Scary oil change - BMW Forum

jmo69 · 03-20-2009, 11:43 PM

Got off work early today and decided to attempt some minor rust repair. After I had the bare metal treated I decided to check the oil. Pulled the dipstick and thought I found the dreaded 'pudding'. Looked under the oil cap and found nothing and the coolant was clean at the proper level. I'm leaning towards short trips in cold weather as the culprit, the car has never even gotten close to overheating ( the usual cause for blown head gaskets). When I put the drain plug back in it didn't go in easy and I thought I had cross threaded it

. I think someone did at one time but didn't ruin all the threads, I was able to restart it and got it to seal

. Next time I'll try to chase the threads or find one of those self-tapping plugs, used one on my wife's old Concord and it worked quite well. At least my new Peake Research tool worked and reset my oil sevice lights. Sorry I got so long winded.

witeshark · 03-20-2009, 11:50 PM

AFAIK, the oil level may appear to be low when checked cold. Hope that helps.

jmo69 · 03-20-2009, 11:59 PM

It wasn't the level I was concerned about, the back of the car was on jackstands, it was the little bit of foam on the dipstick that had me worried.

nukeduster · 03-21-2009, 03:00 AM

foam = overfilled oil level = more dangerous for an engine than too little oil.

jmo69 · 03-21-2009, 11:23 AM

Oil level was good, it was a moisture issue, I only have a 1 1/2mi. drive to work each day.

jmo69 · 03-21-2009, 05:46 PM

Finally got everything done, ie rust repair, snow tire removal, went to start it and nothing

. Only some of the lights on the cluster lit up and not even a click from the starter. Battery voltage was 8.25v. Trunk was closed but not latched and the keys were not in the ignition. I'm hoping the trunk was the cause, the only thing different was that I've got a tape in the deck but with the key out it should be off.

jmo69 · 03-21-2009, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmo69

Finally got everything done, ie rust repair, snow tire removal, went to start it and nothing

. Only some of the lights on the cluster lit up and not even a click from the starter. Battery voltage was 8.25v. Trunk was closed but not latched and the keys were not in the ignition. I'm hoping the trunk was the cause, the only thing different was that I've got a tape in the deck but with the key out it should be off.

edit: Definitely the trunk light, trunk has to be latched for the light to go off.