turnbowm

The free maintenance (4 yrs.) on my 2005 530i ran out last year and it had been a year since the oil & oil filter was last changed. Have always done my own servicing on previous cars and decided to give it a shot on the BMW.

With the car on ramps (front) and warmed up, proceeded to remove the drain plug, but was not prepared for the force of the oil coming out... the oil shot almost straight out, hitting the far side of the large plastic panel with oil going up inside. Oil was running out of every hole/opening in the plastic panel! Talk about a mess...

Removed some of the panel screws and used rags to soak up most of the oil inside the plastic panel, but there's still some oil inside because it continues to leak oil on the drop-cloth I ended up putting on the garage floor. Will give it a week to see if the oil leaks stop, otherwise I may have to take the time to remove the panel and clean everything up. This would be time-consuming, since there are dozens of screws securing the panel to the undercarriage.

Did a little research and found out that others have encountered the same problem. One poster was advised by a BMW mechanic to insert a piece of cardboard on the side opposite the drain plug to deflect the oil, thus keeping it from getting up inside the large plastic panel. If only I had known! (LOL)

turboawd

having the car tilted up on the ramps probably didnt help either.
i try to let the car cool down a little before draining the oil, that way it doesnt splash as bad, and i wont get burnt.

pjinca

LOL Welcome to the club, same thing happened to me when I first did my oil change myself. The opening for the drain is too small, my car was cooled down (it seems to lessen the amount of oil in the filter compartment) and my car was on jack stands. When I released the drain plug the oil shot right past the opening and ran down the right side of the car's under coverings and ran out directly in front of the right rear tire. It was a big mess, and too forever to clean up!!! Lesson learned, from then on I have used (another suggestion of a member here) a plastic bottle that I cut the top off of and it drains into there then to the catch pan.

turnbowm

Did you remove the "under coverings" and clean everything up or did you just wipe up the oil leaks from time to time?

Redneck

Thanks for the heads up. My 530 will be getting its first DIY oil change sometime in the next month or so. How does the oil shoot out onto the cover? Is the drain hole facing sideways? (I've yet to get under mine)

John@Motorcepts

I remembered when I did an oil chane on my CLK55, I decided that I didnt need to empty the oil pan from a previous oil change from a Scion xA. It says it held 10 liters. I totally forgot the CLK55 held 8 quarts! Talk about overflow! LOL. Now that's a BIG mess.

turnbowm

The drain hole/plug is horizontal and faces the back of the car. The surrounding plastic panel is lower than the drain plug, which makes for a problem.

pjinca

I just wiped it up, reaching as far as I could. I actually ended up leaving the car jacked up until the dripping stopped to keep it from making an ongoing mess (took around 2-3 hours for all the drips to stop). Oh well, lesson learned right? At some point when I have a good reason to remove the under body - like when I get my exhaust done - I will clean them thoroughly. I have not had a problem with any drip since then though.

wasupdu

LOL. I did the EXACT same thing when I changed the oil on my e60 the second time around using Rhino ramps. The first time I just jacked up the left side of the car and put in on jack stands....no problems whatsoever. The second time with the ramps must've put the car at just the wrong angle and oil ran down the entire underside of the car on my brand new garage floor. Man was I pissed. Needless to say, every vehicle that gets the oil changed will be pulled into that stall of the garage since there's already oil spots.