E85 N52 oil filter housing

[TF07Z430i]

Hi all.

I am about to tackle this job. Watching videos it does not look too bad to do. However I cannot find a video of it done on a Z4. Most tutorials have you taking the oil cooler off first then accessing the difficult lower bolt. On the Z4 the engine is too far forward up against the radiator support to pull the oil cooler off first. Is there a trick to this? Is it a matter of pulling out the cooling fan and accessing it through there then removing the housing and cooler as one piece? It looks like it may be accessible if I remove the Mickey Mouse flange first. I’ll take any tips.

Thanks!

[Johns8403]

I actually just did this job on my 08. I would watch George Austers video on You tube it's pretty helpful. i would say i had a really hard time with the oil cooler.

Trying to remove it from the housing proved challenging. I think if i did it again (i did this on the reinstall) i'd just remove the housing with the cooler still attached before removing from the cooler.

I also took out the fan. It made it much easier to get my fat hands inside of there. I also replaced the serpentine belt due to the mess, but i was replacing that anyway. I did mine because the alternator was giving it up, so i had a bit more room, so you don't have to remove the alternator but i did in my case. Remember alternator bolts are one time use.

Be prepared for shit to happen, in my case the seal on the upper radiator hose came out, so i had to repalce the whole thing because you can't just get that seal, that hose is 85 dollars from ECS/FCP and if you have to remove it be very cautious, it attaches to the expansion tank and radiator and heater hose, so if you crack those you're replacing those. Check the mickey mouse flange and see how it looks if it's terrible replace it.

Some of these jobs you can really start out with a simple thing and end up replacing a lot more. Good luck!