We have seen this problem several times and it is usually misdiagnosed or not repaired correctly. If you have a BMW model 740i, 740il, 540i, 745i, or 745il with the 4.4 liter V8 (M62) engine, and you have a coolant leak from a small weep hole in the front timing cover, be very careful it is not misdiagnosed as a water pump or valley cover problem. What you probably have is a front timing cover to engine block coolant leak. BMW engineers were smart enough to know their design for sealing the water passage from the front timing cover to the engine block would probably not last forever, so they made provisions for a cavity to catch the coolant leak and eject it through a weep hole at the upper right corner of the timing cover. The cavity and weep whole keep the engine coolant from leaking into the engine oil that would probably lead to engine failure if not detected in time.

The repair is quite labor intensive. Most manuals seem to estimate the repair time around 30 hours. Alldata repair information service shows the timing cover remove and replace time at 30.6 hours. There are also other labor operations that should be done at the same time as the timing cover that are not included; for example, replacing the valley block cover. The cover is not re-sealable and should be replaced. Part of the labor for the cover is overlapping (removing the intake manifold), but replacing the cover itself is not included in the front cover time estimate.

From the factory, the timing cover has just a very light sealant on the surface where the coolant passes from the cover to the engine block. BMW now offers sealing strips to better seal this surface. The sealing strips are made of metal that is laminated with a light coat of rubber-like sealant; we also use a small amount of sealant in the corners of the gaskets to ensure proper sealing. Great care must be taken to ensure the parts are thoroughly cleaned.

Autobahn technicians are instructed to clean parts with mineral spirits in a parts washer first, then all sealing surfaces are cleaned by sanding with 440 grit wet or dry sand paper in a figure 8 pattern. At Autobahn we rarely use surface preparation pads or discs; they are too aggressive (even the fine or soft rubber ones) and end up removing surface material and rounding off the edges of the surface. Also, with a perfectly ground flat sanding block, imperfections in the sealing surface can be easily seen and usually can be corrected or eliminated. Contrary to most technician's belief, it is not much slower to prepare the surface by hand than it is to use a die grinder and high speed surface conditioning pads (“cookie monsters”, Scotchlock pads, or green and yellow 3M surface conditioning pads). The final cleaning step is to wash the parts in hot soapy water and then dry with a hot plate and compressed air. This step removes any contaminants or oils from the surface and allows the sealant to adhere to the surface properly.