I went to change the oil in my 2004 330Ci today and started off by jacking the car up by what I thought was the center jack point so I could place jack stands under the side jack pads... it turns out that’s NOT a jacking point according to BMW, although the subframe cross member does live directly above this. Apparently, you’re supposed to have a lift. For an oil change.
Lucky for me it seems like this is a pretty common mistake, and shouldn’t affect anything too negatively. Apparently a lot of people on youtube and the forums say almost every non-M E46 with this aluminum subframe reinforcement has been dented like this. Somehow, my car with 220k+ had escaped this fate until my ‘stewardship’!
Anyways, oil change done without too much trouble. Interestingly, the car took quite a bit more oil than I was expecting. Google says 6.5 qts for the M54B30, my Bentley manual says 6.8, I ended up using 6.5 and then adding another 0.5 qt after starting it up and seeing it was just below the minimum level on the dipstick. After seven quarts total, I’m mid-way up the stick.
Everything’s buttoned up, time for a drive!
