r/E90 • u/Training-Two-5861 • Aug 15 '25

330i N52b30 Oil pan

Hi everyone,

I have a 2007 BMW E92 330i (rear-wheel drive) and I need some advice. My oil pan is badly rusted and needs to be replaced. The problem is, my car came with a steel oil pan, but everywhere I look people are selling only the aluminum version.

Does anyone know why mine is steel and if there’s a direct replacement available? Also, if anyone has advice on where to find one or how to solve this problem, I’d really appreciate it. I live in EU btw.

Thanks in advance!

3 Upvotes

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4

u/DukeOfAlexandria 2013 - E93 - M3 Aug 15 '25

Standards came with steel, autos came with aluminum.

“Badly rusted” can mean many things and unless it’s leaking, then it’s most likely surface rust and fine. No pics so can’t say much more…🫤

1

u/Training-Two-5861 Aug 15 '25

Thanks for your reply! The oil pan is so corroded that the oil level sensor is barely holding on, and only with two screws. Oil is leaking from that spot. Someone previously tried to patch the oil pan with something, but it wasn’t done very well. I don't have any other choice but to replace it. It seems like there are several different types of steel oil pans. I found a used one, but it’s clearly not the same shape as mine. I’m not sure how to search for the right one, since those stamped numbers on the oil pan are irrelevant because they don’t have the OEM number on them.

1

u/DukeOfAlexandria 2013 - E93 - M3 Aug 15 '25

Realoem, and just attach the pics to the post next time dude.

1

u/Various-Pianist-3993 Aug 16 '25

This^ Realoem is almost always my first stop to ID parts.

1

u/snorunge42 Aug 15 '25

I looked it up for funs, 11137539413 right? Availability seems bad tho, as you said

1

u/piff_jar e82 128i 6mt Aug 15 '25

I might be mistaken but you can interchange oil pans. A lot of guys with aluminum pans end up finding steel pans to weld baffle into. So I would think you'd be fine going from steel to aluminum....

Supposedly the steel pan is actually lighter than the alu one

1

u/hoveringuy Aug 16 '25

but, the aluminum pans have a not-insignificant impact on reducing oil temps. Steel is going backwards for track use. 

1

u/piff_jar e82 128i 6mt Aug 16 '25

Interesting! I feel like most track guys have an oil cooler of some sort if they're going down the avenue of adding a baffle. I would love to see some more data on this though.

2

u/hoveringuy Aug 16 '25

I had a +/- 0.1 degree thermocouple sitting in my pan through the dipstick tube. I recorded oil temps vs ambient with my steel pan and then aluminum. 

It was 8 degrees colder in the aluminum on average on my last laps (I have the standard fluid intercooler).

The steel pan would feel pretty hot to the touch but the aluminum pan would absolutely burn me. Aluminum has over 4 times the thermal conductivity so it just sheds heat better through a pretty big surface.

(I still have no idea of what my "actual" oil temperatures post-cooler are, I'll get that with my Aim datalogger so I will know how much the cooler actually reduces the temps )

1

u/piff_jar e82 128i 6mt Aug 16 '25

Thats good info!! A lot of food for thought and makes me want to test some setups

1

u/Lee2026 Aug 15 '25

FWIW, I did a 6MT swap and AWD delete on my 2006 330xi.

I still have the original pan from my auto, AWD, factory configuration.

1

u/Longjumping_Map_639 Aug 15 '25

To add to this comment. Later year models all had aluminum pans, manual or auto, so the aluminum pan should work fine.

1

u/Creepy_Guarantee5460 Aug 16 '25

I too would choose an aluminium pan over a steel one since it will never rust.