Rebuilding BMW Transmission Oil Cooler Hose Quick Connect Fittings

I pulled the BMW E61 into the garage last week to sort out a few issues - rear axle CV boots leaking, oil leak, and low boost pressure. On inspection, I found a leaking transmission oil cooler quick connect fitting, which was spraying oil on the charge air duct from the intercooler to the intake manifold.

The upper (pressure side) tranmission oil cooler quick connect fitting is leaking

I did some research on the internet, could not find any articles about people rebuilding these fittings. This hose costs $170 - expensive to replace for a simple leak. I figured since it was leaking anyway, I would try to take it apart and see if there were replaceable seals. The part numbers of the hoses affected are: 17227570973, 17227571978 and 17227571985.

Once the connection is separated, I took a pick and very easily removed two regular o-rings from the female side of the fitting.

It was easy to remove two standard o-rings from the fitting using a pick. I was careful not to scratch the inside of the connector shell. Once I had the o-rings removed, I noted there were two spacers made from plastic - one green spacer deep in the fitting, and one gray spacer just above the green spacer.

O-rings removed from the fitting, see the green spacer and gray spacer just above. 

The old o-rings were squared off, and not very pliable. They held their out of round shape upon removal. I measured the old o-rings and then estimated what the original uncompressed size would be. They appeared to be standard metric o-rings, and a quick trip to the local o-ring supplier yielded some potential replacements. 

Old o-rings above, new o-rings below. Two per fitting. 

Next step was to stuff the new o-rings into the fitting.  To start with, I used a pick to push the green spacer to the bottom of the fitting, and lift the gray spacer to the top of the fitting. This leaves a groove the width of two o-rings to fit the first replacement o-ring. I stuffed the o-ring into the fitting using some needlenose pliers. 

Start by pushing the green spacer to the bottom of the fitting.

Then - insert the replacement o-ring using needlenose pliers. 

I used the needenose pliers to insert the o-ring into the fitting just above the green spacer, and then to hold one side of the o-ring in the correct position while I used a screwdriver to massage the o-ring into position. With the first o-ring in place between the green and gray spacers, use your pick to push down the gray spacer (and the first o-ring) against the green spacer. 

First o-ring inserted above the green spacer. 

Next step, insert the second o-ring just above the gray ring just as before. With both o-rings inserted, I closed the fittings, cleaned them carefully to remove all traces of oil, so that any new leaks would be apparent. Following a run-up - the two fittings I repaired were both well sealed. I created this simple schematic showing how the o-rings stack in the fitting. 

I've purchased spare O-Rings - if you would like to purchase O-Rings to repair your own fittings, click this link.

If you're careful with the plastic ring and don't break it when disassembling the connection, you may be able to repair it. One other tip - if possible, before disassembling, wash the hoses with soap and water, and get into the release clip side of the fitting with a toothbrush to get as much grit and sand out of the fitting. Blow water out of the release clips using compressed air, and this will make the disconnection a bit easier. Comment below if you have any questions. 

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Tap and Die Organization Using Plano Half Height ProLatch StowAway Utility Boxes

I've had an inexpensive tap and die set forever. I bought it from Canadian Tire, came in a blue metal case - and I'm sure there's hundreds of thousands of these out in garages everywhere. Mine got to the point where the plastic organizer started coming apart, and, there is no space for expansion when you purchase new taps and dies.

The completed reorganization - Taps and Dies, One box for Metric, One box for Standard, Plano ProLatch StowAway

I don't use these regularly enough to really do much about it, until I got into a turbo replacement project on my daily driver and had quite a few threads to clean up. I was also annoyed that the metric and standard taps and dies were mixed together, it just slowed things down when trying to find the right tap or die quickly. So - a new project was born.

Mastercraft Tap and Die Set - The plastic organizer had reached end-of-life

I did a bit of research, and the idea of a machinists tool chest was quickly ruled out - I don't use these very often, and I want the storage to be as space efficient as possible. I organize all my hardware in Plano Prolatch storage boxes - super convenient, and I went to see if I could find something suitable for the taps and dies. I found that Plano makes a half height Prolatch - the 2-3601 with 21 adjustable compartments. Here's how it went.

Plano ProLatch StowAway 2-3601 Utility Box 

 This was quick and easy. Separate metric from standard, and organize taps and dies from large to small - outer corners towards the center. I double stacked dies - this works well because you can pair the fine and coarse threaded dies of the same size.

Metric Taps and Dies, with enough space left over for the tap holders, in the Plano 2-3601 ProLatch StowAway

I know that taps shouldn't be stored where the tap cutting surfaces can rub against other taps - I'll have to look into sleeves that I can use to protect the thread cutting surfaces a bit better, but I don't think this should be a major issue for me. If these were rattling around the back of a service truck, it would be a different story.

Both sets - labelled. Plano ProLatch StowAway 2-3601

I've bought a few more of these Plano boxes - they're quite space efficient, and will fit in my hardware rack nicely. Here's a photo of how I store all my hardware in the regular height ProLatch StowAway utility boxes:

Plano ProLatch StowAway utility boxes arranged in Ikea Kitchen Wall Cabinets - Good Fit

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Saving Money and Time - Bypass your Refrigerator Water Filter with a Simple Kitchen Filter System

There were a few problems here that I wanted to solve. We've become addicted to carbonating our own water - and eliminating the trips to the store and the wasted empty bottles from purchasing carbonated water. We bought a name brand carbonator - and really enjoy it except for two things. The cost of the CO2 refills, and the time it took to refill the carbonating bottle from the carbon filtered fridge water outlet (about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes each time). Our only water filter was in the refrigerator, an expensive model that cost about $50 to replace and needed replacement about every 6 months. The refrigerator had a coil of 5/16 plastic tubing to cool the water - and a 1/4" copper feed line running across the kitchen, about 20' of line. By the time the water reached the fridge and crossed the water filter, we had significant pressure drop and slow flow out of the fridge.

Whole House 10" Filter Upgrade - For Kitchen Sink Cold Water, and line to Refrigerator

I looked at ways to upgrade the fridge system - increasing the size of the feed line, increasing the size of the lines in the fridge - and realized this would be just too big of a retrofit, and would take too long. So - I decided to install a 10" whole house water filter housing under our kitchen sink - and filter all the cold water going just to the kitchen sink and refrigerator. I would install the carbon block filter there under the sink, and remove and bypass the carbon block filter in the refrigerator.

Ready to drill the hole in the countertop to run the CO2 line to the carbonator. 

 I've solved the cost of the replacement CO2 cartridges by purchasing a 20lb CO2 bottle and an adapter hose compatible with my carbonator. Works great, now I'm refilling the 20lb tank about every 6 months, instead of small CO2 bottles every 2 or 3 weeks. I wanted to hide the CO2 tank under the sink - so I needed to drill a hole in the Quartz countertop. I purchased a diamond tipped hole saw for this purpose - drilling the hole was real easy and took only about 15 minutes.

The only tool I had to purchase - a small diamond tipped hole saw. Decided to get a good one.

Drilling the hole in the countertop - the red colour is from the paint coming off the hole saw.

After photo - paint removed from the hole saw

Nice clean hole in the quartz countertop

 Now - onto the water filter installation. I purchased a Dupont branded 10" whole house water filter housing online. I purchased threaded brass PEX tubing adapters to screw into the head of the water filter to be able to make the cold water connections. I installed 4 small ball valves to be able to completely bypass the water filter in case of a problem, or while changing filters. Redoing the PEX water piping was the longest part of the job, took me a Saturday morning to do, combined with re-routing my sink drains (that's another story).

Plumbing the new water filter under the kitchen sink. I've removed the double sink drain pipes to give myself some room

 Cold water runs through the single 10" filter - I have nice clean municipal water feeding the house so all I needed is a single carbon block filter. If you're water isn't clean - well water or otherwise - you may need a second particle filter upstream of the carbon filter. The only consumers downstream of my water filter are my kitchen sink, and the refrigerator. So now - to refill water bottles for carbonation, I can refill from the kitchen sink to have carbon filtered water without any Chlorine taste, and it only takes about 10 seconds to refill a bottle. The carbonator is right behind the sink - so very quick and efficient.

The completed water filter installation - complete with a full bypass line in case I need to take the filter out of the circuit

20lb CO2 tank underneath the sink located next to the water filter.

Bypassing the water filter in the refrigerator was very easy. For my refrigerator, all I needed to do was to remove the water filter - there is an automatic bypass valve inside the refrigerator that bypasses the water flow when the filter is removed. Now - filling a glass of water from the refrigerator is about twice as fast with the water filter removed - since the pressure drop across the filter is gone.

All in all - very happy with this upgrade. Great tasting water without waiting around for water to get out of the refrigerator outlet. Let me know if you have any questions.

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I hope you found this post useful. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below. I answer all questions.

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2017 Subaru Outback Oil Drain Plug Head Rounded - First Oil Change

This seems to be a common problem - first oil change on a late model Subaru 2.5L engine - and the oil pan drain plug head gets rounded by your socket and you can't remove the drain plug. So - what to do? Trip to the dealer? I've been changing my own oil for many years - first time this has happenned to me. I decided to purchase a set of bolt extractors and sort it out myself. Here's how it went.

14mm Hex Head on the Drain Plug - Just rounded enough to make it impossible to remove

 I purchased a slightly used 2017 Outback with 17,000 km - lease return. At 25,000km I went to do my first oil change. The dealer had informed me that they had changed the oil at the lease return. When I went to remove the drain plug - I didn't lift the car because I thought I'd be able to spin it off with the car sitting on the ground (as I had done many times with my 2006 Outback - it sits high enough off the ground that you can slide the pan underneath and not have to lift the car to change the oil). This time it went differently - with the drain plug at an angle, and recessed slightly below the aerodynamic underbody cover - it's quite awkward to get a socket on the drain plug and apply the torque at an angle. It would be much easier with the drain plug oriented vertically. One bad move and I rounded the head.

Another view - Drain Plug accessible through a small access port, sits on an angle

 So - I put everything away, got online and ordered a set of chinesium bolt extractors. I've never tried these before, so this was an experiment for me. Using a ball pien hammer, I tapped the 14mm extractor onto the drain plug so that it was well seated, then popped on a short extension and used my Dewalt 3/8" impact gun which can generate about 100 ft-lbs of torque - and nothing moved - at all. I was stunned - 100 ft-lb of torque on a drain plug? Clearly not normal.

Dewalt 1/2" Drive Impact, 21mm deep socket, 14mm bolt extractor, and the drain plug in question

So - I pulled out the Dewalt 1/2" impact which can generate 400 ft-lbs of torque - and a 21mm deep impact socket to be able to fit over the extractor (instead of using the 3/8 socket drive square) and leaned on it. After about 15 seconds, the drain plug broke free and loosened, with no damage to the oil pan. The bolt extractor was hot to the touch from the impact force. The drain plug was well grooved from the force of the bolt extractor.

Check out the grooves on this drain plug head. Exctractor worked like a charm.

I installed a new Dorman replacement drain plug - with a larger hex head - and completed the oil change.

Bit of a mess - An angled drain plug will shoot your oil about 2 feet sideways

So - what do I think about this? Drain plug with small head - should be larger - like 19mm for a 16mm bolt size so that you can get a tool on the drain plug. Soft metal and the paint interferes with good contact with your socket. This plug should definitely be re-specified. The plug installed on an angle - shooting oil sideways? Brutal - plug should be installed vertically on the pan. I don't know if the dealer ever actually changed the oil - have sent the oil out for analysis to get an opinion on that. If you're in the same situation - up to you to decide what to do - take it to a dealer or extract the plug yourself. In my case - it worked out okay. Let me know if you have any questions.

In case you're wondering, the new drain plug is a Dorman 65325 - M16-1.50 threads. Nice piece with 17mm hex head - 3mm larger than the stock drain plug.

Dorman 65325 Oil Drain Plug

Update - December 2019:

6 months have gone by, did my second oil change. Drain plug spun off normally, no problem at all, oil change completed in 30 minutes. Definitely a manufacturing defect with the way the drain plug was delivered from the factory. Blackstone Labs oil analysis came back on the first oil change - they did not think that the oil had not been changed as described by the dealer - which was good news. It also meant that they must have sucked the oil oil out of the dipstick tube. FWIW.

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I hope you found this post useful. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below. I answer all questions. If you're interested, you can help support this site by using the following links to Amazon.com in the United States.

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Heat Gun with 2 Heat Settings, Which is High and Low?

I've got a decent Black and Decker 120V heat gun, with two heat settings marked "1" and "2" on the switch. However, there is no clear mention of which setting is high heat, and which setting is low heat. I don't use the heat gun regularly, so if I had to use it on low heat to avoid melting something, I would flick the switch back and forth to try to figure out which setting was the low heat setting.

I finally got tired of this routine, and took 5 minutes to figure this out and label the heat gun for clarity.

500W setting - Measured using the Kill-a-Watt

 I have a Kill a Watt energy meter, so it was quite simple to connect the heat gun, switch the Kill a Watt meter display to instantaneous power (Watts), and flick the switch back and forth to determine that switch position 1 is 500W, and switch position 2 is 1000W.

1000W setting - Measured using the Kill-a-Watt

I have a Brother TZ label maker in my garage toolbox, 30 seconds later I had the heat gun labelled for clarity. No more uncertainty as to what switch position is low, and what switch position is high. Nice.

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I hope you found this post useful. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below. I answer all questions. If you're interested, you can help support this site by using the following links to Amazon.com in the United States.

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BMW 535xi Touring E61 Tailgate Hydraulic Strut Popping off the Ball Joint - Set Screw Repair

My BMW 535xiT is my daily driver - use it for going back and forth to work every day and running all the errands to keep the household running. So - the tailgate and back window get lots of use. The car was manufactured in September, 2009 and now has 175,000 km on the odometer, and since BMW hasn't inported the 5 series touring to North America since 2010 - it looks like I'll be hanging onto this car for a while longer. The 3 series touring is too small, I'm not an SUV kind of guy, and I'm not ready to go to a Mercedes E series wagon just yet...

The completed set screw repair - neat and flush. 

So - about 6 months ago the hydraulic strut in the tailgate stopped lifting all the way to the top of travel - it started sagging and making ominous noises. So - I took the time to dig out the hydraulic pump and reservoir, replace the fluid with the BMW service kit, change the 10mm strut ball and get the tailgate functioning well again. I wrote about all that here.

Well - it took about 3 weeks until the hydraulic strut started popping off the ball - you can see the state of the bottom socket on the hydraulic cylinder here, there was finally enough wear that it wasn't going to stay in place.

This is not good....

This isn't good either....

So - just to keep the socket engaged, I cut a piece of styrofoam to jam in behind the strut to try to keep it in place - that worked fairly well for about a month, then the strut would pop off about every time I opened the tailgate, and it was time to make a more permanent repair.

There was a good discussion on the 5series.net forums, the idea that I decided to try out was a set screw. I did a bit of research and found some really nice ball tipped set screws and decided to try them out. 

5mm ball tipped set screws

So - I ordered a lot of these set screws and set out to do the repair.

To drill and tap a 5mm hole - you need a 5mm tap, and a 4.2mm tap drill bit

First step is to dismount the strut from the tailgate - you need to remove the plastic trim on the left side of the window. There's a small clip you need to get out of the way to get the trim off. 

Lift the trim underneath the window to get this clip out of the side trim.

Removing the lower half of the left hand tailgate trim - once this is removed, you can remove the hydraulic strut. 

With the hydraulic strut removed, it was time to set the hole placement for the set screws, and drill two holes - one on each site. I put a small sheet of plywood on top of the security screen - was very useful to support the strut during the machining.

With the strut removed, it's easy to rotate to drill and tap the set screw holes. The plywood makes a good work surface.

I aimed the drilling to intersect close to the steel circlip. Very important to use a pilot drill to locate the holes properly - a pilot hole of 2.5mm would be perfect before drilling out to 4.2mm which is the tap drill size for a 5mm tap. 

Drilling each side of the strut base. 

The first hole on the top side - this hole walked a bit because I didn't use a pilot drill hole - don't make the same mistake I did...

Aim for the steel ring clip...

With the first hole tapped to 5mm - testing out the set screw. 

With the holes drilled out to 4.2mm tap drill size, it was very easy to tap the holes - this is a fairly soft steel part and it cuts well. 

Strut replaced, and the set screw does a great job holding the strut in place. The bottom set screw is easily accessible.

To access the set screw on the top side - its easiest to access with the window open and the left side trim off.

A dab of blue Loctite will hold the set screw in place, keep it from backing out. 

In case anyone is interested, I've created an eBay listing to sell the surplus set screws from the lot that I had to purchase - you can purchase the set screws here at eBay listing 183298383219.

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Upgrading my cordless tool charging station for my new Dewalt 20V tools

Back in March 2015, I converted one of my Ikea garage cabinets into a cordless tool charging station for my 18V Ryobi and Dewalt tools. It's been a really useful addition to my home shop - very convenient always knowing where to find the charger and batteries, and not having the chargers out on work surfaces in the way.

I started finding that my Dewalt 18V batteries were losing their runtime, and I was looking at reinvesting in new batteries. I had a look at my workflow and my mix of tools, and ultimately decided I was going to go fully cordless - get cordless versions of my reciprocating saw, jigsaw, circular saw, die grinder, 1/2 impact and upgrade my cordless drills, drivers and yard maintenance equipment all to a single tool family. I settled on the Dewalt 20V system for its variety, power, design and common availability. I may write on this whole experience in another post.

One of the big drivers was to get away from having two tool families - so that I could have a single common set of batteries to manage. I wanted to have a more efficient, simple workflow.

The completed charging station upgrade

And - here's where I started with the previous version - with the two tool families - Dewalt 18V and Ryobi 18V:

The original Dewalt and Ryobi 18V system - lots of batteries to manage

One of the motivations for this whole upgrade was to reduce the number of batteries to manage in the shop, and to make the storage space a bit more efficient. I search the interweb for a rack to store the new Dewalt 20V batteries, and I found these StealthMounts on eBay - these are moulded in the UK so I decided to purchase a 5 pack and try them out.

Stealth Mounts installed on the underside of the upper shelf. Note the orientation with the battery gauge to the front.

When I arranged the chargers vs. the StealthMounts - I was careful to space them so that there would be lots of space to pull the batteries out from the StealthMounts towards the rear - without interfering with batteries in the chargers. I had to move the chargers lower on my mounting board, and install the StealthMounts right near the front of the cabinet. Results - lots of space to move batteries around without interference.

20V charging action - with the batteries stowed in the Stealth Mounts - lots of space for the Vacuum, drill, driver and flashlight

Detail of the StealthMount. These are nicely moulded, generous clearances with the batteries so that the batteries clip on and off quite easily, yet the batteries are held securely using the battery locking tab. They can be used as a belt carrier for batteries as well.

The Stealth Mount

Conclusion

So - I've been using this new setup for about 6 weeks - and I'm really happy with the results. It was a great move to consolidate on one tool family, all new batteries with larger capacity / longer runtime is a great upgrade (especially for the yard maintenance equipment) and the StealthMounts are a really nice addition. All good here.

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I hope you found this post useful. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below. I answer all questions. If you're interested, you can help support this site by using the following link to Stealthmounts available here on eBay. 

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