Doing some heavy maintenance on my X and decided to drop the lower oil pan to check things (didn't find any chunks, bearings, nuts, bolts, or viable presidential candidates!!) and take a look at the oil pump per the Bentley manual.
My Bentley says removing the oil pump only requires removing the lower oil pan, not the upper - I just wanted to check the fasteners and oil pump sprocket nut, wasn't planning on fully removing it.
But, after dropping the lower pan, there is ZERO access to the front two oil pump mounting bolts and ZERO access to the chain and sprocket.
So, has anyone done this after removing only the lower pan on a E53 version of the M62 engine?