How to Replace Dipstick Tube 1997-2006 BMW 325 Xi
Created on: 2019-08-27
Check out this video to learn how to replace the oil dipstick tube on your 97-06 BMW 325Xi or similar 3 Series vehicle.
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step 1 :Removing the Air Filter Box
- Disconnect the negative battery cable by loosening the 10mm nut
- Remove the air collector push pin retainers
- Remove the air collector
- Disconnect the MAF electrical connector
- Loosen the air filter box hose clamp
- Disconnect the air tube from the air filter box
- Release the air filter box lever latches
- Remove the air filter box lid
- Remove the air filter
- Remove the two 10 mm bolts securing the air filter box
- Disconnect the wiring from the retaining tab
- Remove the air filter box
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step 2 :Removing the Cabin Air Filter Tray
- Unlock the three twist locks to release the cabin air filter cover at the rear of the engine compartment
- Remove the cabin air filter
- Remove the four T30 screws along the rear of the cabin air filter tray
- Pry the tabs along the wiring retainer to remove the wiring
- Remove the cabin air filter tray
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step 3 :Removing the Oil Dipstick Tube
- Remove the two 10 mm bolts to remove the middle engine cover
- Remove the wiring from the retaining brackets above the fuel rail and move the wires aside
- Cut the wire tie securing the wires to the intake plenum
- Disconnect the breather hose from the valve cover
- Disconnect the electrical connector below that breather hose
- Remove the weather stripping from the drivers side engine compartment barrier
- Remove the twist lock to remove the engine compartment barrier
- Remove the vacuum hose and wire from the engine compartment barrier
- Disconnect the two hoses from the intake snorkel
- Loosen the two hose clamps on the inner end of the intake snorkel with a 6 mm socket or flat blade screwdriver
- Remove the intake snorkel
- Remove the fuel line and small vacuum line from the retaining bracket near the dipstick tube
- Remove the 13 mm bolt securing the dipstick tube
- Disconnect the vacuum hose from the dipstick tube
- Remove the dipstick tube
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step 4 :Installing the Oil Dipstick Tube
- Replace the oil dipstick tube O-ring, if necessary
- Make sure not to drop the O-ring into the engine if you need to remove it
- Install the oil dipstick tube into the hole
- Secure the dipstick tube bracket with the 13 mm bolt
- Reconnect the air hose to the dipstick tube
- Reinstall the fuel line retaining clip to the dipstick tube and secure the fuel line in it
- Reconnect the intake snorkel to the throttle body and idle air valve
- Tighten the two worm clamps
- Reconnect the vacuum hoses to the intake snorkel
- Install the engine compartment barrier
- Secure the barrier with the twist lock
- Install the hose and wires into the barrier
- Install the weather strip on the barrier
- Install the purge solenoid onto the bracket
- Reconnect the hoses and electrical connector to the purge solenoid
- Install the dipstick into the tube
- Install the engine cover and secure it with the two 10 mm bolts
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step 5 :Installing the Air Filter Box
- Lower the air filter box into position
- Install the two 10 mm air filter box bolts
- Install the air filter
- Slide the air filter cover onto the air tube
- Secure the air filter cover with the lever latches
- Reconnect the MAF electrical connector
- Tighten the air filter cover hose clamp
- Insert the air collector into the air filter box
- Secure the air collector with the push pin retainers
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step 6 :Installing the Cabin Air Filter Tray
- Reinstall the cabin air filter tray and secure it with the three T30 screws
- Reinstall the wiring harness and hose into the retaining bracket and close the locking tabs
- Reinstall the cabin air filter
- Reinstall the cabin air filter cover and secure it with the three twist locks
Tools needed
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13mm Socket
Socket Extensions
Pliers
Pick
Side Cutters
Flat Blade Screwdriver
6mm Socket
8mm Socket
10mm Socket
T30 Socket
Ratchet
Needle nose pliers
13mm Wrench
What's up, guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video I'm going to show you how to replace the dipstick tube on this 2001 BMW 325xi. If you need parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1AAuto.com.
You're going to remove this piece. I just want to take some side cutters. Remove these push pins. Be careful not to cut them. Pull that out, and I'll just grab this. Pull this aside. There is a couple of clips on there. If it's not coming out too easy, just take a straight blade screwdriver and push those in. Disconnect the mass air flow sensors. Push down. Wiggle the connector off. Set that aside. Take a straight blade screwdriver. Loosen up this worm clamp right there, just like that. We can take that snorkel off right now.
Next, I'm going to take these two 10 millimeter bolts out. You could take this top cover out first if you want to unclip it. Pull that off. Pull the air filter out. But I'm going to keep that all together. Use a 10 millimeter socket extension and electric ratchet. If you don't have an electric ratchet, use a regular ratchet. Loosen these up.
Take those two bolts out. Now we can grab the air box, all as one, and just slide it out. I'm going to take this cover off right here. Just take these clips. Twist it to the side, just like that. Grab this and slide it out. This weatherstrip might be in way. It should slide forward. We'll take the cabin filter out. It slides out as well. I need to remove these wires from this housing right here. You can either take the cover off, or you can slide it up right there. I like to take this cover off. Just take a screwdriver. Slide that off like that. Pull that out of the way. Grab these wires. Pull that down. Pull this one down.
Now I'm going to use a T30 socket extension and ratchet, and I have four screws right there. Take those off, so it's all loose, and just slide this panel up. Slide it out of your way. I'm going to take this intake snorkel off. I want to take these two hoses off right here. You can just grab them. Twist them. Slide it out. You could you use the little pick in there if you're struggling to get this off.
All right, let me just go around like that. Then you should be able to twist it off. It should come off a little bit easier, and if you have hose pliers you can use hose pliers. Always makes it a lot easier. Take that off. There's a hose that slides off this intake tube right here, so there's two different hose clamps that I have to remove. This one and then one that's further in there. It's kind of hard to see, so I'm just going to take a pocket screwdriver. Slide underneath here. Try to get on it and loosen that hose clip.
You'll be able to seat a little better once I get this snorkel out. It was actually a little bit easier to take a six millimeter socket and extension and a ratchet and loosen that worm clamp up like that. Now I'm going to put it on a longer extension. I'm going to try to get this one out. If not, I'm going to have to use a screwdriver. Use the ratchet and six millimeter socket. Trying to get this to loosen up. All right, so those are both loosened up. Just grab it. Wiggle it a little bit. Twist it back and forth. Make sure you don't rip it, and slide it out, just like that.
We want to take the dipstick tube out. There's a bracket right here that has a retainer that holds this vacuum line, and then also the fuel line right here. Just slide the fuel line out. Just pop it out like that, and then this little bracket. I'm just going to take some needle nose pliers and just pinch this together. Push it through. A little bit tricky to get in there, but there we go.
Push that through, and then there's a bolt down here that's going towards the front of the vehicle, so we're going to take a 13 millimeter socket and a ratchet. If you have a flex head ratchet, that would help out. All right, so I was able to break it free. If you struggle with this, you can try breaking it free with a wrench. It's just really tight in there. All right, so take that bolt out. All right, so I'll just a right angle pick. Try to get in underneath it. Then just go around the hose. Loosen up that seal. It's kind of made a seal, and that's what makes it stick to the hose. With that loosened, I should be able to twist this, yup, and pull it off. There we go.
Grab the dipstick tube and just slide it out. All right, so we got the dipstick loose. What we want to do is take this cover off right here, because we can't get the dip stick to slide any further up. So loosen this up right here. Take that off. Take this weather stripping off right here. Slide this up. Slide this wire out of the way. Oops, it fell down. Just make sure these hoses are not attached. Slide the hoses out of the way. We should be able to slide this cover back. Watch out for this vacuum hose right here. That slides out pretty easily, so then you can slide the dipstick up. A little bit easier to get that out, and there you go.
I would recommend taking this cover out before you started taking the dipstick out. It'll give you a little bit more room in there, and it'll be less of a struggle for you.
Where the dipstick hole is, where it goes into the engine, there's an actual O-ring there. It's a good idea to replace that O-ring if possible. You're going to have to use a pick and try to pick it out and just make sure it doesn't fall into the engine oil pan. But ours looks okay, so I'm not going to. But you could end up with a vacuum leak afterwards or even an oil leak, so just keep that in mind if you're pulling the dipstick tube out.
All right. So with the new O-ring, or take the old O-ring out of the engine, just slide that up there. Then you can lubricate this with some white lithium grease or some engine oil. Just line this up in position. These coolant hoses kind of get in the way a little bit. Kind of got to move those out of the way. All right, slide that down, just like that.
All right. Push that dipstick down. Make sure it goes down all the way. What you could do is take a mirror and just check the bracket. Make sure the bracket's lined up with the bolt hole. Sometimes it can be tricky. Just make sure you lubricate the O-ring, and should be able to get it. Now I'm going to put the bolt in. I just got to get it lined up. All right. Now I'm going to tighten that bolt down. I'm actually going to use a 13 millimeter swivel socket and an electric ratchet. If you don't have a swivel socket or an electric ratchet, you can use a regular one. There's not a lot of room to work back here.
So we'll just tighten this up. Snug it down. I'll go back with a wrench. Just use a 13 millimeter wrench and just snug it. You could use a ratchet wrench, also. There we go. That's good. Here's the other end of that breather or the drain hose, and we're going to slide that onto the dipstick tube right here. There we go, and just slide it all the way on. That's good.
Now I did take this bracket off before I put the dipstick tube on. This is just going to hold the fuel line, so I'm just going to reinstall that. Just slide that back into the bracket on the dipstick tube right there. It's kind of hard to see, and then slide the fuel line back in there. If these hoses got in your way, you could remove this bracket when you were doing the dipstick. Just reinstall this. Slide these hoses back in, and then this will slide right over here. That's good.
Next, before I install this panel right here, it is going to be significantly easier to install the snorkel, so we're going to install this now. We already took it out. We did it the other way, but it's a lot easier to get this in. Just line this up. Make sure your worm clamps are on there.
From up here I'm just going to use this screwdriver, straight blade screwdriver, and tighten up that worm clamp. It goes on that top port of the snorkel. Snug that up, and then do the same with the bottom one. We're going to take these vacuum lines. One goes to the top. This comes right off the intake right there, and then this one comes from underneath there, so install that. That's good.
Now we'll take this cover. Slide this over here. If you struggle with this, you can pull the brake booster hose off. Get a little more room. There we go. Get it lined up. It's actually one of these push twists retainers that hold this in, so we'll just get that lined up. Push it in, so that's good. You may have one over here. This vehicle did not have one there, so keep that in mind, and we'll take this vacuum hose that goes to the brake booster. Line this up right there. Reinsert it into the booster, and then same with this wire. Just slide this right there. Now we can take the weatherstrip. Get this lined up, just like that.
Install the dipstick. You can reinstall the air box. Get it back in position. Move this clamp over here. Install these two bolts here and here. Take a 10 millimeter socket extension and ratchet. Tighten these bolts up, just snug. That's good. Use a straight blade screwdriver. Tighten up this worm clamp snug, and plug this connector to the mass airflow sensor. Lock it in place.
Take this intake. Put this back through the air box. Clip it in place. Take the push pins. Get these lined up. I'm just going to get them all started first and then lock them down. Lock it down. All right, now we want to install this. Just get this lined up. You can get these screws started. I'm going to take a T30 socket extension and a ratchet. Tighten these up. Now reinstall these wires and this cover right here, just like that.
Take this cover. Line it up, and that's good. Take the filter. We're going to slide it in with the curved side towards the vehicle, so the bowed side more towards the out of the vehicle. Just slide that in position, like that. We'll take this cover. It's going to slide in underneath this weatherstripping. Just push it in. Get these lock tabs to line up and lock them down. They're spring loaded. The last one, and you're good to go.
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