N46 Oil Pan Removal

[kom458]

Went to change the oil pan gasket, only to find I couldn't remove the bolts to the rear of the engine as it was too close to the transmission.

I’ve Seen people just dropping the pan away from the engine without a problem online but I just can’t undo the bolts at the back of the engine.

I’ve attached a couple of photos so you can see what it looked like. Any ideas? I don’t want to pull the engine away from the transmission just to change a gasket (plus I have no idea how to do that ) so any help really appreciated!

 

[enuff_zed]

Are they tight against it or simply no room for a socket.
Can you get an open-ender on there?

 

[kom458]

Are they tight against it or simply no room for a socket.
Can you get an open-ender on there?

Not tight against it, not any room for the socket so I iced a spanner to loosen it and then the bolt couldn’t get past the little ridge in the metal panel beside it. So i could undo some of them with great difficulty but I couldn’t get them out as it would unscrew until it hit that edge as seen in the images

 

[colb]

Just had a look at the TIS instructions for removing the sump, no mention of needing to pull the gearbox back, diagram shows all bolts as being accessible. It states that the transmission cover needs unscrewing to get at the sump bolts. From your pictures it looks like you still have the plate in situ.