let me start by saying i dont know too much about bmws just basic crap. 3 months ago i bought a 94 bmw 325i, recently serviced and havent had much probems with it. i just took it in for a oil change and they told me the person who last changed the oil, somehow broke off the oil plug in the oil pan and just put in another one in after it. The guy at the service placce is telling me he needs to replace the oil pan or possibly remove the broken plug (?). Hes telling me it will run about $1000: about 6 hours labor and bout $300 or so for the pan...is this reasonable just for the oil pan. Andd, my other question is, the place that last changed the oil.. i think it was a bmw specialist..or they responsible for any of this? and if so would they be obligated to pay for any of it or do i just have bad luck? thanks.

to make clear: half of a broken drain plug was stuck in the drain pan. also; is it necesary to replace the whole oil pan... what will happen if you just stick another drain plug like before with the broken one still stuck inside..will that cause any damage?

Oil pan plugs are designed to break if they're over torqued. This is so someone can't strip the oil pan's threads.

I'm not sure how they could get another plug in there with the remnants of the old plug in there. Did the put the new one in and get the old one to turn, thereby pushing it into the pan? I would think the new plug would just hit the remnants of the old one and stop. If they had pushed the old plug into the pan, how would this guy at the service place know?

If the old plug was pushed into the pan, the pan will have to be removed and the plug removed. 6 hours to remove/replace an oil pan? That seems WAY high. There was another thread where someone was replacing a damaged oil pan themselves. Their service place had estimated $300 labor to replace an oil pan.

IF the remains of the old plug are still there, it's a simple matter to use a reverse threaded extractor to get it out. IF the threads in the pan ARE stripped, then it would have to be replaced.

Is this the first time you've used this place? Did you get reliable recommendations from someone you know or from people on this (or other) boards? Something just doesn't sound right....

After re-reading your posts, the plug WAS pushed into the pan. I also figured out how the service guy could tell, it would flow with the oil being drained and cause a partial blockage at the drain which he'd be able to see.

The pan only needs to be replaced if the threads are stripped. And I still think 6 hours sounds high.