How to Replace Fuel Rail With Injectors 1997-2006 BMW 325 Xi

What's up, guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video, I'm going to show you how to take the fuel rail with the injectors off of this 2001 BMW 325xi. If you need parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to one 1aauto.com.

All right, the battery is in the trunk. I'm going to disconnect the negative terminal, just going to use a 10 millimeter wrench, loosen up this nut right here, and grab the connector and disconnect that. Set it aside.

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 the way. It should slide forward. Take the cabin filter out, it slides out as well. You 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 a ratchet, and they have four screws right there. Take those off. Those all loose, you can just slide this panel up, slide it out of your way.

We're going to take this cover off. Normally you'll have some little covers over here, kind of like these. You just take a screwdriver and pop those out. And then there's two 10 millimeter bolts, I'm going to use a 10 millimeter socket extension and a electric ratchet. You can use a regular ratchet if you don't have one. Loosen those up. Use a magnet, grab my bolts, grab the cover, slide it off.

There's a couple of connectors right here. I'm just going to take some needle-nose pliers and squeeze this retainer right here, slide that through. Same with this one. Slide that through, just like that. There is a wire tie connecting this, these wires right here. Just cut it, and you're just going to have to replace it with a new one. Take these wires out of the way, set them aside. Disconnect this breather hose right here. Just squeeze these together. You should be able to slide it off. Be careful, that's plastic. They get kind of brittle sometimes. Then we're going to disconnect this connector right here. Just push down on this little clip and slide it up. Just push on that clip.

Disconnect this connector right here. This is another one of those spring connectors, you just push down on the spring, slide the connector out. It's a little bit hard to show, my hand's in the way. Like that. The seal actually got stuck to the sensor. So, I'm just going to take a pick, slide the seal off, and reinstall that right in there, because you don't want to lose that, because that keeps it weather-proof.

Now we want to disconnect the fuel injector connectors. All right. What I'm going to do is take a pick, and there's a little clip on the injector connector, right there. Just going to slide it this way, slide this this way, pull the clip out of the way. You might need two picks while you're doing this. I'm going to do all six injectors, just like that. Hopefully that sits right like that. Same on these. All right, so all those clips are taken off of the connectors, and just slide this harness up.

Be careful of this hose. There's a little bit of insulation on this hose that kind of gets in the way a little bit. See if we can get that past. You don't want to rip the hose. And make sure none of these click back in, this one clicked back in. Slide this out. Okay, now that's off, and that one's off. This should all come up. Slide this out of the way.

So, this is all the clips, so you don't want to lose these. I'm trying to get these back on, so that when you put it back together it's a little bit easier. Just like that. And they probably make a special tool for removing these. If you don't find it on the connector, it's probably down near the injector, so I'll just grab a pick, pull it off, just slide it back on the connector. Just take this harness, slide it out of the way, just leave that over there.

Now, before I pull the fuel rail up, I am going to disconnect this cable right here that runs across. Make sure you disconnected the battery in the trunk, if you hadn't done that yet. There should be a cover that goes over this. Pull that cover up. Take a 19 millimeter wrench and loosen this up. Take the cable off, slide it there, and then place it over on that side.

I am going to release the fuel pressure. Just take this cap off right here. There's a Schrader valve in there. I'm just going to take a pocket screwdriver. Make sure you take a rag. It's a good idea to wear safety glasses while you're doing that, and I'm just going to push on that Schrader valve, and it's just going to release any fuel pressure, and there's not really any fuel pressure in the system right now, so that's good. I'll just put the cap back on.

Now, there's four bolts that I'm going to take off the fuel rail. I'm going to use the 10 millimeter socket extension and a ratchet. Loosen these up, just go around and loosen them all up first, and then go back and take them up.

So, I want to pull the fuel rail up. There's a couple of ways you could do this. There's some clips right underneath the injectors right there. You can pull those up, or you can just pull the rail up with the injectors, but generally the O-rings in there get stuck in there. Take a little bit of lubricant, make sure it's not a silicone-based lubricant, because you don't want to ruin the O2 sensors. Something that doesn't have silicone in it. Let that soak for a minute. Now that that has soaked a little bit. You could even use a little bit of engine oil, or transmission fluid would be acceptable as well. It's not going to hurt anything.

I'm just going to get a pick and try to get under here. Try not to crack anything. Just try to slide this up. Try to wiggle it back and forth a little bit. Pick's not going to work. Okay. It slid right up. That actually wasn't too bad. This harness is in my way, so I'm just going to move it over here. Just rotate this a little bit, and you can disconnect the fuel line right here, if you want. You could probably just slide this out of the way if you have the room. But there's a disconnect right here, and as long as you bled the pressure off, this shouldn't spray too much pressure. It's still a good idea to have safety glasses on. So, you're going to push in on the fuel rail, push this disconnect off, and then you're going to try to slide it all out together, just like that, and the connector stayed with that, and there you go.

... do is attach this. Try not to spill any fuel. Just twist it a little bit, lock that in place. We can slide this back over here into position. Now, before we slide these fuel injectors back into the intake, what I want to do is just lubricate the seals. It's a good idea to replace these seals, or you can just check them, make sure that they look pretty good, but generally replace those.

What I like to do is use a little bit of transmission fluid, a little ATF. Just put it on your fingers and then just rub the seals. It's a good idea to use either engine oil or transmission fluid. Otherwise, if you use a silicone lubricant, you're going to cause your O2 sensors to fail, so you don't want to do that. So, just lube them up, that's just going to make them go in a little easier. Make sure those holes were clean. Line them up, those lined up. Then you just press this down. Just wiggle it a little bit. Just like that, so they're down. There we go. There we go. Those are all the way down.

Now I can reinstall those bolts. These bolts, get these all started and then we'll snug them down. Now, I'll take a 10 millimeter socket extension and a ratchet, tighten these down, snug.

Now, take this. These are the connectors for the fuel injection. Just make sure you connected that in the back, underneath the head, or on the head. That's all set. Slide this over here. Slide this in position. When those are all lined up, then you just grab it and lock it in place. Take this connector, connect to that, to this solenoid right here, that in place, and there's one right here, connect that one. Make sure they're tight. So we don't forget about this, just hook this up now, lock that in place. I'm going to take these retainers off right here, slide this into the fuel rail first, then it'll be easier to install these connectors. Slide the wires in first, and then the connector, just like that.

We can hook this battery positive cable up. This goes from the starter motor. Just take a wire brush, clean this up, if it looks like it's got any corrosion on it. Just make sure it's nice and clean. Check this as well. You can clean this area, even the backside of the nut. That's all clean. Reinstall this here, just like that. Just take a 19 millimeter wrench, and snug this up. That's good. And then if you have the cover, put the cover over there.

Now I'll reinstall this cover. Slide it under the wires. So, this has to, there's a couple of clips underneath here that have to slide onto this rail. Let's see. There you go. All right, so make sure those clips are slide in position and take the bolts, get the bolts started. Take a 10 millimeter socket extension and a ratchet, tighten these down. Just snug. It is plastic, not too tight. There should be two caps that go over here. This vehicle doesn't have them, they're missing, so I'm not going to put those in, but make sure you reinstall those caps. All right.

Now we want to install this. Just get this lined up. You can get these screws started. Now I'm going to take a T30 socket extension and a ratchet, tighten these up.

Now, I'll reinstall these wires in 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. I'm going to take this cover, it's going to just slide in underneath this weatherstripping. Just push it in. Get these lock tabs to line up and lock them down. They're spring-loaded, and the last one, and you're good to go. Reconnect the battery, put the negative terminal on, take a 10 millimeter wrench, and we'll just tighten up this nut, and just snug it up. Make sure it's tight, it doesn't wiggle loose, and you're good to go.

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