About once a week, we have a BMW that comes to our shop with an oil leak caused from an improper oil change. There are two typical issues that we encounter. The first is that the quick lube service centers do not replace the "crush seal" that seals the oil drain plug. The other common issue is that they use an inferior oil filter kit that either does not come with an o-ring to seal the oil filter housing cap or they do not install this o-ring.
Here are a few pictures from a customer that wanted to save a few dollars and take his BMW to a quick lube service. They did not replace the o-ring on the oil filter housing cap and after a few hundred miles it began to leak badly during a trip to Florida.
We were able to replace the oil filter kit with a German made oil filter kit and replace the oil filter housing cap o-ring.
Oil is the life blood of your engine. The worst place to save money is by having a quick lube service that is not familiar with BMWs change your oil. Not only could it cause a catastrophic engine failure, but most the time they are unable to reset your oil service light as well.
It is far less expensive to have a BMW specialty shop change your oil then to have a quick lube change it and have problems. Take a look at the following pictures and see for yourself. Here at Carma we use only German made OEM filter kits and Valvoline oils. We also have all the correct tools to reset your oil reminder light.