first DIY oil change

The plug you have is broken. As said above it should have quite a few more threads. At this point, you're best to drop the oil pan, make CERTAIN that the loose piece isn't broken off and rattling around in there, then see if a shp can either helicoil your current pan, or at least tap it then match the new threads with a new drain plug.

saw the other thread about leaking oil due to whacked thread on the oil pan. I don't know if the thread on my oil pan is screwed up.
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=438499

Or don't listen. Your call.

This guy... A bit dense.

You definitly are missing part of the drain plug and it is trash. Hope some of that didn't get to your oil pump causing the noise on start up. Check the threads in the oil pan for damage. You may need to run a tap through the tthreads to clean them up. You may try to bend a wire and fish it through the hole and seeif you can pull back any metal from the plug or maybe get a small magnet in there. When I ran a tap to clean up my threads I poured back my old oil and let it drain through to clean out any metal from the tap. Also look at your oil filter carefully for any metal that might have been pumped to it. Good Luck.

OMG, the mechanic said to take out oil pan, he has to lift the engine and labor cost $600. The oil pan itself cost another $600. Luckly the broken screw is still in the hole and mechanic is able to get it out. I'm surprise with part of hole blocked, the oil comes out smoothly.
I was stupid to pay $85 to get a computer code reading. I heard from the board that autozone gives a free reading? My previous shop at jersey city doesn't charge for code reading but I was not thinking straight. After all, he only charge $10 to get broken screw out and I gonna reuse the original oil.
However, since there is some oil leakage, my o2 sensor is not activated. Here are the codes: 233,234,222,50,209,212,216. Where can I find more info about each code and implication?
Mechanic will charge 1hr labor to clean the oil first then try to find leakage. Is it reasonable? He said it's a must but I'm not sure.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/tech...Pan-Gasket.htm

You do NOT have to lift the engine, you do however, need to remove the front suspension.

Originally Posted by yxd0018

OMG, the mechanic said to take out oil pan, he has to lift the engine and labor cost $600. The oil pan itself cost another $600. Luckly the broken screw is still in the hole and mechanic is able to get it out. I'm surprise with part of hole blocked, the oil comes out smoothly.
I was stupid to pay $85 to get a computer code reading. I heard from the board that autozone gives a free reading? My previous shop at jersey city doesn't charge for code reading but I was not thinking straight. After all, he only charge $10 to get broken screw out and I gonna reuse the original oil.
However, since there is some oil leakage, my o2 sensor is not activated. Here are the codes: 233,234,222,50,209,212,216. Where can I find more info about each code and implication?
Mechanic will charge 1hr labor to clean the oil first then try to find leakage. Is it reasonable? He said it's a must but I'm not sure.

Wow! Mechanics these days! I changed my oil pan a while back myself and it only cost me around $80 that was for new oil and used oil pan I took off from a car at the junk yard...my neighbor lent me an engine hoist so I lucked out. Good thing he is gonna be able to take it out though.

Autozone does not let anyone rent their scanners or check codes for free anymore. I tried yesterday and they said they didn't do that anymore. However, pepboys does it for free . As far as the codes have u tried Google to search them??

If the mechanic can safely extract the remainder of the bolt with the pan installed, why would he need to remove and/or replace the pan? Once the plug is out, couldn't you just use a helicoil to fix any damaged threads and go from there?

That's a CA thing, AutoZone does still do it in other states from what I hear.

And personally I'd rather rent an engine hoist for $30 and lift it off the mounts a bit than disassembling the suspension.

Edit, Karl, I think we're talking hypotheticals here. His mechanic just told him that's what it would have been if he hadn't been able to extract. Common psychological trick so people feel like if he wasn't such a great and honest mechanic they would have really paid a ton elsewhere, and thus they're more likely to bend over without lube for the future rapage that will follow, without questioning if it's really the best and most efficient solution because they feel he's a great guy.

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Originally Posted by E36 Phantom

That's a CA thing, AutoZone does still do it in other states from what I hear.

And personally I'd rather rent an engine hoist for $30 and lift it off the mounts a bit than disassembling the suspension.

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This.

after plugging new drain plug, the engine noise happened once at the start. Will closely monitor it now.

Heard the scanner in autozone can only read part of code. The full scanner cost 10k+.
Argued with boss but he changed the item description. Now he said it took mechanic 1 hr to get things done so he will charge 1 hr labor. I guess there is a life charge to maintain profit margin. But I won't pay for the oil cleaning labor to find the leak under the car. What do you guys think?

Originally Posted by E36 Phantom

That's a CA thing, AutoZone does still do it in other states from what I hear.

And personally I'd rather rent an engine hoist for $30 and lift it off the mounts a bit than disassembling the suspension.

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Yea in va its still free.
And I think thats how im going to do the oil pan gasket when I do it, alot less work IMO.

I've oil changed every 5k miles with 5w-30 full synthetic oil ($35 for 7 qt). It usually last a year since we don't drive a lot. After reading pelican's article about oil change and I'd like to know if I should switch to 5w-30 walmart super tech conventional oil ($15 for 7qt) at every 3k miles or use full synthetic every 3k miles? Mechanic told me that even synth oil can last longer, it's cheaper insurance to change often. I also heard BMW can develop issue with conventional oil.
I have 2.5 qt full synthetic left, I should NOT mix with conventional oil in the next oil change, right?

You heard wrong! Conventional oil is fine, especially with 3k OCI's. Thats what was in the car when it was made. And, what is the purpose of using synthetic oil and changing it every 3k miles? You didnt want to buy a new oil drain plug but now you want to pay for a synthetic oil change every 3k miles? Someone please help me out?

Originally Posted by Nicky3

You heard wrong! Conventional oil is fine, especially with 3k OCI's. Thats what was in the car when it was made. And, what is the purpose of using synthetic oil and changing it every 3k miles? You didnt want to buy a new oil drain plug but now you want to pay for a synthetic oil change every 3k miles? Someone please help me out?

Dino oil is fine, synthetic oil is better. Synthetic wasn't used originally because in the 90s it simply wasn't as prevalent as today.
OP, if you go with synthetic, changes every 5000 miles is perfectly fine.

Ed.


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Thanks, I will stay with synth for every 5k miles.