oil change disaster!!! - United Bimmer Community

**bimmerdame** · 05-15-2005, 03:52 PM

ok wellz i was doing my oil change today and i was done taking off the oil and change the filter and everything... when i was putting back my oil drain plug the screw for the oil plug snapped in half !!! now then i drilled that half peice that was stuck there and that thing went inside!!! holy crap!!!

my question now is will there be a problem if i just leave that peice inside the oil pan and buy a new drain plug and close it... would that small screw mess up my car?? need help!

**Addicted?** · 05-15-2005, 04:05 PM

so your oil drain plug broke? I hear this is a pretty common problem if that is what happended to you. My friend with an e30 was torquing his down and it snapped in half inside his oil pan. These drain plugs (atleast his) are hollow and can snap very easily.. He was torquing his to recommended specs and it still broke (e30 so it might.. have been getting old? iono) Anyways we ended up taking off his oil pan bringing it into a shop and getting it re-tapped with a new bolt. I hope this helps... if this isnt what happended to you please explain more and i may be able to help you further

David

**Spieluhr** · 05-15-2005, 04:57 PM

from what your story sounds like, it sounds to me like you should take off your oil pan and take out the pieces that went inside. then get a new METAL oil drain plug.

**94bmw325i** · 05-15-2005, 08:43 PM

If half the plug is there tap a hole in it and try to get it out. If not do what spieluhr and David said.

**jrhaile** · 05-15-2005, 09:28 PM

Don't run your car at all with that in there.. you need to drop your lower subframe and take off your oilpan asap!

**catalyst** · 05-15-2005, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrhaile

Don't run your car at all with that in there.. you need to drop your lower subframe and take off your oilpan asap!

word

Take your pan off, get the broken peices out, retap the pan, and get a new plug.

I would not start the car with that shit in there.

**Addicted?** · 05-15-2005, 10:14 PM

if you need help getting the pan off feel free to ask.. i know on joshs car it took a while and the rubbery gasket was hard to get off too!! get under there get the pan off and then get it all retapped etc... once again i can help you out if you need more help!

David

**jrhaile** · 05-15-2005, 11:04 PM

haha I foresee a new post about a rattling or grinding sound from his head here shortly :P

**Spieluhr** · 05-16-2005, 12:54 AM

^ show confidence my young padawan

**bimmerdame** · 05-17-2005, 12:24 PM

okay hi guys... sorry for the delay in responding... so this what happened...

since i was impatient that day, i called my friend who knows a lot about fixing cars (btw if some of you guys are from ny, he goes to farmingdale

)and he came over... he recommended on taking off the oil pan because that is the safest way... but i said, man that's gonna take forever... so i asked another friend who works in autozone and told me that it's okay to keep it inside ONLY if the plug is heavy enough to just sit in the bottom of the oil pan... so i took my autozone friend's advice and just bought a new drain plug and closed that shit...

so far i've driven the car for like 110-120 miles and i dont have any problems as of yet... hopefully smooth sailing for me

dont worry guys i'll keep you all posted when something makes a rattling noise... cross fingers...

**komodo** · 05-17-2005, 12:31 PM

Sounds kinda risky. If you take a corner hard it might come off the bottom and mess up something, couldn't it?

**E36Bimmer** · 05-17-2005, 12:34 PM

wow, good luck to you.. isnt that plug hollow too? It is bound to get sucked up into something

**STEVE36** · 05-17-2005, 04:30 PM

You saved yourself a little trouble today but now you don't have the peace of mind and most likely you'll run into some sort of a problem down the road...

**Turbodefrost** · 05-17-2005, 05:22 PM

just know we warned you that it's risky. your friend said IF it is heavy enough, and if it is the hollow one, it may not be heavy enough. i'd recommend getting that shit out of there as soon as possible!

**94bmw325i** · 05-17-2005, 05:54 PM

Yeah make this a temporary solution till the weekend or something.