Oil

Sat down unknowingly Thurs. of last week and ended up changing out the oil on my bike.

Well, almost.......

Seems like nothing has gone too smoothly for me in this process. I'm hoping that I'll be laughing at myself in the not to distant future but for now, it can be frustrating.

Back to the oil change. Started the bike up and let everything warm up. Popped the drain plug and let the purge begin. Opened up the dipstick hole to speed it up. In the meantime, I pulled the outer/inner oil filter caps. Unbolted the shim and pulled the (oooooooold) oil filter. Replaced w/ new filter. Apparently BMW did away w/ the outer metal shim and built the gasket on the filter. Nice job. Less pieces. Everything still going well. Noticed the oil pan has been slowly dripping for who knows how long. Decided I want to replace it before filling back up with oil.

Here's where it gets fun. Proceeded to put back on the inner/outer oil filter caps. Many of the bolts have a torque spec. I've been follwing these guides to a T. Guess they aren't always right. Stripped out the 10mm bolt for the inner cap. #$#@$. Went to 7 different Autozone, O'Reily's, Advanced, Lowes, etc. On the 8th stop, a Pep Boys, I found one. Was about 1/2" too long but got it home and cut/filed it down and presto. Worked just fine. Tighted it snugly and left it at that. Outer cap on. Good to go. Now I just need the oil pan gasket and I'll be able to fill her up w/ some oil. One less task for now.....

**Update. Got the gasket last night and it's the oil pan is now on. She's now got fresh oil.