Here’s another one of those common oil leak points on the BMW E46. Up there with the valve cover gasket as one of the most common sources of oil leaks on the E46, the oil filter housing gasket is yet another weak point. What’s crazy is that, the oil filter housing gasket itself costs less than $5, but the overall job usually costs much more due to the labor it takes to remove all of the other components needed to get to the gasket.

As with any car, you can get rocks and debris that gets kicked up and hitting the front of your vehicle. This can result in paint chips on your front bumper and hood. It can also cause cracks and breaks in your headlight, turn signal, and fog light lenses. When I purchased my BMW E46, it already had a broken corner light lens. Replacing the corner light is actually quite easy, although if you don’t know how to remove the corner lens, it may be frustrating to deal with.

If you’re familiar with the BMW E46, you may already know that they are notorious for leaking oil. As of the time of this post, E46’s on the road are 15+ years old, so most of them will experience oil leaks to some degree. The most common oil leaks on the E46 are at the oil filter housing gasket, the oil pan gasket, and the valve cover gasket. On this particular post, I will be covering the valve cover gasket replacement on the BMW E46, which will apply to all BMW 323i, 325i, 328i, and 330i models.

If there is one thing that is guaranteed to be broken on almost every single BMW E46 out there, it has got to be the windshield cowl. This is the rubber molding that sits at the base of the windshield. This rubber molding will get brittle from sun exposure over time and will eventually crack and break apart. If your E46 doesn’t have this problem, it has either been replaced recently, or it is only a matter of time before it happens.

The BMW E46 utilizes a coil-over configuration, with each ignition coil matched to one spark plug. In total, that comes out to (6 qty) ignition coils and (6 qty) spark plugs on this inline six engine. I’ve written this DIY tutorial to replacing the spark plugs for the E46, which will cover all 323i, 325i, 328i, and 330i models.

One of the easiest jobs you can do on your BMW E46 3-Series is to replace the engine air filter. There are a whole host of benefits to replacing the engine air filter such as improved fuel efficiency, reduced emissions, and prolonged engine life.