[hholtmann]

Female friend of mine owns the car but it doesn't have an Oil Pan heater to plug in for the cold -20F/30C (and colder) temps in our winters...

I am considering installing a simple 250Watt oil pan/patch heater to her oil pan which is common on most cars up north... I still have the original one on my 19+ year old 2000 VW Jetta TDI for example.. works great.

http://www.canadianpolarpad.com/installation.html

What i don't know is how easy/fast is it to get access to the full underside of the Oil Pan on her 2008 328xi (manual transmission) model?

Is it a simple task of removing the plastic underbelly splash guards to reveal the fully exposed Oil Pan? Or would I have to start removing under-engine framing, and big bolts, etc?

I have lots of under-car experience for the past 20 years on my VW..

Can't find any youtube vids showing the work involved... any one got links?

Heston

[hholtmann]

I think this answers my question?

https://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/tec...d_Removing.htm

[PichaDis11]

You should be able to once you remove the splash shield. There's not much other ways to get access to the oil pan than with that shield off. The guide you posted is pretty much spot on.

Good luck!