The real question here is how to turn the oil filter cover to get it off the oil filter? There is a large hex nut on there, but I can’t get the thing to budge. I don’t have the right size socket to fit the thing (not sure what size it is. Tried a 25mm and it was way to small, but the largest I had.
Anyone have any suggestions? The rest looks straight forward.
Thanks
What did you use in your attempt to loosen the cover? A quick Googling tells me you’ll need a 36mm socket (unless the directions here are for a different year 325 Xi). Do you have a large Crescent wrench?
My 1998 Z3 takes a 36mm socket as well and I seriously do not recommend using anything other than the correct size because the cover doesn’t look like it would withstand much abuse.
Thanks, guys… My cover says 25mm, and silly me, thought that was the size I needed. When I quickly realized that I didn’t have the right size, I googled and didn’t find the correct size.
36mm makes sense. It looks like a trip to sears. I did try using a large adjustable plier, but that just put some teeth marks in the plastic cap. I knew I needed the right size socket to fix this problem.
Yeah, pliers will do that. Since you’ve already marked it up a bit, you may want to try the pliers method again but wrap a rag around each side of the pliers’ jaws as to not mark them up any more than they are. Of course it’s always nice to have the right tool for the job, though. Do you have a 1/2 drive ratchet to go along with that socket you plan on buying? It may be difficult to find a 36mm socket for a 3/8 drive ratchet.
No, it says 25 Nm. That’s a torque spec for the cover: 25 Newton meters, or about 18.5 foot pounds.
:smack:
Indeed. you are correct, sir. I looked at it and quickly deduced the wrong thing. Boy, reading that as Nm instead of mm would have saved me quite a bit of aggravation.
Still, BMW should have been nice enough to tell me in the owner’s manual what the size of the hex nut is. Unless, of course, they did and I just can’t find it either. But I read through the owner’s manual and didn’t find that size listed anywhere.
Oh, and x-ray vision, thanks for the reminder but I do have both a 1/2" and 3/8" socket wrench. But I will make sure I know where they are before heading out to buy the socket.
Any surprises in store for me on the oil pan plug, too? I’d better get that size right, or I’ll be making another trip to the parts store.
I have the same car as the OP. I’ve found these folks http://e46fanatics.com/ to be a good source for model-specific advice.
It would have been nice, but I can’t recall any car whose owner’s manual gives any wrench sizes for any fastener anywhere on the vehicle. Not a realistic expectation, I’m afraid.
Even in professional repair manuals, wrench sizes are rarely given. The expectation is that if you are capable of applying the info in the manual, you can easily determine and acquire anything needed that’s not already in your tool set.
My first guess on the oil drain plug would be 13mm (common on European vehicles), and certainly nothing exotic or unusual. Still, it should be pretty easy to check before heading to the store.
It’s most likely a 17mm or 19mm plug, but you might have to get a deep socket for it to fit correctly.
Yeah, you are right. But most nuts/bolts (like an oil plug) fall into the standard size range (either SAE or metric), so if you have a decent set of wrenches, you are usually safe. This one was not one of the “usual suspects” of sizes. They could have helped the owner out who does his own maintenance, but now that I think of it, I don’t remember ever seeing a specific size for this for any of my other vehicles either.
I had the same problem with my wife’s audi, so I should have known better. I believe her’s was a 19mm.
LSLGuy, thanks for the link. 
You can pretty much count the number of BMW owners that change their own oil on the fingers of one hand. As Gary T said, not a realistic expectation.
Actually given this is a German car and the the Germans are queer for special tools*, I would expect the factory manual to read “Take special tool 12357348123759-69035923954A5 and remove the oil filter housing.”
My that was helpful wasn’t it?
*Back in the 80’s Volvo used an engine built by VW/Audi It took more special tools to work on that engine than all of our other engines combined. I swear German designers have brothers in the special tool business.
Yeah, well when they quoted me a price over a hundred bucks for an oil change, as Dean Wermer said, “It is time for someone to put their foot down, and that foot is me.”
Nah, that is the part number for a Toyota. BMW’s read Nr.3324.54.66.000O00782E.128. God help you if you get the O mixed up with the 0, you’ll end up with a transmission case probably.
How much more over a hundred bucks? 
BMW Longlife-01 or 04 certified oils cost 15-20 bucks per liter and I believe your car requires somewhere between 5 and 6 liters. Add the cost of the oil filter and labour and over $100 doesn’t sound extraordinary.
Don’t know about a 325, but the oil plug on my '05 BMW M3 was a torx bolt, not a common hex.
You can look up BMW parts on this site by Serial Number. I took some guesses for specifics about the OP’s car asked for on the site and I got to this diagram. The oil drain plug is #3 and the part number leads me to this drain plug. Looks like the OP’s drain plugr will need a 12mm socket/wrench. Yes, I’m bored tonight. 
But if the OP can get away with using about $35 worth of Mobil-1 5W30 and an $8 oil filter as told in the link in my first post, I think his foot putting down is justified.
The 12 MM listed in your link is the tread size (M12X1.5) 1.5 is he thread pitch, 12mm is the diameter.
There is no information given on what the head is, it could be Torx, Allen, or a use a standard wrench.
Newer BMWs need a T40 torx
Any time you see a torque spec over 18 ft-lbs, you are going to need to break out the big wrenches. 