks to this site and the recounts of people finding oil pump bolts rolling around in their oil pan I decided to pull the pan off of the 530iT (116k miles)I just picked up and low and behold, the right front oil pump bolt was laying in the pan and the left front was finger tight. It had been there for quite a while judging by the wear marks in the pan. The oil pick-up left some marks also.

I pulled the aft bolt as well and flushed all three holes to degrease, washed the bolts and reinstalled with copious amounts of red Loctite, adjusting the 1/2" play in the chain down to a little less than 1/4" (hope that is right). The Bentley Manual wasn't clear in chain deflection so made an educated guess.

I did the same to my 530i sedan (113k miles) when I bought it last year but the bolts were still installed, though loose, when I found them.

DRIVE NO FARTHER until you know for sure!!

Thanks for the great info !!! I hope I can offer something else helpful in the future.
DJ

[winfred]

i see that all of the time at my shop, just had a interesting one yesterday while doing a pan gasket on a 735 i found 3 out of 4 oil spray bar washers that found their way down from the valve train, two of the washers were sucked into the pump pick up along with a couple good sized pieces of pan gasket, guess i gotta pull the valve cover after i finish the long list of crap they brought it in for and see if anythings been eaten

[Alexlind123]

It sounds like its a good idea to pull the pan once in a while.

[BillionPa]

its a known problem on the V8 motors.....

I think i should check that out while im doing the front end suspension.

[31Hertz]

its a known problem on the V8 motors....

Yep, it's no joke. I inspected mine. The mounting bolts were not exactly "finger loose," but it did not take much force to turn them with a ratchet either. The chain was indeed loose as well. I did the same; just used some common sense and adjusted tension not too tight and not too loose. The biggest surprise was the body bolts on the pump itself. Some of them had backed halfway out, and a good three or four were lying in the pan.

[Spasso]

I would never have known about this if it wan't for this site and now that you mention the oil pump BODY bolts I cringe . I was so intent on the mounting bolts I didn't even think to check the pump body bolts!! Crap!! I have never heard of the body bolts coming loose..

It's all back together now and I think I'll leave it in hopes the rest of the bolts are okay.

I am still amazed that BMW didn't do more to address a locking feasure for a bolt that has a relatively low installation torque.