Exxon Valdez in My Garage

[saread]

Well not quite.  But, I changed oil last week and used an aftermarket crush washer and noticed a drop of oil on my pristine garage floor. Well, that's downright Soviet I'm thinking. So, I check all around and the only thing I noticed was a wet plug.  Nuts.   Down to the local BMW store to get a proper crush washer and I dropped the fluid and replaced the cheapo junk part with the real deal.  Warm things up, all looked good, and I think I'm done.  Nope. Next morning there's another baby oil slick forming under my ride.  Well, crud.  Now, I'm no genius, but I think I can put in a bung without messing it up.  Righty tighty and lefty loosey kind of stuff is right up my alley.  At this point I'm confused and starting to think there may be alien treachery at work.

The only thing that I've noticed is that both of the new crush washers, after market and BMW, are stamped pieces. The old washer that didn't leak was the factory washer and it was machined on both sides.  I'm thinking that the washers I got from the BMW dealer might be imposters as well and that this application may just require a machined face on both sides of the seal.  This weekend I will reinstall the factory seal (these are not really crush washers) and see if that makes a difference.  If not, we will be speaking to the dealer about a solution.  Hopefully something that doesn't involve copious amounts of silicone rubber, teflon tape, or a diaper.