they say the simple jobs often throw up the hardest tests well yes as i tryed to change the oil on the mini! i had it changed by mini Sytner in Harld wood at 8,000 miles its now done 13,000 (so only 5k miles) got under the car to take the sump plug out and the nut is round! tryed everything from ball joint spliters to monkey wrenches to grip it but bloody hell its welded on!! its only ment to be kniped up its not holding the engine on! we managed to get it off in the end with a combination of cutting the flange off a chissle and a lot of bruit force and ignorance ive never seen a sump plug that was that tight! but the oil that drained out was soo bad that we think its never been changed! even if the engine has a problem the oil wont be that bad!

going to put some 0-30w in and a tin of winns and change it again in 3000 miles to see if that comes out bad then i know somethings up but its driving fine no loss of power or knocking only think that Mini/BMW couldnt get the plug out and only top the oil up and never changed it!

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GP 0016

Rob, sometimes the oil is "sucked" up through the dip stick hole at dealerships, less messy for them as the spent oil goes straight into storage for disposal. Doesn't allow them to get all the little bits of crap out though and doesn't explain how the oil drain plug got so mullered, don't forget to replace the sealing washer on the drain plug as if its been done up that tight it will probably be knacked as well.

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Sounds like they probably rounded the sump plug nut off and used a vacuum pump to remove the oil. Smart cars don't have a sump plug so a vacuum pump is the only way of doing an oil change!

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2008 MINI Cooper S R56
2003 BMW Z4 3.0i SE Roadster